Mocking And Distortion Of Holocaust Truth Unjustly Vilify Croatia  

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

Esther Gitman’s Book “Alojzije Stepinac: Pillar of Human Rights” Now at Yad Vashem

Dr Esther Gitman (R), President of Israel Reuven Rivlin (C)
President of Republic of Croatia Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic (C-back turned) at Beit HaNassi July 29, 2019
Photo: Private collection

The gift given by President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic on July 29, 2019 at Yad Vashem Centre in Jerusalem to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has gone almost unnoticed in both Croatia and Israel media! True, it rarely happens that the media writes about gifts that the heads of state exchange, but it’s also true that a great deal of attention and effort always stand behind every such gift. On these occasions, gifts are always given as a sign of respect and a reflection of the relationship between the gift-giving state and the state whose president receives the gift, and the gift often becomes more than the mere formality of the act of gift exchange – it also becomes a reminder of what is of particular importance within the alliance between two countries, between the giver and the recipient of the gift.

Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic (Second from L) Reuven Rivlin (C) Esther Gitman (R) at Beit HaNassi July 29 2019
PHOTO: Private Collection

The President of the Republic of Croatia presented in Yad Vashem to the President of Israel a book by the author Dr. Esther Gitman “Alojzije Stepinac: Pillar of Human Rights”! Not only did the President of the Republic of Croatia, in February 2019, decorate Dr. Esther Gitman with the “Order of Prince Branimir with a Necklace” for the special merits deserved through researching, documenting and promoting the truth about 20th-century Croatian history, as well as for deepening of understanding between the Croatian and Jewish people, in July, she gifted Dr. Gitman’s book to the President of Israel which evidences the indisputable truth about the work and efforts of Blessed Alojzije (Aloysius) Stepinac in rescuing Jews in World War II. Bearing in mind that in June 2019, at the University of Split, Dr. Esther Gitman was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for her historical research and writings about Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, then the gift that President Grabar Kitarovic presented to President Rivlin comes as a bright link in the circle of strengthened presentation to the world the goodness which, despite various propagandistic attempts denying the goodness of Alojzije Stepinac, still existed and is a fact, and therefore indisputable.

Dr Esther Gitman and her book:
“Alojzije Stepinac: Pillar of Human Rights”

It is to be hoped that this book by Dr. Esther Gitman on the rescue of Jews in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina during World War II by its very presence in Yad Vashem through President Rivlin will usher in rays of illumination of the truth there where it brings great value for both the Croatian and the Jewish people. For, many years have passed in which the alleged truth about Blessed Aloysius Stepinac was not based on facts but on a fabricated and politically coloured spectrum of dark colours and untruths.

In the evening of July 29, 2019, an official dinner was held in Beit HaNassi, the residence of Reuven Rivlin, President of Israel, specifically to welcome Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, President of the Republic of Croatia. Usually, such events are often briefly mentioned in daily news, but this festive dinner in Jerusalem carries something special and precious, not only that the Croatian and Israeli flags were flying in front of Beit HaNassi, but also some very special guests were inside the presidential residence – Dr. Esther Gitman with her husband Dr. Israel Gitman.

Dr Esther Gitman had dinner with the President of the Republic of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, and the President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin.

A week before the visit of the Croatian President to Israel, the Croatian Embassy in Israel informed Dr. Esther Gitman of the President’s arrival and announced that she would be contacted by the office of Israeli President Rivlin. She was invited by President Rivlin to that official and festive dinner as a Croatian guest and her husband Israel as an Israeli guest.

Before her arrival at the dinner, Dr. Gitman photographed the streets around the presidential residence, which were decorated with Croatian and Israeli flags, imagining how much her Croatian friends would like to see the pictures. The cocktails lasted for an hour and dinner for two hours. Dr Gitman was told that Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, on the occasion of her official visit to Yad Vashem earlier that day, had gifted to President Rivlin her book “Alojzije Stepinac: The Pillar of Human Rights”. That would have been the main reason for her being invited to the presidential dinner at the Israeli President’s residence. The work of Blessed Aloysius Stepinac is indeed great in the history of the whole world, because in the terrible times of World War II, only a few people throughout Europe committed themselves so much to fighting against injustice, against human suffering and human rights violations.

