World War Two Croatia – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Croatia – Ten Years In EU, No Confrontation With Communist Past And Jerusalem Post Is Not Helping

July 2, 2023 by inavukic 3 Comments

Croatian Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac statue in Zagreb (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

July 2013 Croatia became a member state of the European Union.

When the Jerusalem Post publishes an article about Croatia it often appears as a regurgitation of Jewish-Serb collaboration lobby that relentlessly stands on its hind feet, desperately guarding from view the mass extermination of Jews in World War Two Serbia, shouting about Croatia’s World War Two history as the Holocaust culprit in that region. To my knowledge, one has never read or heard from Jerusalem Post anything about World War Two and post-WWII massive victims of communist crimes.

Such an appalling treatment of victims and victimhood is widespread in Croatia of today, also. Still, 32 years after seceding from communist Yugoslavia! Since year 2000 when former and then current communists took power in Croatia they work and act in the same ways as, say, evidently politically bent journalists of Jerusalem Post. Croatia today is still a bed of lies and a bed of denial of justice for all victims, regardless of which regime they were victims of. There are hundreds of thousands more innocent victims in Croatia of the communist Yugoslavia regime than of that of the WWII Croatian Ustashe regime. To talk of numbers and comparing numbers of victims is certainly not a just or fair way to approach victimhood by any measure. Even one victim is one too many. Croatia’s communist apologetics government and powers around it go even further – they permit celebrations of murderous communist former Yugoslavia regime, even participate in some while attempting to erase and denigrate the significance of victims of the Serb aggression in Croatia during 1990’s and the absolute importance of the Homeland War, which ushered Croatia into independence from communist Yugoslavia!

Official Croatia has not confronted itself with its communist past and at the same time employs all the “tricks in the book” to downplay and push away any scientific and historical research, based on historical records that used to be sealed and banned for access during the times of communist Yugoslavia, that expose the false Word War Two and post-War history of Croatia, written, of course, by the communists. So, official Croatia engages in what one might call confrontation with its past, selectively and while at it keeps breathing more lies into the already falsified history about the reported Holocaust in WWII Independent Croatia. Examples of this appalling protection of communist crimes can easily be seen in its ignoring of credible historical research by Esther Gitman (on Blessed Alojzije Stepinac’s rescue of Jews in WWII Croatia), Blanka M. Matkovic and Stipo Pilic (on camp Jasenovac, for instance, that remained open and functional after WWII and one can safely conclude that it was used as a killing field of Croats by Yugoslav communists), Igor Vukic (on historical documentation regarding numbers victims in Jasenovac camp during WWII), Roman Leljak (on horrific unearthing of mass graves of communist crimes victims), and many more.

On 7 April, 2023, the Jerusalem Post published an opinion article by Michael Freund “Croatia must confront its fascist past”. While there is no fascist past Croatia must account for because fascism was never a regime in Croatia per sé – not even during World War Two – there is a communist regime it must confront with and correct the purposefully wrong labelling of WWII Ustasha regime as fascist or Nazi. Michael Freund in his Jerusalem Post article claims that Croatia’s WWII Archbishop Blessed Alojzie Stepinac is” anything but blessed”! When one couples that with the fact that he, and Jerusalem Post, continue ignoring the fact that modern research (Dr Esther Gitman, who is of Jewish descent, in particular) has clearly shown Stepinac’s extraordinary engagement in rescuing thousands of Jews from sure death it is abundantly clear that Michael Freund’s opinion is saturated with anti-Croatian, anti-truth politics. One could easily dismiss his opinion as depraved and an attempt to promote sheer hatred.

In the above Jerusalem Post Michael Freund writes: “He (Alojzije Stepinac) served as the archbishop of Zagreb beginning in 1938 and was an ardent supporter of the pro-Nazi puppet regime established by Ante Pavelic, leader of the Ustashe fascist and ultranationalist organization in Croatia. Not once did Stepinac ever formally denounce in public the genocide perpetrated by the Ustashe against Jews, Serbs, Roma and others, and he keenly backed the forcible conversion of more than 200,000 Serbs to Catholicism.” Evidently, Michael Freund is parroting what his anti-Croatian Serbian and other mean-spirited friends have been saying, not even bothering to read historical facts that demonstrate that Alojzije Stepinac did on several occasions during WWII, to the threat of his own safety and life, speak publicly against the racial laws imposed in Croatia by the occupying forces of Nazi Germany. Michael Freund will tell you repeatedly that hundreds of thousands of Serbs were converted to Catholicism forcibly during World War Two Croatia but will not tell you the truth that such conversions were voluntary after Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac invited Serbs to convert from Orthodoxy to Catholicism (the same for Jews) in order to save their lives from persecution and peril. In the same “breath” Stepinac wrote that if the converted wished to revert to their religion after the danger of threat to their lives in the circumstance of Nazi Germany occupation, they would be free to do so!

