Holocaust in Serbia – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Anti – Semitism in Serbia And Powerful Serbs in Croatia – On Task To Persist Spreading Lies About Croatia

January 10, 2021 by inavukic 18 Comments

Mjere protiv Židova u Jugoslaviji. Beograd 7. listopada 1940: „ Jugoslavija se sada pridružila antisemitskom pokretu. Vlada je usvojila uredbu kojom se Židovima zabranjuje trgovanje hranom. U židovskim poduzećima ili u tvrtkama u kojima je glavnina kapitala židovska, vlada će imenovati državne komesare – Reuters.

It was recently that Milorad Pupovac, a representative of a part of Serb minority in Croatia associated with 1990’s rebel Serbs who wreaked havoc, destruction, ethnic cleansing of Croats, rape, torture in vicious efforts to try and stop Croatia from seceding from communist Yugoslavia reiterated to the public that Belgrade (Serbia) continues to be the Capital City of Serbs in Croatia! As to fatalities resulting from recent earthquakes in Croatia Pupovac stated that among the fatalities were two Serbs and a girl from a mixed marriage even though those ethnic Serbs were Croatian citizens and their families have lived in Croatia for centuries!

This statement by Pupovac reveals all the human misery of Milorad Pupovac and the policy he represents not only as the leader of the so-called Serbian National Council (SNV) and a Member of Parliament, but also as an alleged intellectual with the position of professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. For him, therefore, this catastrophic earthquake did not kill people, but members of the Serbian ethnic community in Croatia, which he and his SNV persistently want to keep separate from the Croatian identity to which they belong as citizens of that country.

The Serbian pursuits to keep blackening Croatia in every possible sense are related to this and include their attempts to use lies to demonstrate that Serbs are “better than Croats”. These lies are largely represented in Serbia’s continued coverup of its active role in the WWII Holocaust when it exterminated some 94% of its Jews by August 1942 and its continued propaganda against Croatia, deliberately and systematically fabricating the number of Jews and Serbs killed in Croatia during WWII. Their last “weapon” is putting on their payroll the Israeli Gideon Greif who appears to hold the championship lead in this fabrication of victim numbers.

So let’s look at the history of antisemitism in Serbia and in this I refer to an article recently published in Croatia’s popular portal “Narod.hr” and written by Petar Horvatic, which I have translated into English:

“Serbian anti-Semitism was not present only in Serbia, but began to spread among Serbs in neighbouring countries, including Croatia. Milan Obradovic, a Serbian journalist from Bjelovar who published 30 publications in Croatia, tried to publish anti-Semitic publications in Croatia in 1907, but on April 10, 1907, the city of Zagreb resolutely banned the publication of such publications.

Obradovic accused Croats of being tolerant of Jews, of being Jewish helpers, and the Catholic clergy of being bribed by Jewish Freemasonry. Obradovic also accused Jews of Croatian non-cooperation with the Greater Serbia movement and Serb parties in Croatia.

The month of August 1942 was the time when Serbia was declared the first country in Europe – judenfrei (Jew-free).

Anti-Semitic postage stamps in WWII Serbia

On January 26, 1807, the Council for the Future Autonomous Serbian Provinces – under the leadership of Karadjordjevic – concluded that all Muslims and Jews should be expelled from Belgrade, in the original text ‘cleansed of all Turks and Civuts’.

Civut is a derogatory term used for Jews.

Stopping the expulsion of all non-Serbs, including Jews and Muslims, from the territory of Serbia was a ‘conditio sine qua non’ of international recognition of the Principality of Serbia in 1878 at the Berlin Congress, which Serbs saw as dictated by the international community, especially by the British statesman and Jews. Benjamin Disraeli.

It is interesting that at that time, Serbian historians, almost regularly imbued with Serbian nationalism and chauvinism, fiercely criticised Croats as a people without anti-Semitism. Thus, Simo Lazic and Milan Obradovic accuse Croats of openly defending and protecting Jews, such as the right-winger Josip Frank, who defends the accused Alfred Dreyfuss in ‘Croatian Law’, who was the target of false accusations of espionage at the end of the 19th century. Let us remember that, unlike Obradovic and Lazic, the great writer Emile Zola also defended Dreyfuss.

In all this, as well as the attitude towards Jews, Serbia regularly looked up to ‘big brother’ Russia, a country that ‘patented’ pogroms (organised massacres of particular ethnic groups), mass persecutions and violence against Jews.

