Jerusalem Post – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Croatian Academy HAZUDD To Jerusalem Post

Dear Sir/Madam,

Your editorial from August 22 and the reactions of Dejan Ristic and Ivo Goldstein and Efraim Zuroff to the article by David Goldman, which you in the meantime withdrew from your website but left the above articles, prompted us to this reaction, hoping for at least some balance, which in fact represents the reality on the world stage of opinions and historical facts discovered to date, on this topic in your newspaper.

There is no need to fear that the Holocaust, as a unique form of collective persecution of the Jewish people, will fall into oblivion, as long as children are taught about it in school history classes. Anyone with a modest knowledge of foreign languages and history today can access information about the results of the census in Central and Eastern Europe and be convinced that during Nazi rule, Jews disappeared in large numbers as well as their religious and cultural objects (synagogues, schools, etc.). If not killed or destroyed, any reasonable person would wonder where millions of people and their places of worship could have gone?

This applies both to both the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), which existed in 1941-45 and included the territory of today’s Croatia (for the most part) and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Serbia. The fact that many more Jews survived the Holocaust in Croatia, in both number and percentage of the Jewish population, than in Serbia, is the result of continuous, extensive rescue operations by the domicile Croatian population and the Catholic Church led by Archbishop Stepinac of Zagreb. While for Archbishop Stepinac, saving Jews was a daily task of caring, the heads of the Serbian Orthodox Church praised Hitler and openly sided with the Nazis against the Jews. If it wasn’t for the works of Esther Gitman, a Fulbright Scholar, (sources: “When Courage Prevailed – rescue and survival of Jews in the Independent State of Croatia 1941-1945” 2011 and “Alojzije Stepinac: Pillar of Human Rights” 2019), which are hardly mentioned in the press, the significant actions of rescuing Jews in the NDH would remain almost completely silenced. The efforts of many Jews to achieve the proclamation of Archbishop Stepinac as Righteous Among the Nations have so far been futile, thus creating a large stain on the reputation of the state of Israel among Croats. There were not many individuals in the enslaved Europe who, like Archbishop Stepinac, dared during the war of 1942 to declare publicly that there was only one race: the race of God (Esther Gitman research).

Despite the facts, the Serbian side on one hand expands the term Holocaust without foundation and thus dilutes it to the suffering of Serbs (Croats), and on the other hand narrows it to the Jasenovac camp, which is thus given mystical properties. An uninformed reader of the Serbian press could conclude that World War II took place mainly in the Jasenovac camp, where Croats killed 800,000 to a million Serbs, and that the Holocaust was a minor side event.

For many years, the number of 5 million non-Jewish Holocaust victims has been bandied around worldwide, and Israeli Gideon Greif, in his work entitled “Jasenovac, Auschwitz of the Balkans”, published by Knjiga komerc Serbia in 2018, claims by pure speculation of other speculators of history, and without exact evidence, that one million, if not more, Serbs lost their lives as victims of the Holocaust in Croatia! So, in such dark alleys along which Greif evidently also moves, a fifth of all non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust in Europe were Serbs! This is the number of victims without scientific basis, and the well-known Nazi and their collaborators hunter, the late Simon Wiesenthal, once said that this number of non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust was “intended to increase sympathy for Jewish suffering but is now more used to obscure it.” Sure, there were many non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust, but inventing the magnitude of that number, as has been done for decades for Serb victims, evidently seeks to diminish or dilute the severity of the tragedy experienced by the Jewish people in the Holocaust.

The bigger tragedy in this prevailing modern world ping pong game about which Holocaust victim was a bigger victim, Jew or non-Jew, lies in the fact that Serbs, with the help of people like Efraim Zuroff and Gideon Greif, seem to have managed to cleanse Serbian hands as the culprits for the extermination of 94% of Serbian Jews in World War II and by August 1942 achieving the status of one of the first countries in Europe to be “Judenfrei” (Jew-free). It is clear to all but Serbs and their political friends that the Serbs and their government of Milan Nedic, not the German Nazis, attached the “Star of David” to Jewish chests and painted it on the facades of Jewish homes, thus marking Jews for extermination.

It is precisely for the removal of this systematic, long-standing blurring of facts, mentioned by David Goldman, that a thorough, multidisciplinary investigation of the events in the Jasenovac camp is necessary as this in itself is indicated by very diverse findings:

1. According to Ivo Goldstein and others, the Jasenovac camp did not cease operating on April 22, 1945, but served as a camp for internment of opponents of Tito’s Yugoslav communist regime to at least May 1951.The Bjelovar Divisional military court findings on 8/28/1946 regarding detainee escape from the camp on 28.08.1946 (source: Croatian State Archives), as well as a 1951 CIA report, serve as evidence of that fact. It is not known that, to date, anyone has systematically deal with research of the victims of the Jasenovac camp after April 22, 1945. Perhaps there were Jews among them also?