These historical facts and truths have been well published in the past twenty years at least, including in original documents provided by Dr Esther Gitman’s books on historical research on this topic; but as sheer hatred would have it, such as the one Michael Freund seems to be enjoying dishing out, it is fair to say that Croatia cannot confront a past it did not have in the form Freund is trying to shove down our throats.

Germany based Dr. Josip Stjepandic has also written a reply to Michael Frenud’s Jerusalem Post article of 7 April 2023 and it was as follows:

“Michael Freund is the president of the Israel-Serbia Friendship Association. In this capacity, he sharply denigrates Croatia and Blessed Cardinal Stepinac in the article ‘Croatia must confront its fascist past’.

What appears to bother the author most is that Zeljana Zovko, a Member of the European Parliament, hosted a conference on Blessed Cardinal Stepinac, ‘Blessed Aloysius/Alojzije Stepinac – Testimony of Faith, Perseverance and Hope’, in the European Parliament.

‘Fascism, anti-Semitism, revisionism, evil regime, cruel distortion, obfuscate their country’s wartime role, neo-fascist songs penned by a far-right Croatian nationalist, Nazi salutes’ are mentioned here as examples of misbehaviour among the Croats. It can hardly be worse.

It is easy to see the extreme Serbs’ point of view in this article, for which Croatia and the Croats are to blame for everything. Such an article will probably make the author even more popular among Serbs, but it cannot in any way serve the interests of the State of Israel.

The facts paint a very different picture.

Croatia is an EU and NATO member and is fully integrated into Western alliances.

Almost 20 million tourists, including more than 60,000 from Israel, visit Croatia every year. No significant xenophobic or anti-Semitic incident is known to have occurred because Croatia is the country with the lowest crime rate in Europe. Other statistics also draw Croatia and Croats as very peaceful country and people to visit. It seems that the author had not done this. Otherwise, he would have seen that there is no trace of anti-Semitism in modern Croatia and probably wrote about Croatia quite differently.

The states of Croatia and Israel are now working together in many areas. Recently there is even a joint study of the University of Split and the Sapir Academic College, Hof Ashkelon, on ‘Democracy and Resilience in Modern Society’.

Unfortunately, the Holocaust also took place in Croatia, but in a completely different way from what the author portrayed. After Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia in 1941, the country was divided. In Croatia and Serbia, Hitler installed puppet regimes and dictated the rule of power. This also included the persecution of the Jews.

While Serbia was declared free of Jews (“judenfrei”) in 1942, and Croatian government at the time did not pursue that goal and about 9,500 of Croatia’s 39,500 Jews survived. How this came about, describes the book ‘When Courage Prevailed: The Rescue and Survival of Jews in the Independent State of Croatia 1941-1945’ by the Jewish-American historian Dr. Esther Gitman, who, like about 6,000 other Jews, owes her survival to the tireless efforts of Archbishop Stepinac.

Gitman draws a differentiated picture of the Independent State of Croatia: on the one hand, the terror imposed by the Nazis based on racial laws – on the other hand, 6 paths of humanity that led to the rescue of the Jews. As a result, every fourth Jew survived in Croatia, more than in almost any other country under the control of Nazi Germany. This is thanks to noble, brave Croats like Archbishop Stepinac. That would have deserved greater recognition in Israel, which unfortunately has not materialised so far.

Therefore, the State of Israel should thank Zeljana Zovko because she recalled this special merit of a Catholic bishop, who spoke out against the racial laws very early on and always repeated his opinion (e.g., New York Times: “CROAT ATTACKS GERMANS: Archbishop of Zagreb Denounces Their Theory of Race,” July 8 1943).”