Thus, in 1881, the Russian Minister Konstantin Pobedonostsev proposed to Tsar Alexander III. that ‘a third of the Jews emigrate from Russia, a third convert to Orthodoxy, and a third allowed to die.’ It was a statement and a ‘magic formula’ that later the false and perfidious diplomacy of Serbia attributed to some people from the time of World War II, as if referring to Serbs. In the original, that statement unfortunately referred to the Jews. That statement was later conveyed with pleasure by the Serb Milan Obradović to this region, when he wrote that ‘there will be no Civuts in Russia in 25 year’s time’.

It is very interesting that the Serbian linguist Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic, in the 1853 edition of ‘Serbian Folk Tales’, also inserted many short stories and folk tales soaked in prejudice against and hatred towards Jews. (see Tomislav Vukovic, Review of Serbian Anti-Semitism, p. 9).

The older records from the time of the First Serbian Uprising 1806/07, clearly show the intention to expel all Jews and Turks from Belgrade. Some ease of the position of the Jews in Serbia came ten years later under Prince Milos Obrenovic, where the Jews lived in the part of Belgrade that had the derogatory title “Čifutana” (Civutane) because of the Jews.

When Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic returned to power in the middle of the 19th century, Jews were again forbidden to settle in Serbia, outside Belgrade. On the contrary, because of the decree, the Jews had to move out of Sabac, Smederevo and Pozarevac.

During the second reign of Milos Obrenovic from 1856 to 1860, the level of tolerance towards Jews in Serbia rose again. This was abolished by his son Mihajlo in 1861, which is why Jews complained to international institutions in Serbia.

It was not until 1878 that the Jewish people in Serbia became equal, by the decisions of the Berlin Congress, which Serbia reluctantly recognised. The decisions of the Berlin Congress show that the treatment of Jews in Serbia led to an overrun of their numbers (see Tomislav Vukovic, Review of Serbian Anti-Semitism, p. 13).

Many years after the Berlin Congress in Serbia, these decisions of point 35 of the Berlin Congress in favour of the equality of Jews saw widespread outrage in Serbia, which clearly speaks of the very pronounced anti-Semitism in Serbia.

One of the prominent Serbs of the time who sowed hatred towards Jews was Vasa Pelagic, a Serbian national teacher of socialist orientation. His anti-Semitic work ‘The Religious Teaching of the Talmud or a Mirror of Chivut Honesty’ is well known.

Somewhat later, a booklet ‘Let’s not give Serbia to the Civuts!’ Was printed in Serbia, where Serbs are being made to fear the Jews and calls for fight against and hatred towards Jews.

Anti-Semitism spread from Serbia through Serbian politicians and historians to Serbian politicians in Croatia. Hatred of Jews was instilled by a well-known Serbian politician in Croatia, Pavle Jovanovic, who was a prominent member of the Serbian Democratic Party, which represented Serbs in Croatia. Simo Lazic stood out with his anti-Semitic texts, while he edited ‘Srbobran’ (Serbshield) and ‘Vrač Pogađač’ (Prediction Wizard) in Croatia in Zagreb, as one of the main ideologues of the Serbian Independent Party, which represented Serbs in Croatia.

‘The Serbian press in Croatia in the second half of the 19th century was permanently anti-Jewish. The Serbian Independent Party constantly attacks Ante Starcevic’s Party of Rights for sympathizing with Jews… The Independents accused the Jews of directing Croatian (and right-wing) politics to the detriment of the Serbian people and Serbia’ (see Tomislav Vuković, Review of Serbian Anti-Semitism, p. 25).

It is interesting that the initiator of anti-Semitism in Croatia was the Serb Milan Obradovic from Bjelovar (see Tomislav Vuković, “Review of Serbian Anti-Semitism”, p. 27). He wrote 30 pamphlets and booklets that exuded marked hatred of Jews, demanding brutal state measures against them.

Read the horrors written by Serbian Obradovic about the Jews in Croatia: ‘It is almost impossible to talk about the victory of Croatian anti-Semitism, and you know why, because the majority of the Croatian people are so attached to the Chivuts that they must not shout against them, let alone any Croats raising his voice against the Jews. Just consider Zagreb! Shouldn’t every honest Croat blush because the Civuts have created Jerusalem out of Zagreb, and all of Zagreb stinks of their Palestinian stench.’(see Tomislav Vukovic, Review of Serbian Anti-Semitism, p. 31).

That is what one of the leading journalists and ideologues of Serbian politics in Croatia from the beginning of the 20th century writes.

