With 504,000 Attendees Marko Perkovic Thompson Breaks Guinness World Record More Than Doubly for Single Ticketed Concert

WOW!

The Croatian renowned singer Marko Perkovic Thompson had Saturday 5^th July 2025 drawn an adoring but above all patriotic crowd of 504,000 at his concert in Zagreb thus breaking the world record for a single ticketed concert by more than double! The record prior to Saturday was held by Italian musician Vasco Rossi who sold 225,173 tickets for his 2017 concert in Modena.  Thompson’s songs that send the charts through the roof in Croatia as well as across the Croatian diaspora when summed up all do amount to the sparks that spell Faith, Family and Homeland despite the fact that some public figures, including journalists, politicians and historians across world continue trying very hard to stick a label on him that spells “pro-Nazism, Ustashism and ultranationalism”. Judging by the attendance at Saturday’s concert in Zagreb they are failing miserably in their attempts to intimidate the Croatian people’s expression of beauty in Croatian patriotism and the people’s righteousness in the age-long struggle for freedom and battles for Croatian independence, particularly independence from any shape of Yugoslavia, the communist one being the latest.

It would be foolish to expect that those public figures who have persisted with their fabrications about Thompson and his songs, often labelling them racist, when there is not an ounce of racism in the lyrics of any of his songs, to turn the page and face the truth. It evidently suits their political agenda to keep hunting down anybody that cherishes Croatian pursuit for freedom. They perform after all, and as a rule, as if jumping out of pro-communist fodder kegs and barrels.

The concert itself was spectacular in all its aspects. In the electric atmosphere, in the set up and organisation that saw no detail unturned to ensure safety for all. Thompson’s T-shirt bore the number “03941158” on its left, heart side. One would struggle to find a more respectful and touching symbol of paying tribute to an individual’s efforts and profound sacrifice in the fight for Croatian freedom from the oppressive, corrupt to the roots, Yugoslav communism. Late Zvonko Busic, had spent more than three decades in US prison since 1977 as the acknowledged ringleader of a group of five plane hijackers who on September 10, 1976, commandeered a TWA plane bound from New York to Chicago with the goal of attracting world attention about the terror being perpetrated against Croats by the communist regime in Yugoslavia as well as across the diaspora that housed many political activists for freedom from communism in Croatia.  Busic was pardoned after spending 32 years in prison. As a prisoner, he had the number “03941158”.

At the beginning of Saturday’s concert that was emotionally charged with overwhelming pride in the victorious 1990’s Homeland War, during which Marko Perkovic carried an American Thompson submachine gun as soldier, hence his nickname Thompson, he addressed the sea of ecstatic revellers with words that included:

“Praised be Jesus and Mary, my dear people. First of all, I want to express my deep gratitude to you for coming in such large numbers. Now, with this concert, we will show great unity because you have come from all over, not just from Croatia but from other European countries, which, like us Croats, cherish unity and love for their homeland. That is why I want to tell the whole of Europe to return to its tradition, to its Christian roots, only in this way can Croatia be strong again. Let us hold on to our heroes who created our homeland. Let us not exalt ourselves above the success of our unity but let us thank our dear God for bringing us here…”

Turning to the above mentioned labellers one finds it difficult to digest the 3 July 2025 Jerusalem Post article written by Efraim Zuroff (a Holocaust historian with palpable markers of Yugoslav communist adoration) and Aleksandar Nikolic ( Honorary Consul of the Republic of Serbia to Israel) before realising what a load of maliciously indoctrinating garbage and twisted codswallop this article is.

“Probably the most convincing proof of the dangers of Holocaust distortion will be on full display in the Hippodrome in the Croatian capital of Zagreb this coming Saturday, to the largest audience ever assembled for a rock concert (which will therefore be inscribed in the Guinness Book of Records) to attend a live performance by Croatian heartthrob Marko Perkovic, otherwise known as ‘Thompson.’ Half a million fans are expected to attend,” Zuroff and Nikolic wickedly prophesised in this article, and I, for one, saw no reference to any crystal ball they may have sucked such supernatural foresight from! They further claimed that the World War Two Ustashi regime of Independent State of Croatia (that included the territories of today’s Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) “murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent victims” without providing the reader the courtesy of credible and verifiable sources for their claims. I am certain that they are aware of the fact that probably a dozen of “notable” historians had claimed those numbers in varying digits, between about 27,000 (Dominik Mandic, 1945) to about 1,200,000 (Gideon Greif, 2018), depending which historian laden with a political agenda pulled the numbers out of their sleeve, and each claim his or her figures are the correct ones! The authors further grossly misrepresent the centuries old salute Za dom spremni (For Home Ready) by maliciously and wrongly equating it to the Nazi salute.

Defending historical revisionism when it is attacked involves explaining that it is a natural and necessary part of historical study, not a malicious distortion of the past. Revisionism, the re-evaluation of historical events in light of new evidence or perspectives, is crucial for a more complete and nuanced understanding of history. It helps challenge established narratives and prevents the ossification of historical understanding. 

