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1999: UN CULT-MOVIE PER NEONAZISTI PRODOTTO DALLO STATO CROATO?
used without permission, for 'fair use" only
Film "In Four Rows" by Jakov Sedlar and Ivan Aralica Missed Chance to
Become Cult Film of European Neo-Nazism
Naked in Saddlear
If he managed to do what he had tried to do, Jakov Sedlar would have
entered
the history of
European culture as the director of the first openly revisionist,
neo-Nazi
movie, which in a radical
manner questions and distorts the results of WWII, and accuses war
victors of
crimes which have
been assigned to the losers for the last fifty years. God himself, if
that
was him indeed, saved us
from ignominy which we would not have been able to wash off for a long
time,
by denying Sedlar
all that is needed by a human or a creature to be an artist. Budak's
"Hearths" [Ognjista] are for
"In Four Rows" [Cetvorored], both the book and the movie, a highly
articulate, non-ideological
and modern work of art.
by Miljenko Jergovic
Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, December 27 1999
If he managed to do what he had tried to do, Jakov Sedlar would have
entered
the history of European
culture as the director of the first openly revisionist, neo-Nazi movie,
which in a radical manner questions
and distorts the results of WWII, and accuses war victors of crimes
which
have been assigned to the
losers for the last fifty years.
Here is how, according to Sedlar's concept, "In Four Rows" was supposed
to
come out: two peaceful and
highly civilized inhabitants of Zagreb, a young actor and a make up
artist,
decided in May 1945 to leave
the city in front of an unstoppable antifascist beast. They join columns
of
Domobrans [conscript army of
the Independent State of Croatia, WWII Nazi puppet state in present
Croatia
and Bosnia-Hercegovina],
the peaceful Croatian Army, city gents and youth, among whom are four or
five
Ustashe [Croatian
pro-Nazi movement during and before WWII; the relationship between
Ustashe
and Domobrans is similar
to that of SS and German Army in the Nazi Germany] of whom one is a
criminal
(probably because he
lost an arm in the war). The column is bombarded by British airplanes
and on
the Bleiburg field they are
captured by cynical British officers, who turn all of these highly
cultured
and civilized people over to the
Partisans. After that, the Partisans slaughter them, execute by a firing
squad, rape, rob, and to make the
whole thing even clearer, at one point Soviet Red army soldiers show up
to
take away whatever the
Partisans hadn't already snatched away, and in the process cut off a
finger
of a high school graduate from
Zagreb in order to take his ring.
According to Sedlar's idea, the film ends after the surviving young
actor,
saved by the goodness of a
Jewish Partisan, vows not to say a word about these events as long as he
lives. The film refers to his act
as the Croatian silence, in order to make it crystal clear on behalf of
what
and against what it was
necessary to keep quiet.
Croatian Ed Wood
However, Jakov Sedlar did not know how to turn all of that into a movie,
nor
could Ivan Aralica offer a
story which would provide a framework for this construction, so that
instead
of a cult work of European
neo-Nazism that would find its underground audience from the Pyrenees to
the
Urals and Hamburg to
Piraeus, we got only another trivial product of Croatian Ed Wood,
something
that can even be amusing in
its inadequate execution.
For example, how does Jakov Sedlar imagine Partisan butchers? All of
them are
Serbs, men and women,
from different parts of the former Yugoslavia. Their origin is suggested
by
their accents. However, then
Sedlar decided that that was not enough, so that he made sure that every
Partisan butcher nicely
introduces himself or herself to their victims. Thus fat and mustachioed
Danko Ljustina plays a murderer
from Bosanska Krajina, Bozidar Alic portrays a slaughterer from Serbia,
and
Nives Ivankovic is supposed
to be a typical Jane Partisan, a Croat Serb woman who is jealous because
Partisans are mass raping
refined Zagreb women, so that she kills them all with a machine gun.
Sedlar's
Partisans usually confine
their acting to making facial expressions usually seen only on seriously
constipated persons. It is surprising
that Bozidar Alic did not end up with a hernia from all that hard work.
Of course, Sedlar had to explain why Partisans were so bloodthirsty.
With
that in mind a character, which
is not really a character but is there just for the hell of it, reads
Djilas'
[Yugoslav Communist official]
article from Borba [official publication of the Yugoslav Communist
party]
which clearly states what the
attitude of Partisans towards Ustashe should be; from a public
announcement
system at a train station we
can hear Tito's speech on the same topic, and it is indicated that one
of the
Partisans had been until
recently a Chetnik [Serb nationalist and monarchist guerrillas during
WWII],
although it is not entirely
clear whether Chetniks are worse or better than Partisans or whether
that
statement was simply supposed
to indicate the origin of all partisans.
Scandalous Idea
The victims are as a rule civilians with a Domobran thrown in here and
there.
A Domobran victim is, of
course, a Jehovah's Witness in a uniform of the Croatian Army. Domobrans
usually die because they
refuse to put on Ustashe insignia, nor admit in front of Partisan
butchers
that they are Ustashe. And all of
them are sooo good, peaceful and silky, and only Partisan crimes can
force
them to an occasional
self-sacrifice and a heroic deed.
But, how come that in all of that, there is a good Partisan? Very
simply:
Sedlar's and Aralica's revisionist
vision needed a place for a Jew. And since the authors drew their lesson
from
Tudman's "Wastelands of
Historical Reality", they decided to replace unnecessary and senseless
anti-Semitism by very deliberate
filo-Semitism. It seemed smart to them to, in the film with which they
intended to spread national hatred
and destroy the last traces of Croatian antifascism, use a Jew as the
most
positive character. Hey, there
are not any Jews in Croatia anyway and only fools would cause trouble
about
them. On the other hand,
believe Sedlar and Aralica, if you are nice to Jews, you can do with
Partisans and Serbs, as well as with
the results of the war, whatever you like. A smart Croatian revisionist
would
always praise Jews.
The very idea to shoot "In Four Rows" was scandalous since Aralica's
novel,
on which the movie is
based, was also scandalous. But the film was produced by four Croatian
Ministries, the Croatian
Privatization Fund, Croatian Tourist Association, Croatian
Telecommunications, the City of Zagreb,
Croatian Lottery, Croatian Oil Industry INA and many smaller and less
impressive sounding producers, so
that Sedlar's film is actually the result of a widely based social
action and
thereby similar to the Partisan
films from the former Yugoslavia, such as "Sutjeska" and "Neretva".
In practice, thousands of Croatian citizens have ended up in the role of
passive co-producers of "In Four
Rows". Perhaps, all of those who have paid a single Kuna of taxes to the
Croatian state budget deserve
such a credit. That does not mean that all of us share guilt for "In
Four
Rows", but it is the fact that all of
us have been involved in "In Four Rows" and that only unprecedented
Sedlar's
lack of talent saved us
from worse consequences. God himself, if that was him indeed, saved us
from
ignominy which we would
not have been able to wash off for a long time, by denying Sedlar all
that is
needed by a human or a
creature to be an artist.
Greatest Trickery
Actually, no matter now much we curse fate for sending us all those
Vukojevics, Krpinas, and midget
Rottweilers of Croatian judiciary, we should be at least grateful that
it
also included people like Sedlar and
Aralica. It has been proven, namely, that bastards can be extremely
talented,
that creeps can be terrific
writers and that very well articulated works of art can be motivated by
hatred and evil. What would have
happened if, for example, Sedlar were Kusturica [famous Serbian
film-maker]
and Aralica, for example,
Peter Handke [pro-Serb world-famous Austrian writer], and that the two
of
them took upon themselves
to re-tailor history and turn antifascists into fascists, and fascists
into
civilians and brothers of good soldier
Svejk? We would have had problems that we cannot even dream of today, we
would feel miserable and
empty, ungifted and lost with respect to our own enemies and enemies of
our
lives.
