 During the 1941 collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia under the Axis invasion in the April War , the Independent State of Croatia was created . It was ruled by the extreme nationalist Ustaša regime . The Ustaša quickly started with the systematic persecution of the Jews , modeled after the Nazi Germany approach , and at times even more brutal . Racial laws were introduced , Jewish property was confiscated , and the Jews were subjected to mass arrests and deportations to death camps in Croatia and abroad . 