Milan Obradovic wrote inflamatory anti-Semitic texts and self-published booklets of that kind, but in Croatia he had no collaborators or like-minded people, which is why he often resented the Croats he spoke of as allowing Jews to ‘get under their skin and drink their blood’, saying that in Croatia and Zagreb ‘all capital, shops and the biggest trades are in their hands’. In his booklets you can also find correspondence with theologians of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Srijemski Karlovci, where he found understanding, since at that time anti-Semitism was very developed in Serbia. And not only because of the influence of the Russians, but also because the Jews were considered ‘traditional Serbian enemies’ who were ‘on the side of the Turks and later Austria-Hungary’, and ‘against Serbia and its interests.’

Anti-Semitism was also present among Serbs in Vojvodina (then in Austro-Hungary), and the well-known Serbian politician and writer Svetozar Miletic stood out in the political newspaper “Zastava”. In one place, he even ‘well-meaningly’ advises Croats that ‘a bit of anti-Semitism would not go astray there.’

The prominent anti-Semite Jasa Tomic also acted there in his newspaper ‘Srpsko kolo’. Jasa Tomic was a role model in hatred towards Jewish Serbian fascists led by Dimitrije Ljotic even before World War II.

Even the Serbian Orthodox Church before the First World War was not deprived of anti-Semitism, which was especially reflected in the newspaper of the priestly association.

‘Vesnik srpske crkve’ (Herald of Serbian Church).

During the 19th century, after the liberation of Serbia from the Turks and the formal recognition of civil rights to Jews, anti-Semitism constantly appeared and imprinted itself in the consciousness of the Serbian people in the first half of the 20th century, as evidenced by numerous pamphlets, books, magazines and newspapers. Here are just a few examples: The religious law teaching of the Talmud or a mirror of the Chivut honesty by Vaso Pelagic (1879), On the Jewish question in Serbia by Nikola Jovanovic – an American (1879), How an evil morality influx by Chivut is created in the human society by Simo Stanojevic (1880) , Let’s not give Serbia to Civuts by a group of Serbian patriots (1882), The Jewish Question by Jasa Tomic (1884).

All this time, political and other newspapers with anti-Semitic articles were published: Balkan, Zastava, Srpstvo, and even church newspapers of the Serbian Orthodox Church brought out anti-Semitic articles. E.G. in Hrišćamki vesnik and Glasnik, Službeni list Srpske pravoslavne crkve.

‘Slavery, that is: truths are deadly. That’s why they shout, and whisper lies. To everyone and anyone. The occupier is lying, traitors are lying, freedom fighters are also lying. We lie to deceive ourselves, to comfort another; we lie out of pity, we lie so that we are not afraid, to encourage, to hide our own and others’ misery. We lie out of love and humanity, we lie out of honesty. We lie for freedom. A lie is a form of our patriotism and a confirmation of our innate intelligence. We lie creatively, imaginatively, inventively. For this lie under occupation, even an ordinary idiot has more imagination than many novelists. A lie is a necessity: biological, psychological, national, political. Belgrade in these days is an apocalypse of lies.’ (Dobrica Ćosić, Deobe (Divisions), published 1977, p. 135).

‘It is a pity that in the Serbs, through six hundred years of slavery under the Turks, some known properties of slaves have developed to incredible proportions. In their national ethics, on the ranking of virtues, after courage comes a lie. Captain F., our expert on their history, admits that he does not know any other people who in national and political struggles were able to use the means of deceiving, cheating and lying to their opponents and enemies as successfully as the Serbs did. They are real artists in lying. It is a complex system, a very complicated technique, incomprehensible to our American and British concepts. When the history of the Second World War in Europe is written, the moral basis and psychological technique in the fight against the enemies of the Serbian guerrilla movement, that is, the Chetnik detachment, must be given a special chapter. Large armies must know about this Serbian experience.’ (Dobrica Ćosić, Deobe (Devisions), published 1977, p. 168).” Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Anti-Semitism in Serbia, Croatia, Holocaust in Serbia, Serbian anti-Croatian propaganda, Serbs of Croatia introduced and promoted Anti-Semitism in Croatia, Serbs spread Anti-Semitism across Europe for centuries

Not Only Croatia Suffers From Serbian Deception

February 26, 2020 by inavukic 16 Comments

Serb Chetniks in Australia – continue deceiving with pretence Serbia was with Allied forces in WWII
Photo: Facebook

