 After the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, he defended local Serbs against the Croatian fascist Ustaše regime and collaborated with the Axis powers against the communist-led Yugoslav Partisans throughout the remainder of the war as the commander of the Chetnik Dinara Division.He survived the war, surrendering to the western Allies and eventually emigrating to the United States.He was tried and convicted "in absentia" for war crimes by the new Yugoslav communist government, which found him guilty of mass murder, torture, rape, robbery, and forcible confinement, as well as collaborating with the German and Italians.