Denial of genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia

Denial of the genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a Nazi German puppet state which existed during World War II, is a historical negationist claim that no systematic mass crimes or genocide against Serbs took place in the NDH, as well as an attempt to minimize the scale and severity of genocide.

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One of the strategies includes the claims that the Jasenovac concentration camp was just a labor camp, not an extermination camp. The Croatian Wikipedia has also attracted attention from international media because of bias and negationism about the crimes of the NDH.

Historiography

SFR Yugoslavia

The genocide of Serbs was not properly examined in the aftermath of the war, because the post-war Yugoslav government led by the Communist Party didn't encourage independent scholars out of concern that ethnic tensions stemming from the war could have the capacity to destabilize the new regime.[1][2][3][4] They tried to conceal wartime atrocities and to mask specific ethnic losses.[2][5] The genocide scholar Henry R. Huttenbach wrote that “an ideologized and camouflaged Titoist Yugoslav history” suppressed the genocide against Serbs, as well as that “suppression bordering of total denial”.[5] All World War II casualties were presented as “Yugoslavs”, while all collaborationists were named as “fascists”.[5]

Croatia

Historian Mirjana Kasapović explained that in the most important scientific works on genocide, crimes against Serbs, Jews and Roma in the NDH are unequivocally classified as genocide.[6] However, she concluded that there are three main strategies of historical revisionism in the part of modern-day Croatian historiography: the NDH was a normal counter-insurgency state at the time; no mass crimes were committed in the NDH, especially genocide; the Jasenovac camp was just a labor camp, not an extermination camp.[6] Croatian textbooks justified the existence of the NDH with an emotional narrative: the “millennial thread” of Croatian statehood had been annulled under by “the greater-Serbian regime’s attempt to destroy all signs of Croatian nationness”.[7] Furthermore, textbooks relativize terror against Serbs by claiming that was a result of “their previous hegemony”.[7]

Historian Hrvoje Klasić noted that since the independence of Croatia during the Breakup of Yugoslavia, a new approach to the study and teaching of Croatian history was established, which includes downplaying and denying Ustaše crimes.[8] He stated that the trend of revisionism and negationism varied in intensity over the next twenty-five years, but was never completely stopped.[8] Historian Rory Yeomans said in 2018 that historical revisionism in the 1990s had “its strongholds in the academy and mainstream politics” and that today's revisionists aim to rehabilitate the Ustaše regime in its entirety, comparing it to a Tuđman-era when the trend was to minimize the crimes or rehabilitate only certain aspects of it.[9] He also noted that revisionists claim that commemorating the Ustaše crimes constitutes an attempt to “blacken the name of Croatia, declare the Croats a genocidal people and criminalize the Homeland War”.[9]

Left: Josip Pečarić; Right: Josip Jurčević
The most prominent genocide deniers

In his review of Josip Jurčević's work, The Origin of the Jasenovac Myth, the German historian Holm Sundhaussen notes that while Jurčević is justified in his criticism of communist Yugoslavia's Jasenovac casualty numbers, he "willingly and thoughtlessly" adopts the term "Jasenovac myth" and tries to demonstrate, through the omitting of information, that Jasenovac was a "labor camp" and that genocide in the WW2 Independent State of Croatia did not occur.[10] Jurčević also wrote that concentration camp victims dying from poor hygiene and infectious diseases.[7]

Croatia's far-right often advocates the false theory that Jasenovac was a "labour camp" where mass murder did not take place.[11] Some rights activists say that distortion of World War II crimes exist in Croatia and it was especially prevalent during the 1990s war when anti-Serb sentiment was high.[12] One prominent promoter of this is the far-right NGO "The Society for Research of the Threefold Jasenovac Camp". Its members include journalist Igor Vukić and academic Josip Pečarić who have written books promoting this theory.[13] The Ideas promoted by its members have been amplified by mainstream media interviews and book tours.[13] The last book, "The Jasenovac Lie Revealed" written by Vukić, prompted the Simon Wiesenthal Center to urge Croatian authorities to ban such works, noting that they "would immediately be banned in Germany and Austria and rightfully so".[14][15] When asked if the society engaged in genocide denial, Vukić responded by saying "When it’s about genocide, it is often linked to Serbs. If it’s about that, we do deny it".[12] Menachem Z. Rosensaft, the general counsel of the World Jewish Congress, condemned the affirmative column about Vukić's book written by Milan Ivkošić in the Večernji list, emphasizing that “there are horrific realities of history that must not be questioned, distorted or denied by anyone”.[16]

In 2016, Croatian filmmaker Jakov Sedlar released a documentary Jasenovac – The Truth which advocated the same theories, labeling the camp as a "collection and labour camp".[17] The film contained alleged falsifications and forgeries, in addition to denial of crimes and hate speech towards politicians and journalists.[18]