The persistent coverup of Serbia’s horrid and active role in the WWII Holocaust and the fact that in May 1942 Serbia was one of the first European countries to declare itself Jew-free (Judenfrei) had prostituted factual history to the point of yet another criminal blow to the many victims of the Holocaust in Serbia. The coverup was hatched by Yugoslav communists with headquarters in Belgrade towards the end of WWII and viciously pursued with the single aim of vilifying Croatia and Croatian people, lumbering against them distressing lies and recklessly tossing out wildly fabricated numbers of those killed in the Holocaust. There’s no doubt that some “leading” people of Jewish ancestry, such as Efraim Zuroff of Simon Weisenthal Center and Gideon Greif, an Israeli historian, have been going out of their way to coverup Serbia’s and its Chetniks’ role in the Holocaust in Serbia. One can only wonder why this is so and why these men pursue the path of this same filthy work of coverup, but one cannot avoid the thought that rewards from official Serbia for them must be large! The sickening thing is that Serbia has raised a monument to the victims of the Holocaust there, but, guess what, Germans and not Serbs are the culprits of that WWII depravity! The fact that official Serbia was a willing partner in these crimes is totally ignored and underplayed in this wicked propaganda program.

While those that seek to research facts of WWII history in Croatia and Serbia are persistently and with apparent malice labelled as revisionists, the same people who pursue with the Serbian coverup of the role of Serbs in the Holocaust on its own soil continue to work tirelessly, it seems, in attempting to discredit and stop such research! Truth has always had a difficult path to the surface, and that is a sad fact of humanity.

For the sake of justice to all the victims of crime and for the sake of demonstration how Serbs have succeeded in fooling and deceiving the world, I shall continue this post with a transfer of David Goldman’s recent article in the Independent Australia portal on the Serbian collaboration with the Nazi’s (the collaboration Serbia and its “friends” are persistently trying to coverup with the aim of vilifying WWII Croatia). David Goldman’s article from January 2020 is this:

“ Betrayal: RSL backs Nazi-aligned Serbian Chetniks

Australia’s Returned and Services League (RSL) is allowing a Nazi-aligned group from WWII and their supporters to march in Anzac Day parades.

Meanwhile, the Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Department pays their entitlements out of the public purse at a time when Australian soldiers suffering physical injuries and issues like PTSD find their health benefits being slashed.

The Nazis in question are a WWII Serbian military formation called ‘Chetniks’, that according to most widely-available histories, including all the various official histories of WWII, were listed at worst as being active Axis collaborators or at the least, a nationalist-chauvinist militia responsible for numerous bestial war crimes.

According to Winston Churchill’s liaison officer in wartime Yugoslavia, Major-General Sir Fitzroy Maclean:

The reason why we have ceased to supply Draza Mihajlovic [Supreme Chetnik commander] with weapons and support, is a simple one: He has not been fighting the enemy and moreover some of his subordinates have been making accommodations with the enemy.

Maclean further wrote in his book Eastern Approaches:

‘Some Chetnik Commanders were openly living at German and Italian headquarters. The Chetniks were either not fighting at all or fighting with the Germans against their own countrymen … [the Chetnik’s were] impeding rather than furthering the allied war effort.’

Because of his collaboration and other war crimes, Draza Mihajlovic was executed by Yugoslavia in March 1946. In fact, Chetnik collaboration became so widespread that after the Tehran Conference of 1943, the Allies finally broke off all ties with the Chetniks, eventually even forcing their own political head, King Peter II Karadordjevic to publicly disown them by September 1944 and throw his lot in with Tito’s Communist Partisans.

The Australian government has been well aware of this for decades. For example, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in a letter to an enquiry to a retired New Zealand veteran way back in May 1993 wrote: ‘Serbia was not an ally’ and that ‘it is true that the Chetniks were collaborators’. Despite this, these units march in our major cities every April 25th.

After a follow-up enquiry by the same retired Kiwi Army Sergeant on whether anyone who served in the Chetniks during WWII was ‘eligible’ to receive Veteran’s Affairs entitlements, the response from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (DVA) also from 1993, was crystal clear:

The Chetniks were discredited on 12 September 1944, because of widespread collaboration with the Nazis and Fascists, and because they were fighting on the German and Italian side since 1941.’

Then in a twist that would have made Kafka proud, the same letter went on to say:

‘The DVA has assessed your specific concern under Section 35 of the Veteran’s Entitlements Act 1986. Due to restrictions under the Privacy Act 1988, DVA cannot inform you of the outcome.’

This despite the fact that the VA was only asked if these units ‘were eligible to receive VA entitlements’, and not whether (or not) any living individual was actually receiving them.