2. Analysis of the official list of victims of the Jasenovac camp, managed by the state institution JUSP Jasenovac, using Data Science methods, showed that the list is for the most part (89% of entries) unreliable. The current census, for example, lists victims born in 1969 and 1975, respectively.

3. Contrary to the testimonies of the alleged mass executions in the Jasenovac camp in the period 1941-45, there are also testimonies of men who were boys of that time, who attended trade classes in the camp, that there were no such events.

4. When Bosnian Serbs had to leave the conquered territories around Sarajevo in 1996 as a result of the Dayton Accords, they exhumed the remains of their loved ones in front of TV cameras and took them to their new places of residence. With these acts they strongly showed their stand that remains of their loved ones should not remain in enemy territory. It is interesting that no such request for exhumation of post mortal remains was requested for the Jasenovac camp, which is located on the territory of Croatia.

5. Prompted by the above facts, forensic experts (e.g. letter from prof. dr. sc. Simun Krizanac published in “Hrvatski tjednik” weekly magazine on 12.07.2018 ) already contacted authorities and requested the search and exhumation of the human remains in Jasenovac, believing that firm conclusions about such a camp must be based on forensic medicine research methods.

6. The general progress of science has led to the fact that reconstruction and identification can be carried out for centuries-old human remains.

7. World War II archives are gradually opening up and, hence, opening up space for new insights and new interpretations.

It is clear from the abovesaid that the actual Holocaust on the territory of the then Independent State of Croatia, for which the NDH authorities are co-responsible, is clouded and confused by Serbia’s attempts to portray the course of World War II in Croatia primarily as genocide against the Serbian people. They are wholeheartedly helped by the descendants of the Yugoslav communist rulers (the so-called Red Nobility), who still rule Croatia today, who in this way want to cover up the crimes of their ancestors perpetrated immediately after World War II and during the 45-year reign of fear over Croats until 1990. If it is shown that Croats committed collective genocide during World War II, then by that same logic it would be correct for the Yugoslav Communists to commit comprehensive and protracted revenge and re-education, right?

Let’s finish with Croatia. In the very centre of Zagreb, in Praška Street, there is a parking lot on the site where the synagogue demolished in 1941-42was. This is the simplest proof that the Holocaust took place in Croatia as well. Tito’s Yugoslav communist government, hostile to Jews and Israel, not only did not rebuild it, but demolished the remaining synagogues and many Jewish cemeteries, and built a department store on the site of the Zagreb synagogue, which burned to the ground in a mysterious fire in 1980.

From President Tudjman onwards, the Croatian authorities proposed to the two Jewish communities the reconstruction of the synagogue, which has not happened so far, because the Jewish communities could not agree on the basic parameters. Ivo Goldstein, who never declared himself publicly as a Jew or a believer during Yugoslavia, also plays a not insignificant role in that community. At that time, neither his late father Slavko nor he condemned the demolition of synagogues, for example in Rijeka in 1948, or the anti-Semitic attitude of Tito’s regime, and such dishonourable conduct is not mentioned even today. In addition, the so-called scientist opposes both questioning and further research on the topic of the Jasenovac camp, thus violating the foundations of scientific methodology, to which, as a university professor, he should be deeply loyal.

In Croatia, and especially in Zagreb, there are many valuable real estates, which were taken from the Jews during the Second World War and were never returned to them. They are now inhabited by members of the “red nobility”, who, like Ivo Goldstein and Ognjen Kraus, invent fascism in Croatia, and have never advocated for the correction of injustice against Jews by returning stolen Jewish property.

From all of the above said it follows that the state of Israel, the Jewish people and their reputable media such as the Jerusalem Post, should devote themselves to a detailed investigation of all potential execution sites of Jews during the Holocaust. But if researching the execution sites of Jews during the Holocaust is an area that newspapers like the Jerusalem Post cannot deal with, because such an activity is not on their list of activities for which they are legally licensed, then those same newspapers should contribute to the research of truth and facts by also publishing written articles in relation to all research on the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust in Croatia (eg Esther Gitman) and on Jasenovac after the Second World War (eg Blanka Matković, Stipo Pilić, Igor Vukić, etc.). It is unworthy of the oldest nation in history to be represented in any part of the world by individuals like Ivo Goldstein, ready at any moment for an anti-scientific invention like the notorious bone crusher. This achieves the exact opposite effect, which Goldman rightly observes. Namely, the suspicion that Israel and Serbia have a joint propaganda venture of exaggerating the victims of World War II is completely unnecessarily fuelled. While Serbia abuses victims tenfold (and more) as a justification for hegemonic action in its neighbourhood, it is unclear why the state of Israel clearly does not distance itself from such dishonourable actions.