High officials' statements

Some Croats, including politicians, have attempted to minimise the magnitude of the genocide perpetrated against Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia.[19]

By 1989, the future President of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman had embraced Croatian nationalism, and published Horrors of War: Historical Reality and Philosophy, in which he questioned the official number of victims killed by the Ustaše during the Second World War. In his book, Tuđman claimed that between 30,000 and 40,000 died at Jasenovac.[20] Some scholars and observers accused Tuđman of “flirting with ideas associated with the Ustaše movement” and downplaying the number of victims in the Independent State of Croatia.[21][22][23][24][25]

Nonetheless, in his book, he did confirm that genocide happened:

It is a historical fact that the Ustaše regime of NDH, in its implementation of the plan to reduce the 'hostile Serb Orthodox people in Croatian lands', committed a large genocidal crime over the Serbs, and proportionately even higher over the Roma and Jews, in the implementation of Nazi racial politics.[26]

Franjo Tuđman sparked controversy over “flirting with the Ustaše ideas” and downplaying the number of victims in the NDH

In 2006, a video was leaked showing Croatian President Stipe Mesić giving a speech in Australia in the early 1990s, in which he said that the Croats had "won a great victory on April 10th" (the date of the formation of the Independent State of Croatia in 1941), and that Croatia needed to apologize to no one for Jasenovac.[27] Later on, Mesić apologized for his indecent statement and stated that he undoubtedly considered anti-fascism to be the basis of modern-day Croatia, appreciated Yugoslav Partisans and considered it necessary to "reaffirm anti-fascism as a human and civilization commitment in the function of the unavoidable condition for the building of a democratic Croatia, a country of equal citizens."[28] In 2017, two new videos Mesić from 1992 were made public in which he stated that Jasenovac wasn't a death camp and praised Ustashe minister Andrija Artuković.[11]

On 17 April 2011, in a commemoration ceremony, Croatian President Ivo Josipović warned that there were "attempts to drastically reduce or decrease the number of Jasenovac victims", adding, "faced with the devastating truth here that certain members of the Croatian people were capable of committing the cruelest of crimes."[29]

Croatian historian and politician Zlatko Hasanbegović, who previously served as the country's Minister of Culture in 2016, has been accused of downplaying the crimes of the Ustaše and trying to rehabilitate their ideas in his work.[30] In 1996, Hasanbegović wrote at least two articles in the magazine "The Independent State of Croatia", edited by the small far-right Croatian Liberation Movement party (HOP), in which he glorified the Ustaše as heroes and martyrs and denied crimes committed by the regime.[31] In response, Hasanbegović denied being an apologist for the regime, stating that Ustaša crimes during the Second World War were "the biggest moral lapse" of the Croatian people in their history and that his words were taken out of context for political manipulation.[32]

Since 2016, anti-fascist groups, leaders of Croatia's Serb, Roma and Jewish communities and former top Croat officials have boycotted the official state commemoration for the victims of the Jasenovac concentration camp because, as they said, Croatian authorities refused to denounce the Ustaše legacy explicitly and they downplayed and revitalized crimes committed by Ustaše.[33][34][35][36]

In September 2019, during the meeting with Adama Dieng, the UN Secretary-General's Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide, Željko Komšić, the Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina said that the crime of genocide against Serbs, Roma and Jews committed by the Independent State of Croatia is denied through the public and political activity of some individuals in Croatia.[37]

Croatian Wikipedia

The Croatian Wikipedia has received attention from international media for promoting a fascist worldview as well as a bias against Serbs by means of historical revisionism and negating or diluting the severity of the crimes that were committed by the Ustaše regime. The controversy erupted in September 2013 when a group of exiled Wikipedians started a Facebook page in order to discuss the takeover of the Croatian Wikipedia by right-wingers, bringing the issue to the attention of Croatian and Serbian news outlets.[38] The issue was reported by Croatia's daily Jutarnji list and even made its print edition's front page on 11 September 2013.[39] In one pertinent example, the Croatian page on the Jasenovac concentration camp refers to the camp as both a “collection camp” and a labor camp, and it downplays the crimes that were committed at Jasenovac, as well as the number of victims who died there, and it also relies on right-wing media and private blogs as references.[40] Apart from whitewashing the crimes and vices of World War II-era criminals, the same thing is done for contemporary Croatian politicians and public figures.[41]

