On Monday, July 8th I had the privilege to visit Dr. Andrej Macek at his home in Kensington, Maryland. Fr. Maurus Dolčić, the priest of the Croatian Catholic Mission in DC and a Franciscan Friar of the Third Order Regular Province of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, invited me to join Dr. Maček to visit and gift him several books about Jastrebarsko, Croatia and a bottle of white Zinfandel wine.
dr. Maček, now age 97, is the son of one of the greatest Croatian political leaders, Vladko Maček, who was a powerful advocate for Croatian independence, recognition, and representation from the tyranny of the Karadjordjević regime of Yugoslavia.
"He is not remembered very well, but make sure to tell people about the election in 1938, one of the first reasonably free elections, where my father received at least 89% of the Croatian vote," said Dr. A cat.
dr. Andrej Maček and Mark Plavetich posing in front of a picture of Vladko Maček
Maurus and I joined Dr. Cat for a glass of wine. We reminisced about the former Croatian Catholic Mission at 14th Monroe Street in Washington DC, Croatian soccer, history, politics, and stories about his father and the local Croatian community. Fr. Maurus talked about his recent trip to Croatia in early June and meeting with Minister Marijana Petir at the Croatian Parliament. He even shared his story about how he first became the head priest for the Croatian parish in Washington DC after the death of his father in 2014 and news about the sainthood of Cardinal Franjo Kuharić, the Archbishop of Zagreb during the Croatian War of Independence.
dr. Maček recalled his meeting with Cardinal Franjo Kuharić both in Washington DC for mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine and in Zagreb during the funeral procession over Vladko Maček's remains returning to Mirogoj in 1996.
Mark Plavetić, Dr. Andrej Macek and Fr. Maurus Dolčić posing in front of a picture of Vladko Maček
Vladko Maček was born on July 20, 1879, in Jastrebarsko in the Zagreb County. He served as President of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) after the assassination of Stjepan Radić, who opposed Serbian domination of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Maček's leadership for the HSS demonstrated his ability to support social and civic changes within the agrarian society by supporting federalism and the formation of an independent Croatian state. These ideas appealed to the majority of Croatians, and he won a Croatian supermajority in the 1938 election for the Yugoslav Regent office despite election meddling from the Karadjordjević government. Although his coalition lost the election, Maček was a master negotiator and is well known for his diplomatic successes in August 1939 with reaching a agreement (agreement) with Dragiša Cvetković over the question of creating the Banovina of Croatia (Banovina), and Croatian semi-autonomous-entity-that-contained-Croatia-, -coastal regions, including Dubrovnik and the bay of Kotor, at least 30% of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Srijem region. He then served as Deputy Prime Minister of the HSS and became part of the coalition government.
Vladko Maček (1879-1964): Leader of the Croatian Peasant Party
The Banovina lasted until 1941, when Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia and established the puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). The puppet government offered Maček a position to become Prime Minister, but he refused multiple times to Ante Pavelić and Adolf Hitler. Rejecting both Fascism and Communism, he preferred to ally with Britain and the allied forces in favor of Croatia to be on the winning side of the war. Maček faced immense political pressure and marginalization when he was first detained at his home in Kupinec and later sent to detention at the concentration camp at Jasenovac. During the Partisan offensives in 1945, he fled Croatia for France and then to Washington DC, where he died there in 1964. Between his time in the US from 1956 to his death, he wrote In the Struggle for Freedom, his memoir and story of the struggle for Croatia's independence and recognition.
Along with his father and mother, Dr. Andrej Maček fled Croatia in 1945 and has lived in the US since 1947. He studied Physics, Chemistry and Physical Chemistry at Georgetown University and is an expert in the fields of combustion, thermodynamics, and kinetics. He served in the US Department of Defense, the National Bureau of Standards and NASA, and taught at several universities. Since 1992, he has visited Jasterbarsko regularly and following several years where Vladko Maček was honored with his own street Jaska, bust, and memorial at the site of his birthplace. Since visiting Croatia, Dr. Maček has donated various documents from this father to the Jastrebarsko branch of Matica Croatia, which are carefully preserved in the Vladko Maček memorial room at the Jastrebarsko City Museum. He had also visited Krašić at the Holy Trinity, where Blessed Alojzije Stepinac was born and imprisoned, and has often talked about meeting the martyr in May 1945 before fleeing from Croatia.
"In the Struggle for Freedom," a memoir by Vladko Maček
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