Ina Vukic and Josip Stjepandic

(HAZUDD/ Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in the Diaspora and Homeland)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac, BlankaM. Matkovic, communist crimes, Communist Yugoslavia, Croatia, Esther Gitman, Falsified history, Holocaust, Igor Vukic, Jasenovac camp, Jerusalem Post, Jewish-Serbian Friendship Association, Michael Freund, Nazi Germany occupation, NDH, racial laws, Roman Leljak, Stipo Pilic, Ustashe, World War Two Croatia

May 1945: Josip Broz Tito/Yugoslavia – A Mass Murderer/Croatia – A Graveyard of Slaughtered Patriots

May 8, 2022 by inavukic 10 Comments

During the past week on 4^th May one could still find quite several praises and celebrations of former communist Yugoslavia and its leader Josip Broz Tito, who died on 4^th May 1980! Accolades from former communists or their children or grandchildren polluted the air Croatians who fought for freedom from communism and democracy in 1990’s breathe. At times the pollution is unbearable. And the accolades continue despite Tito’s communist regime of Yugoslavia now being confirmed as one of top ten mass murderers of its people in the 20^th Century! The Yugoslav communists held the key to state archives until 1991 and of course it was only after the archives became freely available to researchers that the world learned what a murderous butcher Tito was; 1,700 mass graves or pits so far unearthed there, 1,000 of these in Croatia. The alternative to not showering the memory of Tito with accolades would be to stand before the truth and stare into the faces of many mass murderers who carried out Tito’s orders for purges of all political opponents of communism. Most who have stood by that communist regime will not switch against it now – they cannot switch against their grandfathers, fathers, mothers, uncles… who murdered for the “glory” of communism…they cannot vacate the villas and ill-gotten wealth their families thrived upon as corruption thrived in former Yugoslavia. They are the ones who praise former Yugoslavia as being a “great country to live in”, if not the greatest…

And today 8^th of May, the former communists of Yugoslavia and their children, grandchildren and deluded followers will tell you that the Yugoslav Army of communists/Partisans marched in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia and liberated it (from fascists)! No they did not! They made sure Croatia continued imprisoned in the Serb-led concoction of a country forcefully and deceitfully stitched together after WWI led by the Serbian Monarchy related by marriage to the English Queen Victoria royal apparatus.

Today, 8th May 1945 the First and Second communist armies entered the city of Zagreb … “soon mass killings began, the establishment of detention camps for opponents of communism and pillaging … the Canal camp at the main train station, old Zagreb disappeared … they are still with us today. Balkan bluffers, Yugo-nationalists … just look at the content of the Parliament, and how soon have we forgotten all of it … the torment of that dragon that is still among us needs to be put to an end. God and Croats…” General Zeljko Glasnovic as a Member of the Croatian Parliament for the Diaspora said in parliament in May 2020 and these words still stand as truth.

_{General Zeljko Glasnvic in Croatian {arliament May 2020}

Let’s be real and realistic: Yugoslavia these pro-Tito people admire, and respect was not a successful state. Tito was not a modest, democratic, and generous, popular ruler, as he is still presented today by these and some media. Tito was not a saint protector from fascism who would probably still be here if he were not there, but an ordinary communist dictator who declared himself lifelong president, whose merit we were not part of the Western, democratic world but the repressive and economically unsuccessful socialist bloc, the primitive who built an unprecedented cult of personality in the world and carried Tito’s baton (phallic symbol) as part of the ritual of ultimate collective obedience to the demigod, and man to whose recklessly luxurious life that included private islands with a safari park, dozens of castles, Rolls, Mercedes and yachts and thousands of people who took care of everything went a good portion of the country’s GDP.

Josip Broz Tito was a dictator and a mass murderer. Tito did not liberate Croatia in World War Two, he basically fought for the introduction of a communist dictatorship across what was the previously false union of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Stalin’s empire. To portray Tito in a historical context exclusively through the prism of “anti-fascism” and to pay tribute to him for Croatian independence is a mere intelligence spin that benefits only those who thieved the Croatian public goods and purged hundreds of thousands of those who did fight for independence of Croatia during World War Two.

All of those who shower the memory of Tito today always mention how grand his funeral in 1980 was! How many world leaders, presidents, kings, princes, prime ministers attended his funeral in Belgrade! They say that such attendance is and was proof of how a great person and leader Tito was! The truth is that had Tito’s communists not falsified history, had they not kept the keys to state archives, Tito’s funeral would not have been attended by world’s respected leaders but by mass murderers such as Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, King Leopold II of Belgium, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, Augusto Pinochet and so on.

“Tito built hospitals, roads, railways, schooling and health care was free,” says the pro-Tito mantra even today in Croatia! During Tito’s life in Zagreb and Rijeka, however, no new hospitals were built, although the population increased. True, the people of Zagreb “voluntarily” paid two so-called self-contribution to the university hospital, but never built. A self-contribution was also taken for the highway to Split, but it was declared nationalist and never built. In Yugoslavia corruption started, one simply did not visit the Council nor the doctor without a blue envelope with cash for bribe.

