Background
A Danube Swabian who was born in Franzfeld in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Kačarevo in Serbia), Metzger graduated from the Austro-Hungarian Military Academy in Trieste.
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Josip Metzger
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During, Metzger served as an Officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army, reaching the rank of infantry Captain. After the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian empire, the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs declared independence on 1 October 1918, however on 1 December 1918, Regent Alexander announced the union of the Kingdom of Serbia with the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. On 5 December 1918, Metzger led a minor revolt of Croat soldiers in Zagreb, contemporaneously with other regional uprisings, and continued to lead action into 1919 as commander of the Hungarian-based Croat Legion, the small paramilitary wing of the Croat Committee.
Metzger was arrested several times, including for his participation in the so-called Diamantstein affair (Croatian: Afera Diamantstein) of 1919.
Metzger worked for the Hungarian Defense Ministry. Metzger"s German descent was a rarity among the small number of pre-WW2 Ustaše members, given the Ustaše"s racialist principals.
He was allegedly one of the organisers of the 1934 assassination in Marseilles of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. I
On 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers, the puppet government of Independent State of Croatia was created, headed by Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić.
In response to the June 1941 uprising in eastern Herzegovina by Serb rebels, General Vladimir Laxa intended for Metzger (by-then promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel) to command a newly formed special unit to clear the Montenegran hinterland of any remaining rebels once its border areas had been cleared.
In the summer of 1944, the People"s Uprising Corps (Croatian: Pučko Ustaški Sbor, lit Ustaše Reserve Corps) was formed with four regiments of older reservists under Metzger, by then a Major-General. The Corps, named after the original corps which fought alongside the Royal Croatian Home Guard (Croatian: Hrvatsko Domobranstvo) against Serbia in 1914, was disbanded in March 1945. Metzger then led the 4th Division in the Battle of Lijevče Field between March 30 and April 8, 1945.
Metzger surrendered on 15 May 1945 to the British, however was repatriated to Yugoslavia and, having been convicted as one of the chief organisers of the Janka Puszta concentration camp in Hungary, was executed in Zagreb on the 21st of June, 1945.
Achievements
Politics
Acquitted on 7 April 1920, he fled to the Hungarian border village of Vízvár, and distributed political leaflets in the neighbouring Yugoslav Medjimurje region. During 1930, Metzger, then a Hungarian intelligence officer, engaged with other members of the Party of Rights in organisation of proto-Ustaše activity among Croats in towns along the border of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