It is wonderful to have Sedlar and Aralica whose greatest trickery is to
include a Partisan-Jew. There is
nothing more harmless than filo-Semitic anti-Semitism, although it is
sickening and disgusting, but at least
it is so obvious and clear as every act rooted in unclear conscience. It
is
wonderful to have Sedlar because
of his fascination with male haircuts. Namely, as in "Mother of God"
[Gospa]
the hairdo on the head of
Martin Sheen, even after hours and days of torture looked as if it had
just
been sealed under a hairdryer
of a provincial hair salon, thus in "In Four Rows" the hairdo of Ivan
Marevic
is tussled in the same
seductive manner both at the start and the end of the Croatian Cavalry.
Unfortunate Jakov Sedlar does
not see such things and exactly that saves us from his idea. It is also
wonderful to have Sedlar because of
the fact that his main character can hardly speak the Croat language.
Actually, he speaks it as every
Australian, Canadian, or American of Croatian origin, and he is supposed
to
be a young actor from Zagreb
in the movie. What wonderful cynicism: In the most Croatian of all
Croatian
movies, the most valiant
Croat cannot speak Croatian. Something so mean would not have occurred
even
to the most evil of the
Partisan butchers from "In Four Rows".
Sanity Check
It is rumored among Zagreb actors that actor's wages for work in "In
Four
Rows" were enormous, the
highest in the more recent history of domestic film making, and that
that is
the reason that a team of our
best actors appears in the movie, as well as almost all young Croatian
actors. Their excuse is that Sedlar
was making offers that could not be refused, so that very few did
indeed, but
that is not a story about
historical revisionism, nor about lack of talent, but about misery and
poverty of the public scene on which
jobs are accepted and refused based on offered remuneration, so that
actors
play without any faith in their
characters.
After watching "In Four Rows", it is hard to understand why the Croatian
TV
decided to show that movie
two days after Christmas and on a day of electoral silence. Sedlar's and
Aralica's work is hardly good
propaganda; it cannot change anyone's opinion, apart from being a sanity
check for those who will watch
TV that night and nevertheless vote for HDZ. Essentially, for the
democratization of this country and
even for the opposition, it is useful to show "In Four Rows", and then
repeat
it as often as possible until
the last one among us realizes what has remained of the Independent
State of
Croatia fifty five years after
the war, and to what the old Ustashe have been transformed. Budak's
"Hearths"
[Ognjista] are for "In
Four Rows", both the book and the movie, a highly articulate,
non-ideological
and modern work of art.
However, something in all of this is still very sad. People did die in
Bleiburg and in the Croatian Cavalry.
It does not matter how many of them were killed because they were
definitely
too many. Various people
suffered and it is not the most important whether they were civilians,
soldiers, innocent people or
criminals. The fact that behind they left relatives who for years could
not
find out the truth about their
fates and who hoped for years that they would eventually return. In some
parts of Croatia and especially
Bosnia-Hercegovina there are very few families which haven't lost
someone in
Bleiburg. In principle, they
do not care whether their loved ones were criminals or innocents,
murderers
or conscripted children.
Uncertainty and empty hope with which those people lived is the greatest
and
usually totally undeserved
punishment. Ivan Aralica and Jakov Sedlar arrogantly and mercilessly
played
with emotions of the
relatives of the victims of the Croatian Cavalry. Thus a huge and
horrible
topic, which deserves human
sympathy, and probably also books and films that it will never greet,
has
been wasted. Bleiburg, ignoring
history and focusing on people from our homelands, is a sad story about
those
who waited and do not
know when exactly they stopped waiting.
[1] The Croatian Calvary (Croatian: KRIZNI PUT = the way of the cross),
an
episode in Croatian
history, when, in 1945, the Ustashe army surrendered, with a great
number of
civilians who were fleeing
communist Partisans, to the British at the town of Bleiburg in Austria.
The
British, in turn, surrendered
them to Tito's army. Most of them were soon executed without a trial,
some in
death marches led
throughout the country. The Croatian official history compares the
plight of
the "Croatian martyrs who
were executed only for being Croats" with that of Jesus Christ and his
carrying of the cross on the way to
crucifixion.
[2] The surname of director Sedlar is pronounced saddle-ar
[3] Mile Budak was an Ustashe official during WWII and a writer.
"Hearths" is
his best known novel. He
is infamous for his participation in the organization of the genocide of
Serbs, Jews and Gypsies in the
Independent State of Croatia. Since the independence he has been a sort
of a
poster boy for Croatian
nationalists and his name has been given to many streets throughout
Croatia.
Translated on March 24 2000
---
1997: I PADRI FONDATORI (FASCISTI) DELLA CROAZIA INDIPENDENTE
Fascists Reborn as Croatia's Founding Fathers
By CHRIS HEDGES
The old fascist marching songs were sung, a moment of silence was
observed
for all who died defending the fatherland, and the gathering was
reminded
that today was the 57th anniversary of the founding of Croatia's
Nazi-allied
wartime government. Then came the most chilling words of the afternoon.
"For Home!" shouted Anto Dapic, surrounded by bodyguards in black suits
and
crew cuts.
"Ready!" responded the crowd of 500 supporters, their arms rising in a
stiff
Nazi salute.
The call and response -- the Croatian equivalent of "Sieg!" "Heil!" --
was
the wartime greeting used by supporters of the fascist Independent State
of
Croatia, which governed the country for most the Second World War and
murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Croatian resistance
fighters.
Today, in the final day of campaigning before local elections on Sunday,
supporters of Croatia's Party of Rights used the chant as a rallying
cry. But
the shouts of the black-shirted young men -- and the indifferent
reactions of
passersby -- illustrated a broader aspect of this country's self-image.
President Franjo Tudjman and his Croatian Democratic Union party rose to
popularity and power on the strength of its appeals to Croatians'
national
pride. Now, six years after the war that won Croatia its independence
from
Yugoslavia, Mr. Tudjman's party continues to cast the World War II
fascist
fighters as patriots and precursors of the modern Croatian state.
The Party of Rights took only 7 percent of the vote in the last
election, but
it is the closest ally of Mr. Tudjman, who is reported to be suffering
from
cancer but who has still campaigned actively.
Perhaps no other country has failed as openly as Croatia to come to
terms
with its fascist legacy. While the French celebrate a resistance
movement
that was often dwarfed by the widespread collaboration with the Vichy
regime,
and while the Austrians often act as if the war never happened, the
Croats
have rehabilitated the Croatian fascist collaborators, known as the
Ustashe.
The Ustashe was led by Ante Pavelic, the wartime dictator whose picture
was
plastered on walls in Split in preparation for the rally.
"A majority of the Croats oppose this rehabilitation," said Viktor
Ivancic,
editor in chief of the opposition weekly, The Feral Tribune. "But they
are
afraid. These neo-fascist groups, protected by the state, are ready to
employ
violence against their critics."
Ustashe veterans receive larger pensions than old Partisan fighters, who
waged a savage fight against the German and Croatian fascist armies.
Former
Ustashe soldiers are invited to state celebrations, like the annual army
day,
while Partisan fighters are ignored. And state authorities have stood by
as
pro-Ustashe groups have dismantled or destroyed 2,964 of 4,073 monuments
to
those who died in the resistance struggle, according to veteran Partisan
groups.