When we went to the doctor in Yugoslavia, the doctor’s examination was often waited on for months, and the operation waited on for years if you did not have a relationship or gave a bribe – but it was free.

Zagreb had only one dialysis machine that was more often broken than it worked, diabetics were dying – but it was free.

As a matter of record and interest, the last public hospital (KBC Rebro) built in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb, was built by the regime of Ante Pavelic, WWII Independent State of Croatia!

During Tito’s Yugoslavia a highway was built from Zagreb to Karlovac, about 45 kilometers, the only one after the end of World War Two until Croatia’s independence in early 1990’s. Other roads were from Napoleon and Maria Theresa, full of potholes and poorly maintained, and Croatia had less railways in 1990 than in 1940.

The factories were ours; everything was ours, says the pro-Tito mantra. In truth, they served as living rooms for workers who waited for months for minimal and raw materials, to produce something that ended up in a warehouse or, at best, crammed into the Non-Aligned countries for fictitious clearing of dollars. They produced mostly pollution and losses and swallowed irretrievably hundreds of millions earned on tourism (largely in Croatia) and remittances from guest workers (diaspora), but they were “ours” whatever that meant.

They produced alumina in Obrovac, in which there was no raw material, no port or railway, with a loss that did not exceed the planned hundred million dollars a year, and coke in the most beautiful bay of the Adriatic. It has often been said that “they can’t pay me as poorly as I can work poorly.” By 1974 some 94% of workforce wages in Yugoslavia were paid from foreign debt or subsidised by successful industry such as tourism, but not from workers’ productivity. We pretended to work, they pretended to pay us.

True, most of them were not really hungry, with work on the black and a bit of leasing of rooms in the house or apartment little roommate, a family would cover themselves for their monthly living expenses, smuggling stuff from Trieste, Italy, even better. The “middle class” in the 1970s lived quite tolerably from the grey economy, like “Del Boy Trotter”, and in social housing like his. For some, such flats, such as those given by the governments outside Croatia to social or welfare cases for free, are still today a notion of the middle class that has allegedly destroyed after the fall of Yugoslavia. “Comrade Tito, you stole, but you also let us steal” says a graffiti – and you already have a strong foothold for the claim that “life was better in Yugoslavia”.

Substandard work, two or three-hour brunches and lunch breaks and mass paid sick leave while working elsewhere such as seasonal field work, counter workers, tellers, who are always on a break, stealing from firms ranging from cement bags to dollar bags, depending on location. A system in which people learned to “navigate” in one way or another – most often in another. Those who knew how to “get along”, the Byzantine-Balkan way, was not so badly off. Whoever wanted to solve everything in a regular way, through completely dysfunctional and extremely corrupt institutions of the system, would quickly fail. Private individuals, cafe owners and money launderers, foreign exchange smugglers, shopkeepers, comrades from the Communist Party Committee, thieving socialist directors, guest workers who were millionaires with money earned in Germany on building sites, and room-letters on the Adriatic – these are the categories of the population anti-fascism was generally good to.

Socialism protected the workers? No, it sent them to Munich to get German Marks. Socialism, to be honest, protected the unemployed and those who did not want to work.

And then everything got sold out, destroyed, says the pro-Tito, pro-Yugoslavia mantra. It did not fail because socialism failed, and with it the entire Eastern bloc, nor because there was no market for socialist products anywhere, it did not fail because of theft and corruption, but because of the hated capitalism, nationalists, those who wanted independence and democracy, and Franjo Tudjman. Petrol vouchers and queues that mark 1980’s communist Yugoslavia were quickly forgotten, smuggling fake jeans from a flea market in Trieste and going by bus to get laundry powder in Graz, electricity reductions and coffee shortages, hyperinflation and perpetual stabilisation and normalisation after which everything was even less normal – all quickly forgotten. The fact that one could not even secure the services of a plumber, or another tradesperson, without connections to someone in the SIZ/ Self-governing interest community – was quickly forgotten also.