Postage stamps in WWII Serbia
Antisemitic – violently!
Photo: Screenshots

During WWII, Chetnik units operating across Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro found collaboration with Hitler natural as they were already part of Mussolini’s fascist army, the so-called, ‘Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia, a component of the 5th, 6th and 17th Corps of the army of fascist Italy, who according to historians were responsible for the murder of over 50,000 people, mainly innocent civilians.

One of their most revered military leaders, indicted war criminal and Serbian Orthodox priest Momčilo Đujić, who, despite being dead for 20 years, is still the central figurehead under whose symbols many Chetniks in the Anzac Day celebration march and who has from his long-cold grave given inspiration to a new generation of fanatical Nazis, including the likes of alleged NZ mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant and Norwegian mass murderer and neo-Nazi Anders Breivik among others.

Đujić also became the spiritual godfather of convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Vojislav Seselj, whose role in financing Serb war criminals living here was documented by The Australian in 2019.

As both a loyal German as well as an Italian ally, in December 1944, Đujić sent an emissary to General Gustav Fehn of the German 264th Infantry Division with the following message:

The Chetnik Command with all of its armed forces has collaborated sincerely and loyally with the German Army in these areas from September last year. This collaboration has continued to the present day. The Chetnik Command wishes to share the destiny of the German Army in the future.

In response, General Fehn organised the safe transport of Đujić’s wounded Chetniks to the Third Reich, where after the war, he and his followers were employed by the CIA and eventually relocated to the U.S. where Đujić lived out his days.

The Washington Post, Israel’s Yad Vashem and the U.S.-based Shoah Resource Centre admitted that:

By the end of 1943, the break between the West and the Chetniks was complete. The Chetniks became collaborators and joined the forces fighting the Partisans. There were many instances of Chetniks murdering Jews or handing them over to the Germans.

Fast forward to 2019 and some high-ranking Serbian RSL members have gone on to form alliances with neo-Nazi groups such as Golden Dawn, which was implicated in the Srebrenica Massacre, nationalist Russian Cossacks on ASIO watchlists such as Simeon Boikov and various local far-right extremists like Jim Saleam and Kim Vuga.

Moreover, the leader of the Chetnik Anzac Committee for NSW, Milan Brkljac, along with his brother Draz, a serving NSW policeman, march under the banner of Serbia for Anzac Day, in clear breach of RSL protocols and by-laws, as the RSL does not even have a marching schedule for a country called Serbia, rather only one for Yugoslavia.

As mentioned, this situation has led directly to Chetnik units forming triad-like alliances with groups like the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn and pro-Putin Russian Cossacks, all aided and abetted by well-known figures in the Australian extreme Right, and coordinated by modern-day followers of the Italian and German quisling Momčilo Đujić and their fellow Anzac Day marchers.

Others in this clique have posted pictures of themselves on social media holding ‘Remove Kebab’ signs – a clear reference to, and support of the likes of Tarrant and Breivik, while more disturbing is the fact that some of their supporters have trained and fought alongside pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine in breach of Australia’s Foreign Incursions Act 1978.

Of course this circus would be incomplete without the involvement of clueless politicians like NSW Opposition leader Jodie McKay, who allowed herself to be photographed with some of these individuals a few years ago.

Just how the RSL can ignore Nazi collaborators and units from Mussolini’s fascist army tied to local neo-Nazi groups openly marching in Anzac Day parades alongside legitimate veterans, in spite of the overwhelming evidence provided to the heads of the RSL over many years is simply mind-boggling.

Even though their inclusion breaches numerous RSL and Veteran’s Affairs (VA) codes, by-laws and protocols such as provisions of Section 5(c) of the Veterans Entitlements Act which states that an ‘allied veteran’ does not include a person who was ‘at any time’ in a force which was assisting the enemy forces of Australia, the RSL has stayed mute on the subject.

On April 25 2019, in a rare act of common sense, an attempt was made to ban the Chetniks from all Anzac Day activities by the Victorian RSL, however, the branch’s leadership lost its nerve and quickly reversed this decision, allegedly due to legal threats.

Going further, by giving VA entitlements to Chetniks, Australia’s Government is also inadvertently helping fund the war in eastern Ukraine while Australian soldiers suffer constant ATO checks or entitlement cut-backs and Australian Afghan war veterans endure cuts to their medical benefits and VA entitlements.

While the bureaucratic heads of the VA department and the Veteran’s Affairs Minister Darren Chester should resign over this outrage, for its part, the RSL should consider rewording its ‘Lest We Forget’ slogan to ‘Lest We Remember’.

After all, that would be a far more accurate description of their attitude towards both WWII history and the fate of Australia’s servicemen and women.”

Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: antisemitism, ANZAC DAY, Australia, Croatia, David Goldman, Efraim Zuroff, Gideon Greif, Holocaust in Serbia, Independent Ausralia, Jew-free Serbia, Judenfrei Serbia, Nazi-aligned Serbia, Serbia, Serbs

Serbia Made Itself Jew-Free, Croatia Did Not!

August 31, 2019 by inavukic 24 Comments

Antisemitic postage stamps in Serbia 1941-1945

Simone Weil (French philosopher and political activist) said in her book The Need for Roots: prelude towards a declaration of duties towards mankind (Routledge and Paul, 1952) that truth is “a need of the soul”. She went on to say: “The need for truth is a need more sacred than any other need. Yet it is never mentioned. One feels afraid to read once one has realised the quantity and monstrousness of the material falsehoods paraded in even the books of the most reputable authors. Thereafter one reads as though one were drinking from a contaminated well.” The days Weil lived in are those we live in and have lived for decades, where politics get in the way of the truth, of facts and the duties to humanity often take a back seat.

Serbia has with Efraim Zuroff’s (head of Jerusalem branch of Simon Wiesenthal Center) conspicuous help managed to exculpate itself and Serbs from the horrendous crimes committed by WWII Milan Nedic government and Draza Mihajlovic’s Chetniks, said recently Dr Esther Gitman, a USA and Israel based historian.

Two things have prompted me to write this article. The first is Efraim Zuroff’s recent tantrum published in Serbia’s Kurir that the plaque dedicated to Blessed Alojzije Stepinac fixed along the Sorrowful Way (Via Dolorosa) in Jerusalem should be torn down because according to Zuroff Stepinac’s plaque belongs nowhere in the world and that he would act in getting it removed (despite the very truth and fact that research since year 2000 by Dr Esther Gitman has yielded copious amount of historical documentation that shows beyond reasonable doubt that Stepinac in fact played a leading role in rescuing Jews and other ethnic groups during WWII Croatia).

Antisemitic poster in Serbia 1941-1942
“Who will be heaviest? No one!
Because the Jew holds the scale ” !

On publicly commenting Prime Minister Netanyahu’s trip to Ukraine last week, taken to be a yet another opportunity to assess Israel’s relations with the post-Communist new democracies of Eastern Europe, and especially those with a Holocaust past of participation in the systematic mass murder of Jews, Zuroff took the opportunity to say that Ukraine in recent years has been one of the worst offenders in terms of distorting the history of the Holocaust, and glorifying individuals who collaborated with the Nazis in implementing the Final Solution.

This would be fine were it not true that Zuroff takes it upon himself to help Serbia distort the history of the Holocaust. We read in the news that Serbia is planning to adopt a law to create a memorial centre in Belgrade for tens of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Roma killed by Nazis in World War II, preventing plans to redevelop two concentration camp sites in the capital city into commercial space. Draft legislation will be sent to parliament in November with the “active involvement of the Jewish community in Serbia,” Efraim Zuroff told reporters after meeting with Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic this week. He said he got assurances from the Serb leader that the bill will be adopted and the government will provide funds for the memorial. The fact that it was the Serbs and not the Germans that brought masses of Jews to slaughter in WWII Serbia does not appear to deter Zuroff from towing Serbia’s line of covering up its role in the Holocaust.

All crimes should be talked about openly but not using fabrications and opinions as facts, which is exactly what Zuroff is evidently doing.

The second reason for writing this article is last week’s utterly deplorable comparison of today’s Croatia with the WWII Independent State of Croatia by Milorad Pupovac, member of Croatian Parliament representing a part of Serb minority in Croatia. “I would not want this country to come up with the same experience, which was an attempt in the 20th century, to create a Croatian state and to collaborate (with the Nazis) … How things are now, the way many people in this country, including those who sit with us in Parliament are relating to that idea, such possibility is not unrealistic…”, Pupovac said.

While the Croatian government leadership has responded to Pupovac’s deplorable behaviour as unacceptable the mind boggles why there are no stronger moves to commence proceedings that would remove Pupovac from the Croatian Parliament. Croatian Parliament was instituted amidst the bloody Serb aggression against Croatia’s independence struggle and members of Pupovac’s immediate family were active in that aggression and ethnic cleansing of Croats from their homes. Pupovac has for years been on a rampage against Croatian independence and on the path of spreading lies about WWII Croatia just like Zuroff does, covering up and justifying communist crimes, to name only a few of his public activities that actually vilify the very country in whose parliament he sits.