The identification with the quisling regime does not stop there. The
Croatian
currency is the kuna, the same instituted by the fascists. And the red
and
white checkerboard on the flag, taken from medieval Croatian emblems,
previously adorned the Ustashe uniform. The President recently proposed
bringing Mr. Pavelic's remains from Spain, where he died in exile in
1959,
for burial in Croatia, a move rejected by Mr. Pavelic's family. And
Vinko
Nikolic, an 85-year-old former high-ranking Ustashe official who fled
into
exile after the war, was appointed by the President to the Croatian
Parliament.
The transformation is all the more noticeable because of widespread
participation by many Croats in the Partisan guerrilla movement led by
Josip
Broz Tito, himself a Croat.
"A huge number of Croats fought the Nazis and the Ustashe," said
77-year-Partisan veteran Milivoj Borosa, who defected in his bomber in
1942
from the Ustashe air force and dropped his payload on a German unit
during
his escape to the Soviet Union. "But today, those who should hold their
heads
in shame, are national heroes."
The Partisans, who included among their ranks the young Franjo Tudjman,
committed what today is viewed as an unforgivable sin. They built a
united,
Communist Yugoslavia. And while the Ustashe state may have been a Nazi
puppet, it had as its stated aim the establishment of an independent
Croatia,
although it was forced by the Axis to turn over large parts of Croatia,
including much of the Dalmatian coast, to the Italians.
In the current campaign, President Tudjman sought to reconcile the
country's
wartime divisions by arguing that the fascist and anti-fascist Croatians
performed equally valuable service for their country. A general who
became a
historian after leaving the Yugoslav Army, Mr. Tudjman is among the
leaders
of a revisionist school of history that has sought to counterbalance the
Communists' relentlessly dark view of the fascist years.
But many Croats, especially those who had relatives killed by the
fascists,
smolder with indignation over the glorification of a regime that
massacred
opponents with a ferocity that often shocked its Italian and German
allies.
"You cannot reconcile victims and butchers," said Ognjen Kraus, the head
of
Zagreb's small Jewish community. "No one has the right to carry out a
reconciliation in the name of those who vanished."
The climate has become so charged that those who oppose the
rehabilitation of
the Ustashe do not dare raise their voices. And there have been several
attacks carried out against members of the Social Democratic Party, the
old
Communist party, currently fielding candidates for the municipal
elections.
Many of the black-uniformed bodyguards at the rally here fought against
the
Serbs as members of The Croatian Liberation Forces, a brutal right-wing
paramilitary unit formed by the party.
The Ustashe supporters also have a powerful ally in the Catholic Church
in
Croatia. The church, led during the war by Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac,
was
a prominent backer of the Ustashe regime. It forcibly converted tens of
thousands of Orthodox Serbs and did not denounce the government's
roundup and
massacre of Jews and Serbs.
During the war, Jews and Orthodox Serbs were subject to racial laws. The
Serbs had to wear blue arm bands with the letter "P" for "Pravoslav" --
Orthodox -- before being deported to death camps like Jasenovac.
After the war, many priests, rather than condemn the brutality of the
fascist
regime, went on to set up an underground network know as "the rat line"
to
smuggle former Ustashe leaders, including Mr. Pavelic, to countries like
Argentina.
The church, persecuted by the Communists, has now re-emerged as one of
the
most powerful institutions in the country, in large part because
religion is
the only tangible difference separating Serbs, Muslims and Croats.
Several
priests have enthusiastically joined the rehabilitation campaign,
portraying
Mr. Pavelic as a pious leader who championed Christian values.
"Ante Pavelic was a good Catholic," said Father Luka Prcela, who has
held a
memorial Mass for the former dictator in Split for the last four years.
"He
went to mass daily in his own chapel. Many of the crimes alleged to have
been
committed by his Government never happened. These stories were lies
spread by
the communists. He fought for a free, Catholic Croatia. We have this
state
today because of him."
(c) The New York Times, April 12, 1997
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1995: PERPLESSITA' EBRAICHE SUI RAPPORTI TRA USA E CROAZIA...
Open Letter to Branko Lustig, Producer of a Misunderstanding in
Washington
by Mirko Mirkovic
Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, 2/20/95
I would like to review your speech presented to the Press Club in
Washington,
D.C. on 11/21/94, which
made a great impact recently in Croatia. It was published in its
entirety by
Vjesnik and then by Vecernji
List [state-owned daily newspapers]. Obviously, it deserved such
publicity,
since it is full of praise for
President Tudjman. You had an honor of sitting next to him at the
premier of
the film ``Schindler's List"
in cinema ``Europe" [in Zagreb]. You were, in your words,``excited
because
all of the important officials
in the Croatian government were present." I can sympathize that it
really
must have been exciting. You
noticed that the president was personally moved by the film:``after the
film
finished, he got up, gave me a
hug and I could swear that his eyes were full of tears."
If only he could have seen ``Schindler's List" before he published his
book
``Wastelands of Historical
Reality" [``Bespuca Historijske Zbiljnosti"]. Maybe he would not have
quoted
a disgusting story about the
Jews in Jasenovac [largest concentration camp in Croatia during the
WWII],
contributed by two
antisemites who had been released from the camp. In any case, why is it
that,
as a historian, he did not
find it necessary to quote testimonies of Jewish inmates who survived
the
Ustashe [Croatian fascists]
Auschwitz by pure luck? Their testimonies about that inferno were
collected
in a book published in 1972.
It is true that, later, as a president of the republic, he ``expressed
sorrow
for the suffering of the Croatian
Jews in the holocaust." Commendable. However, the president of Germany,
Roman
Hertzog went a step
further than expressing ``sorrow" when last summer he said in Warsaw:``I
beg
for forgiveness for what
the Germans did to you."
The day after the premiere of ``Schindler's List", you said:``I received
a
high Croatian decoration, Order
of Prince Trpimir... During the ceremony the president apologized to me
and
all members of the Jewish
community for those who during the Second World War took part in
Enforcement
of Hitler's racist laws."
In 1941 you were still a child and maybe did not know that in Croatia
racist
laws were not enacted by
Hitler, but by Independent State of Croatia (ISC) [Nezavisna Drzave
Hrvatska
or NDH was a Nazi
puppet state from 1941 to 1945; it was run by Croatian fascist movement
-
Ustashe in Croatian] and
enforced by Ustashe government. You might not be aware that Vinko
Nikolic was
an important
functionary in that government, a member of the Ustashe High Command. He
was
enraptured by the
Poglavnik [term corresponding to Fuhrer in Ustashe terminology] Ante
Pavelic.
``Our new intelligentsia,"
wrote Vinko Nikolic in the Novi List on 7/2/41,``must raise new
generations
under ustashe [ie. fascist]
values and above all, must engender in Croatian youth, from the earliest
age,
unlimited and devoted
loyalty towards the Poglavnik." He was not only enraptured with the
Poglavnik, but also interested in
literature, which, according to him would help the Ustashe movement ``to
mold
a new man," whose main
characteristics must be:``nationalistic soul, Ustashe heart, Poglavnik's
teaching and Ustashe creed" (Vinko
Nikolic, National Goals of Literature, Zagreb, 1944). He showed his
``loyalty
to the Poglavnik" in the
emigration to Madrid in 1949, when the Ustashe crimes were already known
around the world, by
composing an ode to Poglavnik's ISC.
Why am I mentioning this to you? Because that gentlemen recently
returned to
Zagreb, to the
government's warm welcome. President Tudjman, fighter against fascism in
the
WWII, did not know
better then to make this gentlemen (who with his ``Ustashe heart" took
part
in the machinery of the
holocaust) a member of the upper house of the Croatian parliament! No,
that
``educator according to the
fascist values" never killed anyone himself. He sat at his desk and
supported
criminals with his pen. Do
you know that, mister Lustig ?