Historical revisionism focuses on the re-examination of historical events, challenging established facts or interpretations through the use of new evidence or reinterpretation of existing evidence. It assumes that historical accounts can be refined and improved through rigorous examination. This is a positive process, not a negative one and I would like to think that the authors of this article have nothing against the truth and facts even if they have over the years indicated that revisionism is not a good thing because it distorts the Holocaust at least in its aspect of victim numbers. Revisionism rests on certain core assumptions about knowledge, history, and power. These include the belief that established narratives are not absolute truths, that new evidence and perspectives can reshape our understanding of the past, and that power dynamics influence the construction of historical accounts. And we know that facts have not been established as to the number of victims that perished in Croatia during WWII. If they had been then we would not have to put up with wild guesses and evidently politically corrupt and twisted historians and their publications. The only people who do not welcome revisionism seem to be the ones who want to keep the ‘established narrative’ despite the fact that it may indeed be full of fabrications because, if debunked by new historical research, they will run out of tripe to sell to the public or – run for the hills in shame.

The disgraceful media momentum building up to the Thompson’s concert that contained pushing for dark anticipation, and predictions of failure, saw contributions by other authors whose articles contained similar lines of accusations and claims about World War Two Independent State of Croatia as the above article by Zuroff and Nikolic. No holds barred appearance in AFP Media agency’s Lajla Veselica July,2, 2025 article that regurgitated fabrications about the World War Two Croatia and horrible, cruel innuendos against Thompson thrust upon the reader a feeling depravity’s deeply painful blow against human decency perpetrated by a journalist. “Although the Ustasha’s so-called Independent State of Croatia was a Nazi puppet, their modern sympathisers see the regime’s leaders as the nation’s founding fathers,” writes Veselica and gives the reader no verifiable source for her claim. A claim that, if anything, is a blatant lie. The apparent scale of malicious stupidity astounds. Surely with a surname like Veselica the author of that article must know that the prestigious title of father of the Croatian homeland (nation) goes to only one person and that is the 19^th century Antun Starcevic and has been so for much over one hundred years. Since any of its attempts for independence thoughout the centuries, since 925 when its first king, King Tomislav, was crowned, Croatia has had no Mount Rushmore or Founding Fathers enshrined in its Constitution like USA does.

And then we come across Michael Martens whose articles on Croatian patriotism and its history of similar political accent are often akin to a clone of Zuroff’s,  often appear in the German der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung. While in his writing Zuroff forcefully implies that the concept of provenance as a critical factor in assessing authenticity, characteristics and value is superfluous especially when it comes to the Croatian salute “Za dom spremni” (For Home Ready) Martens, in no minced words, tells the world provenance does not exist when it comes to this age long Croatian salute.

Referring to an interview he held with Thompson in 2019 Martens on his social media  X profile on 5 July 2025 says: “It is true that Perkovic’s favourite slogan, ‘For the Homeland – Ready’ (“Za dom – spremni”), was not invented by Croatian fascists and Hitler’s Balkan junior partner Ante Pavelic. It has older historical roots. But that does not change one crucial fact: What is chronologically accurate is not necessarily historically accurate. Nothing can change the fact that ‘Za dom – spremni’ above all stands for Croatia’s involvement in one of the bloodiest genocides in history, not for the heroic defence against Serbian aggression in 1991. If someone claims that when they hear ‘Sieg Heil’ they think of ancient Rome, and that ‘Jedem das Seine’ reminds them not of Buchenwald, but of ancient philosophy – would you believe that?” 

First of all, one needs to consider that the history written by the communists about World War Two is one thing and the fabrications inserted into it that painted Croatia as engaging “in one of the bloodiest genocides in history”, the subject of current historical research that already points to a largely different truth, is another thing. Martens seems to have adopted as unquestionable, as undisputed fact, the version of history written by the real perpetrators of one of the bloodiest genocides in history / Josip Broz Tito and his communist operatives. A reasonable person, a fair person, would reply to Martens’ question at the end of the above quote with a resounding YES. Yes, all reasonable and fair people would ask why someone adopted an existing slogan or salute instead of creating their own and where did that adopted slogan come from. That is the real provenance of a traditionally cultural item, be it art or salute or anything else of value to people. Certainly, one would not look to ancient Rome to find the origin of ‘Sieg Heil’ (Hail Victory) where Martens in his misguided wisdom steers the reader to look! One would look to the depiction of gesture of raised arm in a 1784 painting by Jacques-Louis David called “Oath of the Horatii”, which was adopted by the Nazis in 1930’s. One would then be obliged to ask oneself if the mere fact of adopting a name, a salute, changes its true or original meaning? The answer would be NO. Adoption might give it a new or an added meaning, but it does not erase nor alter its original meaning cherished my many if not the most people it relates to. But it is evident that Martens chooses not to believe or respect the fact that Thompson is one of many Croats who keep the original meaning of “Za dom spremni” (For Home Ready) alive. It is that salute of For Home Ready that Croatian soldiers defending Croatia from 1990’s Serb aggression pinned to their coats of arms and flags, just like freedom fighters for Croatia had done since the 16th century. For the reason of pure love for Croatia and its freedom. Ina Vukic