Anti-Jewish poster issued in Serbia in autumn of 1941 for the Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibition in Belgrade from October 22, 1941, to January 19, 1942. The exhibit focused on the alleged Jewish-Communist-Masonic conspiracy to achieve world domination with the intent to increase hatred against outsider groups that opposed Nazi Germany.

The truly distressing matter in Zuroff’s and Pupovac’s claims regarding the preposterously impossible numbers they say were killed by Croatia’s Ustasha regime is that they talk of these fabricated numbers as fact in order to make their vilification against Croatia even larger. I am astonished at the fact that no one in any national authority that protects the public from such terrible falsehoods has yet called these two men (and others in this category of disturbing undermining and promoting of false history and today) to account and compelled them to prove beyond reasonable doubt the numbers of victims they claim are true, are a verifiable fact.

A thing about the Holocaust in Serbia that bothers multitudes across the world is that Serbs themselves have put the whole blame for the exterminations upon the Germans who occupied Serbia! On the other hand, the Serbs will not do the same when it comes to the Holocaust related crimes perpetrated on WWII Croatian soil under German occupation! The Serbs will keep on vilifying Croatia by calling it a Nazi Germany puppet state and yet they will not do the same for Serbia that was, actually, more of a Nazi Germany puppet state than Croatia (Croatia’s WWII goal for independence, for self-determination, appears to have been much stronger than Serbia’s).

While it appears that Israeli Efraim Zuroff, and Croatian Serb Milorad Pupovac, will stop at nothing to cover up or at least dilute to a kind of insignificance the horrors of the extermination of Jews in WWII Serbia, it is incumbent upon us all that the truth, the real truth that can be verified, is told. One thing is for sure, Serbia itself and Serbs were the exterminators od Jews in WWII Serbia and not Serbia’s occupiers, the Germans as Zuroff and Pupovac would like the world to believe. Serbs were most willing partners in getting Serbia to the Jew-free status among European nations; they did it swiftly, they did it by May 1942!

Dr Esther Gitman

Dr Esther Gitman, a leading historian specialising in the rescue and survival of Jews during WWII especially in the region of former Yugoslavia (mainly Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia) has on several occasions in recent times commented strongly in criticism of Efraim Zuroff’s ludicrous claims about the enormity of Holocaust crime related matters in WWII Croatia and Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac in particular that do not stack up to any verifiable findings and about their pursuits in attempts to cover up or minimise Holocaust related crimes in WWII Serbia. She has often reminded her public that research findings confirm the fact that WWII Serbia was one of the first European countries to declare itself Jew-free (May 1942) – with pride, to boot! On speaking recently to Dr Esther Gitman, I asked about where her research has led her to as far as WWII Serbia was concerned.

“The essence of it is that Serbia was not an occupied state, Milan Nedic was the military prime minister. They had their freedoms provided they fought the communists and killed Jews. They did a very good job in concealing the truth from the world. My preliminary research and summary are here only to demonstrate how many armies they had in Serbia and what was expected of them. Serbia to a certain extent was controlled by Nazi Germany and at time by Bulgaria but in essence they were free to print their own stamps and with their own name. For so many years most of us believed that Serbia was an occupied country and that it was the Nazis who killed Jews, Roma, Croats and others. The Nazi regime had no time to run after the so-called Serbian enemies, the Serbs themselves did it. It is highly recommended to send some students to the USA, (DGFP, Department of State. Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918-1945. Series D, Vols. 11-13, Washington D.C., 1960-1964. See also, United States” National Archives. Microcopy,– Roll—Frame, and United States, National Archives. Record Group).

By not searching for truth Croatia has been duped by Serbia for more than seven decades. They taught you and your children how you murdered 1,700,000 or 700,000 and you believed them even though it makes no sense. In Croatia, in total, there were approximately 2,500,000 and Serbs about 750,000, the whole story that the world and the Vatican are accepting makes no sense. Please go and make sense of what has happened to you from 1918-1941 and from 1941-1945,” Dr Gitman emphasised.

Antisemitic poster Serbia 1941-1945:
“his weapons: democracy, masonry, capitalism and communism leads to death”

“In April 1941, the commander in chief of the German army issued a proclamation defining the conditions of German rule in occupied areas of Serbia…and on 30 May 1941 the first puppet government was established. That is a Commissioner Administration headed by Milan Acimovic… But the above were temporary figures and the German authorities had sound reasons for choosing General Milan Nedić to head the puppet (in name only) government. He was well known among Serbs as an elite General Staff officer of the pre-1918 Serbian and interwar Yugoslav armies, and he had held the two highest military positions in the country. He was regarded as a man of great personal authority, not simply because of his high professional standing, but also because of his commanding behaviour in official positions.