And even if Ivo Goldstein is completely right with his claim about the bone crusher, which the Ustashas would use just before the end of the war to remove the remains of their victims, (and it cannot be, because neither he nor anyone else mentions it in his and other authors’ numerous books!), then it would be a huge challenge for scientists in the field of forensics and forensic medicine to use the territory of Jasenovac as a testbed for methods of identifying post mortal remains originating in particularly difficult conditions. Judging by his publications and public appearances, Ivo Goldstein has never met a forensic expert or does not know that such a profession exists at all.

A scientist who, in today’s age of reliable analytical and diagnostic methods, claims that everything has been researched and should no longer be researched, recalls into memory the embarrassment of Thomas Watson, the former head of IBM, and thus disqualifies himself in scientific and professional circles.

The diametrically different attitudes towards the smouldering Israeli-Arab conflict, which escalates every now and then, in the successor states of the former Yugoslavia clearly shows which nations, states and political currents are turned to Jews with fraternal respect and understanding, and which with intolerance prone to totalitarian movements and parties. It would be nice if the Jerusalem Post devoted more space to such differences and reflections, instead of history innovator Ivo Goldstein or Dejan Ristic and their collaborator Efraim Zuroff, who present themselves as Holocaust investigators while denying the genocide in Srebrenica, which the Serbian army perpetrated 26 years ago literally in front of TV cameras.

With regards

Dr. sc. Josip Stjepandic, President, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in the Diaspora and Homeland / HAZUDD

Mr. sc. Ina Vukic, Vice President, HAZUDD

Croatia: Seems The Jerusalem Post Prefers Ivo Goldstein’s Lies To Truth!

And so, of course I wrote to the Jerusalem Post Editor on 25 August 2021 alerting them to Ivo Goldstein’s lies presented to the public through the Jerusalem Post but, as could well be expected, the Jerusalem was not interested in correcting the lies to their readers, they appear more interested in expanding on them, or maintaining them.

Jerusalem Post preferred to publish an opinion piece written by the frequently obnoxious Efraim Zuroff, where he attacks WWII Croatia and, as per usual always tries to make WWII Serbia grand and fair even though it was one of the first countries in Europe that declared itself Jundnfrei/ Jew Free, by May to August 1942 when Serbs brought to slaughter and extermination 94% of its Jews. Zuroff and the likes will keep telling you that it was not the Serbs who exterminated these Jews, that it was the German occupiers, and yet the absolute fact is that the German occupying forces did not know who was Jewish, and who was not! It was the Serbian Milan Nedic Government who knew who the Jews were!

And Zuroff will tell you that he “was very well acquainted with the horrors of the camp (Jasenovac), since I had been very actively involved more than two decades ago, in facilitating the extradition from Argentina and prosecution in Zagreb of Dinko Šakic, one of its commanders…”, but Efraim Zuroff will not tell you that in his said work hunting WWII Nazis and their alleged collaborators he followed religiously, at least victim number of stories and manner of deaths, the fabricated stories concocted by the communists and Serbs. And Zuroff will call anyone a revisionist if their researched truth points to the lies and distortions of WWII reality peddled to the world since 1945 by Yugoslav and Serb communists but also by those like he himself. He will shower Ivo Goldstein with praises and yet the lies Ivo Goldstein has come out with are absolutely depraved and not fit for human consumption as far as I am concerned.

And so, on 25 August 2021 I sent this letter to the Editor of the Jerusalem Post believing they would want to correct the lie Ivo Goldstein had written and they published:

“…Then, I also refer to the Editorial ‘Don’t hijack the Holocaust’, published 22 August 2021 in which the public is told: ‘Last week The Jerusalem Post published in these pages an opinion piece which unfortunately failed to go through a sufficient vetting system. We sincerely regret this error. The oped, written by an Australian under the name of David Goldman, was titled: ‘This disgraceful mocking of the Holocaust needs to stop now.’ In it, he ridiculed and belittled Croatian Holocaust scholar Dr. Ivo Goldstein. Dr. Goldstein was given the right of reply which appeared in yesterday’s Post opinion pages under the title ‘A collage of lies.’