Beit HaNassi, Jerusalem, July 29, 2019
Photo: Private collection

According to Dr. Gitman, the President of Israel, Rivlin, welcomed President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic at the festive dinner, emphasising their warm relations and intentions for cooperation. The Croatian president also thanked the Israeli president for emphasising their plans for future co-operation.

What was really humorous,” Dr. Gitman told me, “was when the presidents stopped while walking out of the hall where the dinner was taking place and talked to the guests, and I introduced my husband, Israel, and he with a smile on my face quickly managed to tell President Grabar Kitarovic ‘you have a beautiful country and I gave that country my most precious possession – my wife’. The Israeli president who stood by my husband Israel’s side at the time said to my husband that the president highly respects his wife.”

I hope somebody from Yad Vashem reads my book or at least part of it! Croatia was trashed for so many years by Serbia, Croats were portrayed as murderers as anti-Semites that killed not only Jews but also Serbs, Roma and other dissidents. The Israelis are unaware that throughout the war the Serbs had armies. The Chetniks, the Milan Nedic’s army so favoured by Hitler that they received closed trucks to kill in them 50 Jews at the time! The ignorance is embracing, the information was concealed for 70 years, few only know that Belgrade was the first city in Europe free of Jews. And that 90 percent of the Jews perished there. Sorry, but for this ignorance I must blame the Croatian historians who for the past 25 years failed to tell the world what had transpired! Yes, many Ustashe were murderers, they committed heinous crimes, but there were good people who helped. Yes, even this criminal Ustashe regime saved Jewish Physicians and instituted against the Nazi will concepts such as Aryan Rights and Honorary Aryans. Just to save those whom the regime needed and respected. Stepinac rescued those in mixed marriages, orphans, 58 elderly and prevented a major catastrophe when they prevented Bastianini Giuseppe, the governor of the Italian zones, to ship back to the Ustashe all the Jews who managed to escape!” Dr. Gitman said answering my question about what President of the Republic of Croatia gifting her book to the President of Israel in Yad Vashem personally means to her.

This article of yours is not a place for all these details, but we must spread the truth and not only about Stepinac but the Croatian people and Stepinac in his sermons aimed at instilling in them the duty of saving human lives,” Dr. Gitman commented at the end of our talk. Ina Vukic

 

Prickly Croatia – Israel Relations: Aloysius Stepinac’s List Was Longer Than Schindler’s!

 

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic at Yad Vashem/ Israel with Branko Lustig (in hat)  Photo: Office of President, RH

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic
at Yad Vashem/ Israel with
Branko Lustig (in hat)
Photo: Office of President, RH

For reasons many cannot understand, even if their bias against Croatia is profound, Israel’s political establishment had in 1997 taken an anti Croatia, anti-Franjo Tudjman stand. Indeed, Israel had then pronounced Franjo Tudjman a “persona non grata” in Israel because, it was reported, Tudjman had in his books underestimated the number of Jews that perished in the Holocaust! Indeed, Tudjman was labelled by various Jewish organisations across the world as Holocaust denier and anti-Semitic because of the numbers he estimated perished in the Holocaust. Overestimates or possible overestimates of number of Jews that perished in the Holocaust had never, so many decades after the fact of the Holocaust, to my knowledge, set in motion such hateful and drastic measures on the level of state relations!

After Franjo Tudjman’s death in 1999 all three Presidents of Croatia had officially visited Israel, apologising for the crimes of the Holocaust that occurred during WWII in Croatia. Apologies, of course, are always the right thing to do as they contain, or should contain, the spirit of regret and compassion and, hopefully, determination that things apologised for shall never reoccur. Presidents Stjepan Mesic (2000-2010) and Ivo Josipovic (2011-2015) are both of hard-core communist extraction and had, as expected, molded their apologies for the Holocaust while in Israel in such a way to openly suggest that fascist or Nazi supporters were still active or “mysteriously in ghost-like fashion coming out of the woodwork” in Croatia – still.  “Apologies” of this nature are nothing more than attempts, on false but politically potent grounds, to cover up communist crimes committed in Croatia during and after WWII. Many Croatia’s “leading” Jews had, particularly since 1991, followed the same line because I dare say, most were and are communists of former Yugoslavia.

It is of great importance to note that no president of Croatia has so far, it seems, “lobbied” to Israel regarding the factual research findings by Dr Esther Gitman about the significant work of Croatia’s Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac, beatified and in line to be canonised a Saint of the Catholic Church.