Men for all Times
Do you think that a man who in the third Reich demanded from the youth
``limitless devotion to the
Fuhrer," could today, in democratic Germany become a member of Bundestag
-
German Federal
Parliament? Do you think that the units of the German Army could be
named
after Nazi war criminals, as
some units of the Croatian Army bear names of Ustashe butchers? Do you
think
that some
SS-Sturmbandfuhrer, who during the third Reich signed a racist order,
could
get today a high decoration
from the president of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)? Still, all
of
this is possible. But not in
todays Germany. Signatory of the racist Ustashe order in 1941, Ustashe
stozernik [military rank] Ivo
Rojnica, was decorated by the Poglavnik with the order of merit `` for
the
zealous service in Ustashe
movement." The very same zealot of Ustashe movement - who declared in
``Slobodna
Dalmacija":``everything I did in 1941 I would do again" - has recently
received a decoration of the high
Order of Prince Trpimir from the hands of president Tudjman personally!
Of
course this case is not
unique. Accomplice in the German genocide on the Balkan, Kurt Waldheim
also
received a high
decoration from Pavelic and then, after the war, as a secretary of the
UN,
another one from Tito! Some
people are truly for all times. Franjo Tudjman, Tito's general, knows
that
much.
The grotesque part is that you, Mr. Lustig, an Auschwitz survivor, wear
the
same decoration as a Ustashe
officer who ``zealously worked" to implement the holocaust on the
territory
of the ISC. And with great
success. Of approximately 40,000 Jews on the territory of ISC, three
quarters
were killed. Survivors were
only those who managed to escape to the Italian occupation zone or
joined the
Partisans [indigenous
communist guerilla army under Tito's leadership]. Many were helped by
the
Croatians. But while the
Croatian citizens, in personal danger, were helping persecuted Jews as
much
as they could, the
government of ISC was killing them whenever possible.
You quoted president Tudjman's message to Melvin Salzberger and Abraham
Foxman, in which he
distances himself and the Croatian government from the quisling Croatian
state [ISC] and the Ustashe
regime. Very good and commendable. But if you lived here, I believe that
as a
Jew, you would be worried
by the rehabilitation of the Ustashe ISC, which encompasses
historiography,
newspaper articles, TV talk
shows, naming of military units after infamous Ustashe ``knights", all
the
way to restaurants with names
like ``Poglavnik", ``Coffee Bar Ustasha" and similar reminders of the
genocide of the Jews in ISC. Not
far from the house in which I live, one can find Poglavnik's picture and
a
bust in a bar, so that the patrons
can get the idea about the owner's political leanings. I am convinced
that
you will agree with me that it is
unimaginable that in todays Germany restaurants and hotels would be
named
after the Fuhrer or the SS
officers, or that a Fuhrer's picture could be displayed in them. In
Germany,
such things are regulated by
the law. We in Croatia apparently have more democracy than Germans. If
it is
true, as you said, that it is
``improbable that in Croatia we see the strengthening of fascism," one
faces
a question: why does not the
president and the government protest against the rehabilitation of the
criminal ISC? It is true, as you said,
that in Croatia ``there is no antisemitism but there are a few
antisemites."
After Auschwitz, antisemitism
can hardly be en vogue. The Croatian president and the government on
several
occasions, have expressed
their favorable inclination towards the Jewish community. Was that
because of
some special love towards
the Jews? Or in order to score a few good PR points in the USA? - I
leave the
answer to you.
It is unthinkable that in democratic Germany an ex-Nazi propaganda boss
could
appear on TV and discuss
the benefits of the third Reich. On the other hand, one of the Zagreb TV
channels showed in 1992 a
program with the boss of Ustashe propaganda, Daniel Crljen. The same one
who
during the ISC
declared:``Croatia has radically solved its Jewish problem."
Points scored away from the Home field
You said that ``the tendencies described in the press (I suppose foreign
!)
are marginal and have no
support from the president or the government." Very good. However, a
striking
question is why that same
president and the government do not publicly and decisively condemn
numerous
cases of rehabilitation of
Ustashe ISC. Nothing would be easier, since they have a total control
over
the daily press and the
electronic media.
For the Jewish community, the instances of Ustashe rehabilitation can
hardly
be ``marginal." Especially
not for those Jews who survived the holocaust and who after returning to
their homeland found out that
they were left alone in this world, without a mother and a father,
without
brothers and sisters, without
their children. All of them have disappeared without a trace in Ustashe
branch offices of ``the final
solution", in Jasenovac, Stara Gradiska, Jadovna, on Pag. By the way,
the
last several hundred Jews in
Croatia, mostly elderly, were turned turned over to Eichmann, ie. sent
straight to the Nazi gas chambers.
Cardinal Stepinac tried to save Zagreb Chef Rabbi, Miroslav Freiberger
and
his family. He did not
succeed. Eichmann's word had more importance for the Poglavnik than that
of
Cardinal Stepinac.
Would it therefore be marginal for you, Mr. Lustig, if you were facing
today
the rehabilitation of racist
butchers from Auschwitz? You also said:``claims that the present
government
encourages fascism are
absolutely false." If that is true, I would be grateful if you could
explain
how that squares with the fact
that the approximately 2000 monuments to the fighters against and
victims of
fascism have been
destroyed in Croatia [since 1991] ( by ``unknown" perpetrators);
memorials
for the people who were
cruelly killed simply because they had been born Jews, or Serbs or
Gypsies or
were Croatian antifascists!
Also, do not you find it perplexing, as an Auschwitz survivor, that
president
Tudjman was so keen to
erase the Victims of Fascism Square name? I believe that you will agree
with
me, when I say that those
fighters against fascism in Croatia sacrificed their lives in the common
struggle of the humanity against the
deadly darkness which threatened to turn all of Europe in a continental
Auschwitz. Why have not the
Croatian authorities condemned or why have not they decisively
confronted
that barbarian destruction of
the memorials for the victims of fascism? Or maybe someone thinks that
the
historical facts can be
thrown into a black hole of oblivion, as did the Big Brother's
``Ministry of
Truth" in Orwell's 1984?
Black Hole of Oblivion
In your Washington speech you said:``the number of Jews in Partisans was
small." With that claim you
unfortunately misinformed your American audience. Yugoslavia had about
70,000
Jews before the
WWII. About 4,500 of those, or more than 6 percent of the total Jewish
population, took part in the
national liberation war. That means that the participation of Jews in
the
antifascist struggle was
proportionally larger than that of any other nation on the territory of
ex-Yugoslavia.
You tried to convince your American audience that Kuna is an appropriate
choice for the name of the
Croatian currency. You said:`` I personally do not see that as a
connection
with the fascist period.".
Ustashe ISC was just the first state to name the Croatian currency Kuna.
But
what sort of connection
could that have with our ``most democratic country in Europe" [a common
phrase in the Croatian press,
referring to Croatia].
Commemoration of the 50 years since the liberation of Auschwitz has
recently
taken place in Poland. Eli
Wiesel, Nobel Prize winner, and ,as you said, your friend from the death
march in January of 1943 took
part in the commemoration. you quoted his words:`` To forget is to kill
the
victims for the second time.
We could not stop their death the first time round. We must not allow
them to
be killed again." Don't you
also find intolerable the rehabilitation of Ustashe ISC, which was until
the
last moment of the third Reich
its ally in the most horrendous genocide in history?