As a Jerusalem Post reader and a member of the public who has been served lies by Ivo Goldstein’s above article, I write this with the understanding that in my capacity as a reader for whom the article was meant, I have the right of reply. I do reside in Australia and have not met David Goldman. I wish to ask you to please publish this letter of feedback from me as like myself, I am certain that you, your newspaper the Jerusalem Post and your readers above all cherish the truth. When it comes to the Holocaust, the truth is particularly pertinent to a respectful memory of all who so tragically perished. Hence, I hereby draw your attention to the part of Ivo Goldstein’s reply to David Goldman’s article that is a blatant and evidently purposeful lie and most probably an attempt to fabricate or falsify history of Jasenovac, as if it already hasn’t had enough lies or half-truths said or written about it.

In the 12^th paragraph of the said article Ivo Goldstein writes: ‘In the TV show Sunday at 2, which is quoted by Goldman, I did not mention Hitler – this is another lie. I put forward a thesis that the corpses were also destroyed with a ‘bone crushing machine,’ which was used by the Nazis during the well-known ‘Aktion 1005’ cover-up. The Ustasha cooperated closely with the Nazis in various ways, and there are clear indications that they did so in this case as well.’

Ivo Goldstein did not put forth any thesis in that TV Show TV Show Sunday at 2 (June 20, 2018) as he tries to convince your readers and the public of his infallibility. Instead of a thesis in the article you published he categorically claimed the following as if it was proven fact instead of a product of his evidently twisted imagination: ( from 28min01 sec to 29 min 23 sec) ‘…On the other hand, already at the beginning of April 1945, just before the end of the war, the Ustashas, a large number of butchers from 1942., those who ordered mass crimes, were somewhere in late March early April 1945 after two years, two and a half years of absence from Jasenovac, because in 1942 there were the most crimes, 43. much less and 44., returned to Jasenovac Filipovic and Majstorovic, so the former Franciscan who was expelled from the Franciscan Order membership 41 and 42., knew best those graves, he went to Hebno so that the Nazis could instruct him how to destroy corpses, they even brought machines that destroy bones, and there were, therefore, in early April some 500 to 600 camp internees who worked on that destruction by systematic destruction of corpses. In one part they were burned on bars, and then the ashes would be returned to the graves, in the other part the bones they found or excavated were destroyed in these machines.’

These Ivo Goldstein’s gruesome fantasies about bone-crushing machines in Jasenovac camp area and systematic destruction of corpses by some 600 camp detainees working in unison on such depraved tasks, dressed up in categorical claims without a shred of evidence, and not theses, can be checked and validated by watching the relevant Youtube video of the said TV Show and the link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhNp1iGKFsk

Hence, as far as this is concerned Goldstein did not write the truth in the article you published. That is, he did not offer a thesis about Jasenovac on television, he offered a categorical claim about bone-crushing-machines without offering any verifiable evidence.

Suffice to say that Ivo Goldstein had had an another attempt of placing this gruesome fantasy about the World War Two Jasenovac camp and that was in May 2018 when Magazine Globus published an interview with him, three months before the above TV Show, and both events were about his coming book, which, I’m quite certain, does not mention any bone-crushing machines nor do any of his subsequent publications pursue the matter further.

Many believe, though, Ivo Goldstein has fabricated or embellished the story of bone-crushing machines to rely on it in his rather frequent claims that digging-up Jasenovac for forensic evidence would achieve nothing towards clarifying historical facts. It seems that inside Ivo Goldstein’s mind forensic science and DNA tracing are at the same level as they were in 1964 Yugoslavia (Goldstein is notorious for claiming that nothing could be found in 1964 because of wear and tear through time and, hence, nothing will be found today!). The fact that Ivo Goldstein comes out with these impossible, if not ridiculous, claims about the Holocaust does in fact suggest that there is, in fact, regretfully, mocking of the Holocaust in his ways.

Furthermore, since Ivo Goldstein in his article mentions the Australian Croatian community, of which I am a member, in a derogatory manner, mocking some of its members for ‘openly celebrating their Ustasha links’, I can assure you and your readers that no member of the Australian Croatian community, or any other community for that matter, has or would celebrate any links that are considered by the authorities a danger in any way for the Australian people or state or the world! I can assure you and your readers that the majority of Australian Croatians are a shiny example for humanity and what it means to endure decades of humiliation and vilification to survive and stay strong for the battle of achieving the independence of Croatia started during World War II. This is not a revisionist statement, as Ivo Goldstein or others who begrudge Croatia the freedom and independence from communist Yugoslavia it had achieved, might be tempted to claim, this is and was the truth. If people like Ivo Goldstein were as vocal about massive communist crimes perpetrated by Yugoslav communists, particularly post-WWII, as they are about Jasenovac, then perhaps there would be no mocking of the Holocaust, no need to fabricate numbers of victims at Jasenovac or bone-crushing machines because both the Holocaust and the Communist purges were abominable outcomes of hunger for political power and superiority.” Ina Vukic

Connected post article HERE.