Tito’s Yugoslavia was not organised and successful as pro-Titoists see it today. Its declared bankruptcy in 1983 meant that Yugoslavia could not service its debts. Bankruptcy was accompanied by shortages of everything imported, power cuts, petrol vouchers and a complete collapse of the economy. And still, the Tito die-hards will tell you these absolute facts are made up – not true! Humanity can truly sink to the depths of despair and depravity. Nothing confirms this as the pursuits of communists and former communists who defend blindly and stubbornly the indefensible. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Bleiburg massacres, communist crimes Croatia, Croatia, Josip Broz Tito, Mass graves in Croatia, World War Two Croatia, Zeljko Glasnovic

Mocking And Distortion Of Holocaust Truth Unjustly Vilify Croatia

September 12, 2021 by inavukic Leave a Comment

The pursuit of the truth is the ultimate goal to honour, and this includes the historical truth and pursuits to correct its lies and fabrications inserted into the history by those who benefit from lies and fabrications. In Croatia’s case that is the former Yugoslav communists and their friends. I consider it very important to republish articles that form the continuance of reactions to the David Goldman’s article on mocking of the Holocaust first published in Jerusalem Post and then taken down, but subsequently republished by this blog portal.

When it comes to revising the truth of Croatia’s World War Two history, horribly twisted and fabricated by the Yugoslav communists and Serbs, then, I think, historical revisionism we hear of is actually the only path of truth and honour anyone could take.

According to sources Dr Robert Rozett, Senior Historian in the International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem, had on 25 August 2021 written a statement letter to the Jerusalem Post, regarding the David Goldman article on mocking of the Holocaust, however, that letter, it seems, was not published by the Jereusalem Post. I understand from sources that the letter from Dr Robert Rozett was worded as follows:

“The article published in the Jerusalem Post entitled “This disgraceful mocking of the Holocaust needs to stop now” by David Goldman on Monday, 16 August 2021, puts forth a figure for the number of people murdered in the Jasenovac camp which is not only ridiculous, it plays into the hands of those who would like to whitewash the mass murder of primarily Serbs and Jews at the hands of the collaborationist Croatian Ustaše regime during World War II. The number of people murdered in Jasenovac by the Ustaše is still a matter for scholarly inquiry and discussion, but it is clear to reputable scholars that it is many times greater than the absurdly low figure of 4,500 thousand cited by Goldman, and many times less than the grossly inflated count of more than 800,000, that was widely touted in the Communist era and has been endorsed by Gideon Greif of late.

Yad Vashem continues to encourage ongoing research into the history of the camp by responsible and dedicated scholars and will continue to disseminate their findings to the general public through educational work, trustworthy publications and Yad Vashem’s digital platforms.

At a time when Holocaust distortion is a significant feature in public discourse, it is incumbent on us to ensure that facts and content published in the media be as accurate as possible, and based on reliable sources. Ignoring this basic responsibility plays into the hands of those who seek to intentionally mispresent the historical record.

Dr. Robert Rozett, Senior Historian
International Institute for Holocaust Research
Member of the Israeli Delegation to IHRA”

On 7 September 2021, David Goldman has via thegoldmanreport.org portal posted his rebuttal and response to the above reported statement letter by Dr Robert Rozett and the response is as follows:

“ 1. Despite insinuations by Yad Vashem that I wrote only 4500 people died at Jasenovac, any reasonable person reading my article would come to the conclusion that I said no such thing. In fact, I wrote: ‘…Yugoslavia’s forensic examination found that all up, between 2500 and 4500 were killed at the camp.’ In other words, what I said was all that Yugoslavia – the former Balkan country – could find as physical evidence was this range, and not what I think the actual death toll could or should be.

2. This was confirmed by the acting director of the Museum of Genocide Victims in Belgrade, Dejan Ristic who while claiming my piece was ‘extremely revisionist’, went on to write that there was a ‘1946 excavation’, that found ‘967 remains’ and then the ‘1964 excavation with a total of 284 victims’. All up, 1251 bodies were found in Jasenovac, according to Ristic. In other words, the person who labelled my article ‘extremely revisionist’, proposes as his own number of physically unearthed (by Yugoslavia) Jasenovac victims, a figure that is about three times lower than the 4500 or so found from scanning decades of Yugoslavian data.

3. The subject of my op-ed was that Jasenovac has been grossly manipulated for political purposes so much so that the figures quoted by all sides no longer make any logical sense whatsoever. Accordingly, Mr Ristic confirms this point, writing that no more human remains were found, but then goes on to admit, that despite all this, his museum increased the death toll by an extra 88,000-plus people. From where these extra nearly 90,000 people came from, he does not or will not say. That was one of the main points of my piece.

4. This manipulation of Jasenovac has become so endemic and egregious that not only does it denigrate the horror that was the WW2 Jewish Holocaust, but it also has more recent ramifications. For example, in the 1990s, Serb paramilitaries would regularly invoke this ‘memory’ of Jasenovac to justify their own war crimes at places like Srebrenica, Omarska and Vukovar.