The author is a writer and translator, ex-secretary of Croatian PEN and
a
longtime member of the
Jewish Community Council in Zagreb
Translated in May 1995
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
---
1999: UN CULT-MOVIE PER NEONAZISTI PRODOTTO DALLO STATO CROATO?
used without permission, for 'fair use" only
Film "In Four Rows" by Jakov Sedlar and Ivan Aralica Missed Chance to
Become Cult Film of European Neo-Nazism
Naked in Saddlear
If he managed to do what he had tried to do, Jakov Sedlar would have
entered
the history of
European culture as the director of the first openly revisionist,
neo-Nazi
movie, which in a radical
manner questions and distorts the results of WWII, and accuses war
victors of
crimes which have
been assigned to the losers for the last fifty years. God himself, if
that
was him indeed, saved us
from ignominy which we would not have been able to wash off for a long
time,
by denying Sedlar
all that is needed by a human or a creature to be an artist. Budak's
"Hearths" [Ognjista] are for
"In Four Rows" [Cetvorored], both the book and the movie, a highly
articulate, non-ideological
and modern work of art.
by Miljenko Jergovic
Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, December 27 1999
If he managed to do what he had tried to do, Jakov Sedlar would have
entered
the history of European
culture as the director of the first openly revisionist, neo-Nazi movie,
which in a radical manner questions
and distorts the results of WWII, and accuses war victors of crimes
which
have been assigned to the
losers for the last fifty years.
Here is how, according to Sedlar's concept, "In Four Rows" was supposed
to
come out: two peaceful and
highly civilized inhabitants of Zagreb, a young actor and a make up
artist,
decided in May 1945 to leave
the city in front of an unstoppable antifascist beast. They join columns
of
Domobrans [conscript army of
the Independent State of Croatia, WWII Nazi puppet state in present
Croatia
and Bosnia-Hercegovina],
the peaceful Croatian Army, city gents and youth, among whom are four or
five
Ustashe [Croatian
pro-Nazi movement during and before WWII; the relationship between
Ustashe
and Domobrans is similar
to that of SS and German Army in the Nazi Germany] of whom one is a
criminal
(probably because he
lost an arm in the war). The column is bombarded by British airplanes
and on
the Bleiburg field they are
captured by cynical British officers, who turn all of these highly
cultured
and civilized people over to the
Partisans. After that, the Partisans slaughter them, execute by a firing
squad, rape, rob, and to make the
whole thing even clearer, at one point Soviet Red army soldiers show up
to
take away whatever the
Partisans hadn't already snatched away, and in the process cut off a
finger
of a high school graduate from
Zagreb in order to take his ring.
According to Sedlar's idea, the film ends after the surviving young
actor,
saved by the goodness of a
Jewish Partisan, vows not to say a word about these events as long as he
lives. The film refers to his act
as the Croatian silence, in order to make it crystal clear on behalf of
what
and against what it was
necessary to keep quiet.
Croatian Ed Wood
However, Jakov Sedlar did not know how to turn all of that into a movie,
nor
could Ivan Aralica offer a
story which would provide a framework for this construction, so that
instead
of a cult work of European
neo-Nazism that would find its underground audience from the Pyrenees to
the
Urals and Hamburg to
Piraeus, we got only another trivial product of Croatian Ed Wood,
something
that can even be amusing in
its inadequate execution.
For example, how does Jakov Sedlar imagine Partisan butchers? All of
them are
Serbs, men and women,
from different parts of the former Yugoslavia. Their origin is suggested
by
their accents. However, then
Sedlar decided that that was not enough, so that he made sure that every
Partisan butcher nicely
introduces himself or herself to their victims. Thus fat and mustachioed
Danko Ljustina plays a murderer
from Bosanska Krajina, Bozidar Alic portrays a slaughterer from Serbia,
and
Nives Ivankovic is supposed
to be a typical Jane Partisan, a Croat Serb woman who is jealous because
Partisans are mass raping
refined Zagreb women, so that she kills them all with a machine gun.
Sedlar's
Partisans usually confine
their acting to making facial expressions usually seen only on seriously
constipated persons. It is surprising
that Bozidar Alic did not end up with a hernia from all that hard work.
Of course, Sedlar had to explain why Partisans were so bloodthirsty.
With
that in mind a character, which
is not really a character but is there just for the hell of it, reads
Djilas'
[Yugoslav Communist official]
article from Borba [official publication of the Yugoslav Communist
party]
which clearly states what the
attitude of Partisans towards Ustashe should be; from a public
announcement
system at a train station we
can hear Tito's speech on the same topic, and it is indicated that one
of the
Partisans had been until
recently a Chetnik [Serb nationalist and monarchist guerrillas during
WWII],
although it is not entirely
clear whether Chetniks are worse or better than Partisans or whether
that
statement was simply supposed
to indicate the origin of all partisans.
Scandalous Idea
The victims are as a rule civilians with a Domobran thrown in here and
there.
A Domobran victim is, of
course, a Jehovah's Witness in a uniform of the Croatian Army. Domobrans
usually die because they
refuse to put on Ustashe insignia, nor admit in front of Partisan
butchers
that they are Ustashe. And all of
them are sooo good, peaceful and silky, and only Partisan crimes can
force
them to an occasional
self-sacrifice and a heroic deed.
But, how come that in all of that, there is a good Partisan? Very
simply:
Sedlar's and Aralica's revisionist
vision needed a place for a Jew. And since the authors drew their lesson
from
Tudman's "Wastelands of
Historical Reality", they decided to replace unnecessary and senseless
anti-Semitism by very deliberate
filo-Semitism. It seemed smart to them to, in the film with which they
intended to spread national hatred
and destroy the last traces of Croatian antifascism, use a Jew as the
most
positive character. Hey, there
are not any Jews in Croatia anyway and only fools would cause trouble
about
them. On the other hand,
believe Sedlar and Aralica, if you are nice to Jews, you can do with
Partisans and Serbs, as well as with
the results of the war, whatever you like. A smart Croatian revisionist
would
always praise Jews.
The very idea to shoot "In Four Rows" was scandalous since Aralica's
novel,
on which the movie is
based, was also scandalous. But the film was produced by four Croatian
Ministries, the Croatian
Privatization Fund, Croatian Tourist Association, Croatian
Telecommunications, the City of Zagreb,
Croatian Lottery, Croatian Oil Industry INA and many smaller and less
impressive sounding producers, so
that Sedlar's film is actually the result of a widely based social
action and
thereby similar to the Partisan
films from the former Yugoslavia, such as "Sutjeska" and "Neretva".
In practice, thousands of Croatian citizens have ended up in the role of
passive co-producers of "In Four
Rows". Perhaps, all of those who have paid a single Kuna of taxes to the
Croatian state budget deserve
such a credit. That does not mean that all of us share guilt for "In
Four
Rows", but it is the fact that all of
us have been involved in "In Four Rows" and that only unprecedented
Sedlar's
lack of talent saved us
from worse consequences. God himself, if that was him indeed, saved us
from
ignominy which we would
not have been able to wash off for a long time, by denying Sedlar all
that is
needed by a human or a
creature to be an artist.
Greatest Trickery
Actually, no matter now much we curse fate for sending us all those
Vukojevics, Krpinas, and midget
Rottweilers of Croatian judiciary, we should be at least grateful that
it
also included people like Sedlar and
Aralica. It has been proven, namely, that bastards can be extremely
talented,
that creeps can be terrific
writers and that very well articulated works of art can be motivated by
hatred and evil. What would have
happened if, for example, Sedlar were Kusturica [famous Serbian
film-maker]
and Aralica, for example,
Peter Handke [pro-Serb world-famous Austrian writer], and that the two
of
them took upon themselves
to re-tailor history and turn antifascists into fascists, and fascists
into
civilians and brothers of good soldier
Svejk? We would have had problems that we cannot even dream of today, we
would feel miserable and
empty, ungifted and lost with respect to our own enemies and enemies of
our
lives.
