Spomen_ploca_Ljudevit_Jurak_Zagreb_01052012_roberta_f

Ljudevit Jurak (October 6, 1881 – June 9, 1945) was a

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n professor of

pathology Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...

who was executed by the Yugoslav government for his research into the

Vinnytsia massacre The Vinnytsia massacre was the mass execution of between 9,000 and 11,000 people in the Ukrainian town of Vinnytsia by the Soviet secret police NKVD during the Great Purge in 1937–1938, which Nazi Germany discovered during its occupation of U ...

. Jurak was born in Zalug near

Hum na Sutli Hum na Sutli () is a village and a municipality in the Krapina-Zagorje County of Croatia. In the 2011 census, there were 5,060 inhabitants in the municipality, in the following settlements: * Brezno Gora, population 75 * Donje Brezno, populatio ...

. He studied medicine at the

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (; ) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. It is the largest education facility in the Austrian States of Austria, ...

where he graduated in 1910. In 1914 Jurak came to

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

where he led the Department of Pathology at the Sisters of Charity Hospital, a post he held until his death. In 1915 Jurak and German physician Felix Gaisbock published a paper in a renowned journal Zentralblatt für Herz- und Gefässkrankheiten in which they described both Lev's and Legendre's disease half a century before its contemporaries. Jurak collaborated on

Mate Ujević Mate Ujević (13 July 1901 – 6 January 1967) was a Croatian poet and encyclopedist. Life Ujević was born in Krivodol (part of Podbablje near Imotski) in the Kingdom of Dalmatia (present-day Croatia). He received his secondary education ...

's ''

Croatian Encyclopedia The ''Croatian Encyclopedia'' () is a Croatian general encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divid ...

''. In 1943, Jurak was among those invited by the

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of rules of war and ...

to take part in an investigation into the massacre of ethnic Ukrainians at

Vinnytsia Vinnytsia ( ; , ) is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It serves as the administrative centre, administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast. It is the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. It also s ...

in the 1930s. This investigation concluded that the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

had been responsible for the massacre. He also commented on the Soviet responsibility for the

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre was a series of mass killings under Communist regimes, mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish people, Polish military officer, military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by t ...

. His article about it was published in the Zagreb newspaper run by the

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia (, NDH) was a World War II–era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist Italy. It was established in parts of Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, ...

. When

World War II in Yugoslavia World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941, when the country was Invasion of Yugoslavia, invaded and swiftly conquered by Axis powers, Axis forces and partitioned among Nazi Germany, Germany, Fascist Italy (1922–1943), It ...

ended,

OZNA The Department for Protection of the People, commonly known under its Serbo-Croatian acronym as OZNA, was the secret police of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Communist Yugoslavia that existed between 1944 and 1946. Founding The OZNA w ...

had Jurak killed by firing squad in Zagreb in June 1945. Since the democratic changes in 1990, the ''Ljudevit Jurak Clinical Department of Pathology'' in Zagreb has borne his name.Ljudevit Jurak Clinical Department of Pathology

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Ljudevit Jurak - Our wound and pride
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jurak, Ljudevit Croatian pathologists 1881 births 1945 deaths People executed by Yugoslavia by firing squad Pathologists from Austria-Hungary Yugoslav physicians

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