Blessed Alojzije (Aloysius) Stepinac Oil painting Croatian Church Chicago

Blessed Alojzije (Aloysius) Stepinac
Oil painting Croatian Church Chicago

It is certainly not far fetched, by a long shot, to conclude that Croatian pro-communist Jewish and Serb lobby would not want Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac vindicated by indisputable facts which point to the overwhelming lies and false grounds upon which communists persecuted him as Nazi-collaborator immediately after WWII. Former communist operatives and influential persons within the Yugoslav Communist Party between WWII and 1991 have too much face to lose were the truth to be accepted as truth. No matter, the truth still stands and its enemies are identified in this case. The battles for truth and recognition of it may, hence, be easier than before.

Modern Croatia is not a successor to the World War II independent state of Croatia and its ideologies,” Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic told i24news, in an exclusive interview at the end of a two-day visit to Israel, 24 July 2015. Kitarovic, who during her visit participated in a Yad Vashem ceremony in which Croatian-American producer Branko Lustig donated his “Schindler’s List” Oscar to the Holocaust memorial, brushed off any connection to what she calls “a dark period in our history that casts a shadow on Croatia’s past.”

I find it regretful that there seems to have been no opportunity during this visit to refer to Blessed Aloysius Stepinac while at Yad Vashem or elsewhere in Israel. Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac had his own “Shindler’s list” and saved thousands upon thousands of Jews during WWII Croatia! After access to historical documents/archives had been possible at the fall of communist Yugoslavia his “list” is found to have been much longer than Schindler’s! His list was longer than Schindler’s and yet state politics keep this truth hidden or are not inclined to talk about it publicly!

 

A book by Esther Gitman

A book by Esther Gitman

Part of Croatia’s World War II history, the collaboration with the Nazis has been a prickly issue in diplomatic relations with Israel, which were established in 1997. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has, on this occasion of visiting Israel, maintained the stance of her predecessors Mesic and Josipovic, and “focuses on building relations with Israel today and is strongly committed to the victims and survivors in order to prevent future atrocities”. “There is no connection today between the Nazi ideology and modern Croatia,” Grabar-Kitarovic said, and vowed that she feels “no resentment” from her Israeli counterparts, reports i24 news.
In addition to the Ustashi regime, which was a collaborationist Nazi regime, there was comparably one of the biggest anti fascist uprising resistance movements in Croatia,” Grabar-Kitarovic said, mentioning that members of her own family participated in this movement. “These people who fought fascism and Nazism put Croatia on the right side of history, and what is embedded in our constitution today is our anti-fascist and anti-Nazi roots and the Homeland War that we fought back in the 90s in order to liberate Croatia from aggression and occupation,” Grabar-Kitarovic said in Israel last week.
I use this opportunity to condemn every totalitarian regime – Nazism, Fascism, Communism,” said President Grabar-Kitarovic at Yad Vashem in Israel, and emphasised education as the strongest weapon against every form of radical ideology, divisions, hatred and racism. “We must tell the truth because we are denuded in this place, we have no and carry none of our official functions. We are here as human beings. As people, as parents, sisters and brothers we have the responsibility to pursue for the truth.”

All what President Grabar-Kitarovic said in Israel last week stands as truth but such plethora of historical references still omit the fact that many, including Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac, are considered as Nazi-collaborators, participants in the Holocaust, when the truth and facts point the other way – the righteous way! So, I often agonise and ponder: why is it so difficult for the Holocaust remembrance environment to accept the truth about Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac’s role in helping and rescuing Jews? An answer that comes to mind is that communists of former Yugoslavia have, on false grounds and utter lies, made Aloysius Stepinac synonymous with the concept and reality of the Holocaust in Croatia and to now accept him for what he truly was – innocent of those charges, would somehow take  a significant part of the heavy gravity away from the act of the Holocaust! So, the Holocaust remembrance environment seems in part to prefer perpetuation of untruths rather than facing the truth. Nothing can take away the heavy gravity the Holocaust carries for human kind – for it was an abomination – but unjust treatment of individuals within this environment, unwillingness to recognise the actual rather than reported or estimated truth, do add to its tragedy for human justice. I do hope that the pursuit of truth of the Holocaust in Croatia will surface with the righteousness of Blessed Aloysius Stepinac: with a proud revelation of a Schindler’s List not even the revered Schindler could match! Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

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