It is wonderful to have Sedlar and Aralica whose greatest trickery is to
include a Partisan-Jew. There is
nothing more harmless than filo-Semitic anti-Semitism, although it is
sickening and disgusting, but at least
it is so obvious and clear as every act rooted in unclear conscience. It
is
wonderful to have Sedlar because
of his fascination with male haircuts. Namely, as in "Mother of God"
[Gospa]
the hairdo on the head of
Martin Sheen, even after hours and days of torture looked as if it had
just
been sealed under a hairdryer
of a provincial hair salon, thus in "In Four Rows" the hairdo of Ivan
Marevic
is tussled in the same
seductive manner both at the start and the end of the Croatian Cavalry.
Unfortunate Jakov Sedlar does
not see such things and exactly that saves us from his idea. It is also
wonderful to have Sedlar because of
the fact that his main character can hardly speak the Croat language.
Actually, he speaks it as every
Australian, Canadian, or American of Croatian origin, and he is supposed
to
be a young actor from Zagreb
in the movie. What wonderful cynicism: In the most Croatian of all
Croatian
movies, the most valiant
Croat cannot speak Croatian. Something so mean would not have occurred
even
to the most evil of the
Partisan butchers from "In Four Rows".
Sanity Check
It is rumored among Zagreb actors that actor's wages for work in "In
Four
Rows" were enormous, the
highest in the more recent history of domestic film making, and that
that is
the reason that a team of our
best actors appears in the movie, as well as almost all young Croatian
actors. Their excuse is that Sedlar
was making offers that could not be refused, so that very few did
indeed, but
that is not a story about
historical revisionism, nor about lack of talent, but about misery and
poverty of the public scene on which
jobs are accepted and refused based on offered remuneration, so that
actors
play without any faith in their
characters.
After watching "In Four Rows", it is hard to understand why the Croatian
TV
decided to show that movie
two days after Christmas and on a day of electoral silence. Sedlar's and
Aralica's work is hardly good
propaganda; it cannot change anyone's opinion, apart from being a sanity
check for those who will watch
TV that night and nevertheless vote for HDZ. Essentially, for the
democratization of this country and
even for the opposition, it is useful to show "In Four Rows", and then
repeat
it as often as possible until
the last one among us realizes what has remained of the Independent
State of
Croatia fifty five years after
the war, and to what the old Ustashe have been transformed. Budak's
"Hearths"
[Ognjista] are for "In
Four Rows", both the book and the movie, a highly articulate,
non-ideological
and modern work of art.
However, something in all of this is still very sad. People did die in
Bleiburg and in the Croatian Cavalry.
It does not matter how many of them were killed because they were
definitely
too many. Various people
suffered and it is not the most important whether they were civilians,
soldiers, innocent people or
criminals. The fact that behind they left relatives who for years could
not
find out the truth about their
fates and who hoped for years that they would eventually return. In some
parts of Croatia and especially
Bosnia-Hercegovina there are very few families which haven't lost
someone in
Bleiburg. In principle, they
do not care whether their loved ones were criminals or innocents,
murderers
or conscripted children.
Uncertainty and empty hope with which those people lived is the greatest
and
usually totally undeserved
punishment. Ivan Aralica and Jakov Sedlar arrogantly and mercilessly
played
with emotions of the
relatives of the victims of the Croatian Cavalry. Thus a huge and
horrible
topic, which deserves human
sympathy, and probably also books and films that it will never greet,
has
been wasted. Bleiburg, ignoring
history and focusing on people from our homelands, is a sad story about
those
who waited and do not
know when exactly they stopped waiting.
[1] The Croatian Calvary (Croatian: KRIZNI PUT = the way of the cross),
an
episode in Croatian
history, when, in 1945, the Ustashe army surrendered, with a great
number of
civilians who were fleeing
communist Partisans, to the British at the town of Bleiburg in Austria.
The
British, in turn, surrendered
them to Tito's army. Most of them were soon executed without a trial,
some in
death marches led
throughout the country. The Croatian official history compares the
plight of
the "Croatian martyrs who
were executed only for being Croats" with that of Jesus Christ and his
carrying of the cross on the way to
crucifixion.
[2] The surname of director Sedlar is pronounced saddle-ar
[3] Mile Budak was an Ustashe official during WWII and a writer.
"Hearths" is
his best known novel. He
is infamous for his participation in the organization of the genocide of
Serbs, Jews and Gypsies in the
Independent State of Croatia. Since the independence he has been a sort
of a
poster boy for Croatian
nationalists and his name has been given to many streets throughout
Croatia.
Translated on March 24 2000
---
1997: I PADRI FONDATORI (FASCISTI) DELLA CROAZIA INDIPENDENTE
Fascists Reborn as Croatia's Founding Fathers
By CHRIS HEDGES
The old fascist marching songs were sung, a moment of silence was
observed
for all who died defending the fatherland, and the gathering was
reminded
that today was the 57th anniversary of the founding of Croatia's
Nazi-allied
wartime government. Then came the most chilling words of the afternoon.
"For Home!" shouted Anto Dapic, surrounded by bodyguards in black suits
and
crew cuts.
"Ready!" responded the crowd of 500 supporters, their arms rising in a
stiff
Nazi salute.
The call and response -- the Croatian equivalent of "Sieg!" "Heil!" --
was
the wartime greeting used by supporters of the fascist Independent State
of
Croatia, which governed the country for most the Second World War and
murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Croatian resistance
fighters.
Today, in the final day of campaigning before local elections on Sunday,
supporters of Croatia's Party of Rights used the chant as a rallying
cry. But
the shouts of the black-shirted young men -- and the indifferent
reactions of
passersby -- illustrated a broader aspect of this country's self-image.
President Franjo Tudjman and his Croatian Democratic Union party rose to
popularity and power on the strength of its appeals to Croatians'
national
pride. Now, six years after the war that won Croatia its independence
from
Yugoslavia, Mr. Tudjman's party continues to cast the World War II
fascist
fighters as patriots and precursors of the modern Croatian state.
The Party of Rights took only 7 percent of the vote in the last
election, but
it is the closest ally of Mr. Tudjman, who is reported to be suffering
from
cancer but who has still campaigned actively.
Perhaps no other country has failed as openly as Croatia to come to
terms
with its fascist legacy. While the French celebrate a resistance
movement
that was often dwarfed by the widespread collaboration with the Vichy
regime,
and while the Austrians often act as if the war never happened, the
Croats
have rehabilitated the Croatian fascist collaborators, known as the
Ustashe.
The Ustashe was led by Ante Pavelic, the wartime dictator whose picture
was
plastered on walls in Split in preparation for the rally.
"A majority of the Croats oppose this rehabilitation," said Viktor
Ivancic,
editor in chief of the opposition weekly, The Feral Tribune. "But they
are
afraid. These neo-fascist groups, protected by the state, are ready to
employ
violence against their critics."
Ustashe veterans receive larger pensions than old Partisan fighters, who
waged a savage fight against the German and Croatian fascist armies.
Former
Ustashe soldiers are invited to state celebrations, like the annual army
day,
while Partisan fighters are ignored. And state authorities have stood by
as
pro-Ustashe groups have dismantled or destroyed 2,964 of 4,073 monuments
to
those who died in the resistance struggle, according to veteran Partisan
groups.