On August 27, 1941, Nedic informed Heinrich Danckelmann by letter that after consulting with the commissioners and leading representatives of the Serbian people, he (Nedic) would be willing to become prime minister if the military commander would agree to specific operating conditions,” Dr Gitman continued.

Dr Gitman’s research concludes that the conditions sought by Nedic were as follows:

First, a Serbian government would be formed that would manage the affairs of the Serbian people under the supervision of the military commander, to conform to German military, political, and economic interests.
Second, the Serbian government would be allowed to develop an armed force (without which it could not assure peace and order in the country), consisting of a gendarmerie of up to 10,000 men and auxiliary armed forces according to need, and, with the permission of the military commander, both of them would be equipped with the Yugoslav weapons captured by the Germans.
Third, Serbian prisoners of war in Germany who were ill, all prisoners over the age of 55, and those prisoners needed for the reconstruction of the country would be released to their homes, and the Serbian government would be allowed to send food supplies to improve the rations of prisoners remaining in Germany.
Fourth, the “economic and administrative boundaries” of Serbia would be improved by having German troops occupy certain areas (meaning, apparently, northeast Bosnia).
And finally, the impoverishment, persecution, and murder of Serbs in Croatia and in Bulgarian and in Hungarian-occupied areas would cease.

In addition to these major conditions, Nedic also wanted a number of other concessions. He asked for a political council to promulgate the new political arrangements. The struggle against Communism was to be considered primarily the concern of the Serbian people and its government, with the German army helping only insofar as the means used by the Serbian government proved insufficient. In cases of sabotage, reprisals were to be applied only against those who were guilty and never against the innocent, and they were not to be undertaken until complete information had been obtained from the Serbian government. And the use of Serbian national and state emblems was to be allowed.

Antisemitic poster Serbia 1941-1942
“be on the lookout/you will not know or be aware”

“From Jozo Tomasevich we learn that there is no written record of Danckelmann specifically accepting these conditions, but in Nedic’s speech on the occasion of his installation, he thanked Danckelmann “for the full power of authority [Vollmacht] which it pleased it would seem that a real understanding existed between the two men, though only in oral form. Other documentary evidence, including a circular sent by Turner to all German area and district commands in Serbia, dated August 2.9.1941, shows that Danckelmann did promise Nedic that the Serbian authorities, under German supervision, would have a large degree of independence. Turner wrote (For Turner’s circular, see Micr, No-T-50, Roll 246, Frs. 190-9 I):

A promise was given to the government that, under German supervision, it will be given the highest possible degree of independence in administration, please, therefore, limit the activity of the administrative groups to purely supervisory functions.” A note from Minister of Interior Acirnovic to Turner, dated September 16,1941, protesting against the interference of German authorities in the operations of the Serbian gendarmerie and other government armed forces, is further proof that the Nedic’s administration understood that it would be largely free in using these forces. Order No. I of September 5, I941, to all government employees and all armed formations under Nedic’s command encouraged government officials, the armed forces, and the public at large to resist the spreading rebellion. It stressed the need for discipline, hard work, honesty, and devotion to the good of the people, point 6 said: ‘All national forces, both of the state gendarmerie and police and of loyal Serbian men at large, can have at this time only one objective, that is, to save the Serbian people from new bloodshed and sacrifices, removing without compromise all those elements in their midst that would want to push the nation into total ruin. Under these circumstances, my orders, directed through the appropriate state organs, must be carried out by all people without hesitation,’ ” Dr Esther Gitman articulated the findings of her research and conclusions they command.

Antisemitic poster Serbia 1941-1945:
“New York Times: the press in the USA is 97% in Jewish hands”

It is difficult to know how long the Holocaust and other victims of WWII Serbia will have to wait for justice, but one thing is crystal clear: it was Milan Nedic and his government’s operatives and loyal followers and the Serbian Chetniks (loyal to the deposed Serbian Monarchy) that actively brought WWII Serbia to be one of the first European states to become “Judenfrei” (Jew-Free); the Nazis did not bring the victims to slaughter, the Serbs did it in the name of Greater Serbia. During the Second World War, the Serbs were ethnically cleaning Jews out of their homes in Serbia, just as they ethnically cleansed the 1990s Croats in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina out of theirs, and the role of Serbs in communist crimes committed during and after World War II was so great that its disclosure could shock the entire humanity of the world. This is not hate speech, this is the documented and verifiable truth! Ina Vukic