Dr. Esther Gitman and the front cover of her new book:
“Alojzije Stepinac: Pillar of human rights”
By Matko Marusic, Prof. Emer.
(First published in www.narod.hr, 20 February 2019)
(Translated from Croatian by Ina Vukic)
On February 13, 2019, Dr. Esther Gitman launched her book “Alojzije Stepinac: Pillar of Human Rights” at the Croatian Catholic University in Zagreb. That day is the turning point of the history of Croatian history – because in it Croatian history has ceased to be a lie and became the truth, on an international level! A perfectly neutral person, an American Jew, presented the indisputable truths about Blessed Alojzije Stepinac. The facts about him had been distorted, terrible fabrications inserted, virtues, achievements and victories suppressed – a lie upon lie, a system of lies, a system of exterminating and shaming of Croats! And the truth was in fact the opposite: he was a pillar of human rights.
All Croatian history should be re-written, from the possible Iran about which we cannot speak even to this day, through Goldstein’s denial of King Tomislav’s crowning on the Duvanj Field, the concealment of the magnificent gathering of the Croatian people around the Croatian Peasant Party and its destruction by the communists, the terrible exaggeration of Ustashe crimes and about the partisan regime “anti-fascism”, all the way to the UDBa (communist Yugoslavia secret service) which is active even today and the “civil” associations, which are communist lodges.
The Croatian media have relayed the launch of Dr. Gitman’s book (more than 500 people at the launch) correctly, both the content and importance of her second book about Stepinac, so I will not repeat it here. However, I must point out two very important things I learned from this event.
Prof. dr. sc. Matko Marusic
1. The great dignitary of the Croatian Church is an international pillar of human rights
Dr. Gitman, in the title of her book, has called Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac – a pillar, which when translated from the English language into Croatian means “main bearer, column, supporter, anchor, tower, chief supporter”. Through scientific research Dr. Gitman has proved that the Croatian cardinal, condemned by communists and spat upon by innumerable wretches – was not an Ustasha, a criminal, a traitor, a narrow-minded cleric or a collaborator, but a main bearer, a column, a supporter, an anchor, a tower, chief supporter, a pillar – of human rights! The book should be read to the last detail because, in it, there are countless data of which we have never heard before (we have lived in a lie!) and of which we must be proud.
Dr. Gitman said that the whole world admires the Croatians because of Stepinac, but not just because of him but also because of the goodness of the Croatian people in those terrible days: she said that there were few thousands signatures of Croatian people who sought from the NDH (Independent State of Croatia) regime to release the arrested Jews – their neighbours and acquaintances, good and innocent people. Croats signed it at the cost of threat to their lives, some even signed it by thumbprint because they were illiterate!
Admit that you did not know this. (I myself didn’t know this and now I, from sheer joy and pride, I don’t know what to do with myself!) Is there a single country in the world, and a single nation, that can show signatures of few thousands of people who, at the cost of their own survival, in World War II, under Nazi occupation, openly pledged their own safety to save the Jews? No! Let Yad Vashem say if there is? Let us be proud of that now and forever, Croatian brothers and sisters! I heard another detail at the book launch that fascinated me and I want to share it with you. There were Jewish men and women in the Croatian Catholic Church before the Second World War who converted to Catholic religion and who were then ordained as priests and nuns. The NDH regime ordered that they do not have to wear the Jewish yellow star like all other Jews in public even though they were Jews. And then their leader, Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, asked them to wear the yellow star all until other Jews had to wear it!
Is there in the history of battles for human rights a more beautiful and a more noble gesture than this? There isn’t! Croatian brothers and sisters, we who have this in our history, let’s not permit people who hate us and who want our state to disappear to dish out to us lessons on human rights!
Here, I ask Minister Divjak: is this very important fact of history going to appear in the new history curriculum???
2. Croatian history must be re-written Croatian history must be re-written!
That with which Dr. Gitman came out with regards to Cardinal Stepinac is big enough and unquestionable to point out to the need to also come out with other Croatian truths, against lies that were and are taught to us, against prohibitions, distortions and suppressions that still prevail. The lies about Stepinac were terribly big, negative and horrible, and after the findings of the neutral, educated and honest Jewish Dr. Gitman it turns out that not only what was said was not the truth but that the truth is actually on the opposite side! That is why from that day onwards, in the public domain, with trumpets and drums, the works, arguments and evidence, by B. Matković, S. Lozo, V. Horvat, N. Banić, R. Leljak, M. Koić, S. Pilić, I. Vukić, S. Razum, J. Jurčević, M. Ivezić and other Croatian historians who have exposed all the main falsifications by Croatian enemies – must come out.
Those who distort Croatian history, such as S. Koren, I. Goldstein, H. Klasić, T. Jakovina and others similar to them, should face these Croatian historians with scientific arguments, in public, so that we can all se who is in the right! Dr. Gitman has called upon E. Zuroff and G. Greif, the Jewish slanderers of Croatian people, for a debate, and Croatian historians have called upon those who cling to the old lies for a public debate (e.g. Igor Vukić). And this must occur! The Croatian public must not stop calling for the slanderers of Croatian people from Croatia (they are mentioned above) to faee up at a public debate with the Croatian historians, who have exposed their lies, the lies of their teachers and their Serbo-communist commanders! Mounting one argument against the other could be presented in all the media and in every form, from HTV to HAZU. Without insults and labelling! With Dr. Esther Gitman’s books, the age of labelling and insulting (judging, destroying) those who prove different has well and truly passed!
We want a truthful Croatian history! We want the truth in historical science, in public, in institutions, in the judiciary, in schools and in textbooks. Dear readers, you must never forget this and you must never relent from your national and human rights! Besides, through your Cardinal Blessed Alojzije Stepinac and your ancestors, who, although at the cost of their own lives, massively defended and guarded their Jewish co-citizens under the World War Two Nazi occupation, you too are a main bearer, a column, a supporter, an anchor, a tower, a chief supporter and a pillar of human rights! Who then can take away, deny or diminish your human rights? Nobody! A new time has come; Croatians are now righteous among nations. Our history is noble and bright and we need to realise that and openly talk about it to all and everywhere.
Matko Marušić, professor emeritus
Split (Croatia)