The identification with the quisling regime does not stop there. The
Croatian
currency is the kuna, the same instituted by the fascists. And the red
and
white checkerboard on the flag, taken from medieval Croatian emblems,
previously adorned the Ustashe uniform. The President recently proposed
bringing Mr. Pavelic's remains from Spain, where he died in exile in
1959,
for burial in Croatia, a move rejected by Mr. Pavelic's family. And
Vinko
Nikolic, an 85-year-old former high-ranking Ustashe official who fled
into
exile after the war, was appointed by the President to the Croatian
Parliament.
The transformation is all the more noticeable because of widespread
participation by many Croats in the Partisan guerrilla movement led by
Josip
Broz Tito, himself a Croat.
"A huge number of Croats fought the Nazis and the Ustashe," said
77-year-Partisan veteran Milivoj Borosa, who defected in his bomber in
1942
from the Ustashe air force and dropped his payload on a German unit
during
his escape to the Soviet Union. "But today, those who should hold their
heads
in shame, are national heroes."
The Partisans, who included among their ranks the young Franjo Tudjman,
committed what today is viewed as an unforgivable sin. They built a
united,
Communist Yugoslavia. And while the Ustashe state may have been a Nazi
puppet, it had as its stated aim the establishment of an independent
Croatia,
although it was forced by the Axis to turn over large parts of Croatia,
including much of the Dalmatian coast, to the Italians.
In the current campaign, President Tudjman sought to reconcile the
country's
wartime divisions by arguing that the fascist and anti-fascist Croatians
performed equally valuable service for their country. A general who
became a
historian after leaving the Yugoslav Army, Mr. Tudjman is among the
leaders
of a revisionist school of history that has sought to counterbalance the
Communists' relentlessly dark view of the fascist years.
But many Croats, especially those who had relatives killed by the
fascists,
smolder with indignation over the glorification of a regime that
massacred
opponents with a ferocity that often shocked its Italian and German
allies.
"You cannot reconcile victims and butchers," said Ognjen Kraus, the head
of
Zagreb's small Jewish community. "No one has the right to carry out a
reconciliation in the name of those who vanished."
The climate has become so charged that those who oppose the
rehabilitation of
the Ustashe do not dare raise their voices. And there have been several
attacks carried out against members of the Social Democratic Party, the
old
Communist party, currently fielding candidates for the municipal
elections.
Many of the black-uniformed bodyguards at the rally here fought against
the
Serbs as members of The Croatian Liberation Forces, a brutal right-wing
paramilitary unit formed by the party.
The Ustashe supporters also have a powerful ally in the Catholic Church
in
Croatia. The church, led during the war by Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac,
was
a prominent backer of the Ustashe regime. It forcibly converted tens of
thousands of Orthodox Serbs and did not denounce the government's
roundup and
massacre of Jews and Serbs.
During the war, Jews and Orthodox Serbs were subject to racial laws. The
Serbs had to wear blue arm bands with the letter "P" for "Pravoslav" --
Orthodox -- before being deported to death camps like Jasenovac.
After the war, many priests, rather than condemn the brutality of the
fascist
regime, went on to set up an underground network know as "the rat line"
to
smuggle former Ustashe leaders, including Mr. Pavelic, to countries like
Argentina.
The church, persecuted by the Communists, has now re-emerged as one of
the
most powerful institutions in the country, in large part because
religion is
the only tangible difference separating Serbs, Muslims and Croats.
Several
priests have enthusiastically joined the rehabilitation campaign,
portraying
Mr. Pavelic as a pious leader who championed Christian values.
"Ante Pavelic was a good Catholic," said Father Luka Prcela, who has
held a
memorial Mass for the former dictator in Split for the last four years.
"He
went to mass daily in his own chapel. Many of the crimes alleged to have
been
committed by his Government never happened. These stories were lies
spread by
the communists. He fought for a free, Catholic Croatia. We have this
state
today because of him."
(c) The New York Times, April 12, 1997
---
1995: PERPLESSITA' EBRAICHE SUI RAPPORTI TRA USA E CROAZIA...
Open Letter to Branko Lustig, Producer of a Misunderstanding in
Washington
by Mirko Mirkovic
Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, 2/20/95
I would like to review your speech presented to the Press Club in
Washington,
D.C. on 11/21/94, which
made a great impact recently in Croatia. It was published in its
entirety by
Vjesnik and then by Vecernji
List [state-owned daily newspapers]. Obviously, it deserved such
publicity,
since it is full of praise for
President Tudjman. You had an honor of sitting next to him at the
premier of
the film ``Schindler's List"
in cinema ``Europe" [in Zagreb]. You were, in your words,``excited
because
all of the important officials
in the Croatian government were present." I can sympathize that it
really
must have been exciting. You
noticed that the president was personally moved by the film:``after the
film
finished, he got up, gave me a
hug and I could swear that his eyes were full of tears."
If only he could have seen ``Schindler's List" before he published his
book
``Wastelands of Historical
Reality" [``Bespuca Historijske Zbiljnosti"]. Maybe he would not have
quoted
a disgusting story about the
Jews in Jasenovac [largest concentration camp in Croatia during the
WWII],
contributed by two
antisemites who had been released from the camp. In any case, why is it
that,
as a historian, he did not
find it necessary to quote testimonies of Jewish inmates who survived
the
Ustashe [Croatian fascists]
Auschwitz by pure luck? Their testimonies about that inferno were
collected
in a book published in 1972.
It is true that, later, as a president of the republic, he ``expressed
sorrow
for the suffering of the Croatian
Jews in the holocaust." Commendable. However, the president of Germany,
Roman
Hertzog went a step
further than expressing ``sorrow" when last summer he said in Warsaw:``I
beg
for forgiveness for what
the Germans did to you."
The day after the premiere of ``Schindler's List", you said:``I received
a
high Croatian decoration, Order
of Prince Trpimir... During the ceremony the president apologized to me
and
all members of the Jewish
community for those who during the Second World War took part in
Enforcement
of Hitler's racist laws."
In 1941 you were still a child and maybe did not know that in Croatia
racist
laws were not enacted by
Hitler, but by Independent State of Croatia (ISC) [Nezavisna Drzave
Hrvatska
or NDH was a Nazi
puppet state from 1941 to 1945; it was run by Croatian fascist movement
-
Ustashe in Croatian] and
enforced by Ustashe government. You might not be aware that Vinko
Nikolic was
an important
functionary in that government, a member of the Ustashe High Command. He
was
enraptured by the
Poglavnik [term corresponding to Fuhrer in Ustashe terminology] Ante
Pavelic.
``Our new intelligentsia,"
wrote Vinko Nikolic in the Novi List on 7/2/41,``must raise new
generations
under ustashe [ie. fascist]
values and above all, must engender in Croatian youth, from the earliest
age,
unlimited and devoted
loyalty towards the Poglavnik." He was not only enraptured with the
Poglavnik, but also interested in
literature, which, according to him would help the Ustashe movement ``to
mold
a new man," whose main
characteristics must be:``nationalistic soul, Ustashe heart, Poglavnik's
teaching and Ustashe creed" (Vinko
Nikolic, National Goals of Literature, Zagreb, 1944). He showed his
``loyalty
to the Poglavnik" in the
emigration to Madrid in 1949, when the Ustashe crimes were already known
around the world, by
composing an ode to Poglavnik's ISC.
Why am I mentioning this to you? Because that gentlemen recently
returned to
Zagreb, to the
government's warm welcome. President Tudjman, fighter against fascism in
the
WWII, did not know
better then to make this gentlemen (who with his ``Ustashe heart" took
part
in the machinery of the
holocaust) a member of the upper house of the Croatian parliament! No,
that
``educator according to the
fascist values" never killed anyone himself. He sat at his desk and
supported
criminals with his pen. Do
you know that, mister Lustig ?