5. The likes of Mr Ristic et al actively push a myth that seems to have also been swallowed hook, line and sinker by Yad Vashem, whereby they claim that no further excavations could have taken place in 1964 – a mere 19 years after the end of WW2 because, ‘the remains would have disintegrated by then.’ This in a country that regularly unearths complete skeletons of 2000-year old Roman soldiers, as happened not far from Jasenovac in 2017. Does Yad Vashem claim that Roman bones are far more durable than Slavic, or for that matter, Jewish ones?

6. The Yad Vashem press release also says: ‘…it is clear to reputable scholars that it is many times greater than the absurdly low figure of 4,500 thousand cited by Goldman.’ There are only 2 ways to determine what the actual figure was. The first is to insist on a full forensic excavation. The second – and less preferable way is to use existing documentation that Yad Vashem already possesses such as the documentation from Nazi Germany, which had accurate and detailed information on Jasenovac. Why does it not release this once and for all, if for no other reason, than to nullify this kind of speculation? Why has Yad Vashem never insisted on a full forensic excavation by the Republic of Croatia?

7. The Yad Vashem press release ends by saying: ‘… it is incumbent on us to ensure that facts and content published in the media be as accurate as possible and based on reliable sources. Ignoring this basic responsibility plays into the hands of those who seek to intentionally mispresent the historical record.’ What this says is that Yad Vashem has no idea whatsoever as to the real death toll of Jasenovac and has completely outsourced the history of this place to those who are either unqualified or have nefarious motives in manipulating the numbers. It has then put researchers in the unenviable position of being attacked as ‘Holocaust deniers’ by these same groups who are trying to hide the fact that much of the research, databases and publicly-available data behind this camp cannot be verified.

8. Why has it looked the other way as the Jasenovac Memorial Park (JUSP) between 2001 and 2019, made no less than 35 alterations to the official victim database? How was this this possible if there was no further forensic excavation after 1964 and knowing that former Yad Vashem Vice Chairman Reuven Dafni confirmed that the Republic of Serbia never provided any documentation pertaining to Jasenovac? So how, why and on the basis of exactly what evidence were these nearly 3 dozen changes made”

9. Why has Yad Vashem never condemned the practice by JUSP (discontinued by 2001, mainly because of the Internet’s ability for comparison) of using pictures from other camps and theatres of war and passing them off as being from WW2 Jasenovac, knowing full well the potential harm this type of cross-contamination could cause the history of the Holocaust?

10. Can Yad Vashem explain why all the data on and/or from Yugoslavia, starting from the 1950s and ending in the 1990s, quotes 5 different official state figures on Jasenovac. All of these figures steadily increase from 1954 onwards. This occurrence has no equal anywhere during the past century and is truly unique in modern history.

11. It is interesting to note that nowhere on its website does Yad Vashem actually state what the Jasenovac death toll was. It says in the press release that: ‘…it is clear to reputable scholars that it is many times greater than the absurdly low figure of 4,500 thousand cited by Goldman, and many times less than the grossly inflated count of more than 800,000.’ Fair enough, but why won’t it say what the figure is. Could it be, like me, it cannot be sure due to manipulation? Or, as I have said many times, no-one will ever know because Jasenovac’s databases have been corrupted so heavily?

12. Is Yad Vashem aware that earlier this year, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) published a peer-reviewed scientific paper that compared the demographic spread of a number of wartime concentration camps to that of their host country’s populations. It found that all the camps results matched their host country’s demographics. All except for Jasenovac that is. The research found that via the use of the ‘Total Variation Outlier Recognizer’ method, that some 89 percent of Jasenovac’s figures were wholly unreliable. This too has no comparison to anywhere in modern history. Will Yad Vashem go on the record to say that the IEEE is also party to an attempt to ‘whitewash’ the history of Jasenovac?

Despite all that has been written across the Balkans and in the Jerusalem Post about my op-ed, let me be clear: while Jasenovac deserves to be condemned, at the same time, I stand by my notion that it does not deserve to be equated with Auschwitz.

I stand by the idea that it also deserves, for the sake of the victims, stability in the region, future generations and to protect the integrity of Holocaust history, to have the full truth be made public once and for all.

It is utterly inconceivable that in 2021, there is in the centre of Europe a place where no-one – including Yad Vashem – knows the reality of what actually happened there during WW2.

Either way, this is not a good situation for Yad Vashem, Holocaust history, or for those who are historians.David Goldman”

Written and compiled by Ina Vukic