Men for all Times
Do you think that a man who in the third Reich demanded from the youth
``limitless devotion to the
Fuhrer," could today, in democratic Germany become a member of Bundestag
-
German Federal
Parliament? Do you think that the units of the German Army could be
named
after Nazi war criminals, as
some units of the Croatian Army bear names of Ustashe butchers? Do you
think
that some
SS-Sturmbandfuhrer, who during the third Reich signed a racist order,
could
get today a high decoration
from the president of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)? Still, all
of
this is possible. But not in
todays Germany. Signatory of the racist Ustashe order in 1941, Ustashe
stozernik [military rank] Ivo
Rojnica, was decorated by the Poglavnik with the order of merit `` for
the
zealous service in Ustashe
movement." The very same zealot of Ustashe movement - who declared in
``Slobodna
Dalmacija":``everything I did in 1941 I would do again" - has recently
received a decoration of the high
Order of Prince Trpimir from the hands of president Tudjman personally!
Of
course this case is not
unique. Accomplice in the German genocide on the Balkan, Kurt Waldheim
also
received a high
decoration from Pavelic and then, after the war, as a secretary of the
UN,
another one from Tito! Some
people are truly for all times. Franjo Tudjman, Tito's general, knows
that
much.
The grotesque part is that you, Mr. Lustig, an Auschwitz survivor, wear
the
same decoration as a Ustashe
officer who ``zealously worked" to implement the holocaust on the
territory
of the ISC. And with great
success. Of approximately 40,000 Jews on the territory of ISC, three
quarters
were killed. Survivors were
only those who managed to escape to the Italian occupation zone or
joined the
Partisans [indigenous
communist guerilla army under Tito's leadership]. Many were helped by
the
Croatians. But while the
Croatian citizens, in personal danger, were helping persecuted Jews as
much
as they could, the
government of ISC was killing them whenever possible.
You quoted president Tudjman's message to Melvin Salzberger and Abraham
Foxman, in which he
distances himself and the Croatian government from the quisling Croatian
state [ISC] and the Ustashe
regime. Very good and commendable. But if you lived here, I believe that
as a
Jew, you would be worried
by the rehabilitation of the Ustashe ISC, which encompasses
historiography,
newspaper articles, TV talk
shows, naming of military units after infamous Ustashe ``knights", all
the
way to restaurants with names
like ``Poglavnik", ``Coffee Bar Ustasha" and similar reminders of the
genocide of the Jews in ISC. Not
far from the house in which I live, one can find Poglavnik's picture and
a
bust in a bar, so that the patrons
can get the idea about the owner's political leanings. I am convinced
that
you will agree with me that it is
unimaginable that in todays Germany restaurants and hotels would be
named
after the Fuhrer or the SS
officers, or that a Fuhrer's picture could be displayed in them. In
Germany,
such things are regulated by
the law. We in Croatia apparently have more democracy than Germans. If
it is
true, as you said, that it is
``improbable that in Croatia we see the strengthening of fascism," one
faces
a question: why does not the
president and the government protest against the rehabilitation of the
criminal ISC? It is true, as you said,
that in Croatia ``there is no antisemitism but there are a few
antisemites."
After Auschwitz, antisemitism
can hardly be en vogue. The Croatian president and the government on
several
occasions, have expressed
their favorable inclination towards the Jewish community. Was that
because of
some special love towards
the Jews? Or in order to score a few good PR points in the USA? - I
leave the
answer to you.
It is unthinkable that in democratic Germany an ex-Nazi propaganda boss
could
appear on TV and discuss
the benefits of the third Reich. On the other hand, one of the Zagreb TV
channels showed in 1992 a
program with the boss of Ustashe propaganda, Daniel Crljen. The same one
who
during the ISC
declared:``Croatia has radically solved its Jewish problem."
Points scored away from the Home field
You said that ``the tendencies described in the press (I suppose foreign
!)
are marginal and have no
support from the president or the government." Very good. However, a
striking
question is why that same
president and the government do not publicly and decisively condemn
numerous
cases of rehabilitation of
Ustashe ISC. Nothing would be easier, since they have a total control
over
the daily press and the
electronic media.
For the Jewish community, the instances of Ustashe rehabilitation can
hardly
be ``marginal." Especially
not for those Jews who survived the holocaust and who after returning to
their homeland found out that
they were left alone in this world, without a mother and a father,
without
brothers and sisters, without
their children. All of them have disappeared without a trace in Ustashe
branch offices of ``the final
solution", in Jasenovac, Stara Gradiska, Jadovna, on Pag. By the way,
the
last several hundred Jews in
Croatia, mostly elderly, were turned turned over to Eichmann, ie. sent
straight to the Nazi gas chambers.
Cardinal Stepinac tried to save Zagreb Chef Rabbi, Miroslav Freiberger
and
his family. He did not
succeed. Eichmann's word had more importance for the Poglavnik than that
of
Cardinal Stepinac.
Would it therefore be marginal for you, Mr. Lustig, if you were facing
today
the rehabilitation of racist
butchers from Auschwitz? You also said:``claims that the present
government
encourages fascism are
absolutely false." If that is true, I would be grateful if you could
explain
how that squares with the fact
that the approximately 2000 monuments to the fighters against and
victims of
fascism have been
destroyed in Croatia [since 1991] ( by ``unknown" perpetrators);
memorials
for the people who were
cruelly killed simply because they had been born Jews, or Serbs or
Gypsies or
were Croatian antifascists!
Also, do not you find it perplexing, as an Auschwitz survivor, that
president
Tudjman was so keen to
erase the Victims of Fascism Square name? I believe that you will agree
with
me, when I say that those
fighters against fascism in Croatia sacrificed their lives in the common
struggle of the humanity against the
deadly darkness which threatened to turn all of Europe in a continental
Auschwitz. Why have not the
Croatian authorities condemned or why have not they decisively
confronted
that barbarian destruction of
the memorials for the victims of fascism? Or maybe someone thinks that
the
historical facts can be
thrown into a black hole of oblivion, as did the Big Brother's
``Ministry of
Truth" in Orwell's 1984?
Black Hole of Oblivion
In your Washington speech you said:``the number of Jews in Partisans was
small." With that claim you
unfortunately misinformed your American audience. Yugoslavia had about
70,000
Jews before the
WWII. About 4,500 of those, or more than 6 percent of the total Jewish
population, took part in the
national liberation war. That means that the participation of Jews in
the
antifascist struggle was
proportionally larger than that of any other nation on the territory of
ex-Yugoslavia.
You tried to convince your American audience that Kuna is an appropriate
choice for the name of the
Croatian currency. You said:`` I personally do not see that as a
connection
with the fascist period.".
Ustashe ISC was just the first state to name the Croatian currency Kuna.
But
what sort of connection
could that have with our ``most democratic country in Europe" [a common
phrase in the Croatian press,
referring to Croatia].
Commemoration of the 50 years since the liberation of Auschwitz has
recently
taken place in Poland. Eli
Wiesel, Nobel Prize winner, and ,as you said, your friend from the death
march in January of 1943 took
part in the commemoration. you quoted his words:`` To forget is to kill
the
victims for the second time.
We could not stop their death the first time round. We must not allow
them to
be killed again." Don't you
also find intolerable the rehabilitation of Ustashe ISC, which was until
the
last moment of the third Reich
its ally in the most horrendous genocide in history?
The author is a writer and translator, ex-secretary of Croatian PEN and
a
longtime member of the
Jewish Community Council in Zagreb
Translated in May 1995
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