References
  1. "Jasenovac". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2007. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  2. McCormick 2008.
  3. Odak & Benčić 2016, p. 67.
  4. Bürgschwentner, Egger & Barth-Scalmani 2014, p. 455.
  5. Huttenbach 2016, p. 224.
  6. Kasapović 2018.
  7. Pavasović Trošt 2018.
  8. Klasić 2016.
  9. Yeomans, Rory (6 June 2018). "How to Combat Croatian Revisionists' Culture of Lies". Balkan Insight. BIRN.
  10. Sundhaussen, Holm. "Rezension 55: Jurčévić, Josip: Die Entstehung des Mythos Jasenovac. Probleme bei der Forschungsarbeit zu den Opfern des II. Weltkrieges auf dem Gebiet von Kroatien". Osteuropa-Institut.
  11. Milekic, Sven (24 January 2017). "Croatia Ex-President Shown Downplaying WWII Crimes". Balkan Insight. BIRN.
  12. Opačić, Tamara (24 November 2017). "Selective Amnesia: Croatia's Holocaust Deniers". Balkan Insight. BIRN.
  13. Vladisavljevic, Anja (7 January 2019). "Book Event Questioning WWII Crimes Planned for Zagreb Church". Balkan Insight. BIRN.
  14. "Simon Wiesenthal Centre urges Croatia to ban Jasenovac revisionist works". hr.n1info.com. N1 Zagreb. 9 January 2019.
  15. "Jewish rights group urges Croatia to ban pro-Nazi book". Associated Press. 9 January 2019.
  16. Rosensaft, Menachem (27 August 2018). "Croatia Must Not Whitewash the Horrors of Jasenovac". Balkan Insight. BIRN.
  17. Milekic, Sven (21 April 2017). "Dishonour for Zagreb Over 'Alternative Facts' About Holocaust". BalkanInsight. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  18. "Jakov Sedlar bi zbog filma 'Jasenovac – istina' mogao u zatvor" (in Croatian). Telegram. 18 April 2016.
  19. Drago Hedl (10 November 2005). "Croatia's Willingness To Tolerate Fascist Legacy Worries Many". BCR Issue 73. IWPR. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
  20. Sindbaek 2012, p. 178-179.
  21. Sadkovich 2010.
  22. Ciment & Hill 2012, p. 492.
  23. Horvitz & Catherwood 2014, pp. 432-433.
  24. Parenti 2002, pp. 44-45.
  25. "Franjo Tudjman". The Guardian. 13 December 1999. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  26. Tuđman, Franjo (1996). Velike ideje i mali narodi (in Croatian). Zagreb: Nakladni zavod Matice hrvatske. pp. 314–315., cited in Havel, Boris (2015). "O izučavanju holokausta u Hrvatskoj i hrvatskoj državotvornosti". Nova Prisutnost. 13 (1): 105. Retrieved 16 November 2017. Povijesna je činjenica da je ustaški režim NDH, u provedbi svojih planova o smanjenju ‘neprijateljskog srpsko-pravoslavnog pučanstva u hrvatskim zemljama’ izvršio velik genocidni zločin nad Srbima, a razmjerno još veći nad Romima i Židovima, u provedbi nacističke rasne politike.
  27. (in Croatian) Vijesti.net: "stari govor Stipe Mesića: Pobijedili smo 10. travnja!", index.hr; accessed 4 March 2014.
  28. "STIPE MESIĆ O SVOJIM IZJAVAMA O NDH I USTAŠTVU U AUSTRALIJI 'Dopustio sam da me upregnu u kola jednostrane interpretacije povijesti'". Jutarnji Vjesti. 13 February 2016.
  29. "Croatian Auschwitz must not be forgotten". B92. 17 April 2011. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  30. Hockenos, Paul (6 May 2016). "Croatia's Far Right Weaponizes the Past". ForeignPolicy.com.
  31. Simicevic, Hrvoje (12 February 2016). "What were the Ustasa for Minister Hasanbegovic?". BalkanInsight.com.
  32. "Hasanbegovic: Ustasha crimes biggest moral lapse in history of Croatian people". EBL News. 11 February 2016.
  33. "Dokle će se u Jasenovac u tri kolone?". N1. 23 April 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  34. "Jasenovac Camp Victims Commemorated Separately Again". balkaninsight.com. 12 April 2019. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  35. "Jewish and Serbian minorities boycott official "Croatian Auschwitz" commemoration". neweurope.eu. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  36. "Former top Croat officials join boycott of Jasenovac event". B92. 12 April 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  37. "Dokle će se u Jasenovac u tri kolone?". N1. 29 September 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  38. Sampson, Tim (1 October 2013). "How pro-fascist ideologues are rewriting Croatia's history". dailydot.com.
  39. "Desničari preuzeli uređivanje hrvatske Wikipedije" [Right-wing editors took over the Croatian Wikipedia]. Jutarnji list (in Croatian). 10 September 2013.
  40. Milekic, Sven (26 March 2018). "How Croatian Wikipedia Made a Concentration Camp Disappear". BalkanInsight.com. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  41. "Što nas Wikipedia uči o medijskoj pismenosti: Kako su pali Daily Mail, Breitbart i InfoWars". Faktograf.hr (in Croatian). 18 October 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2019.

Sources

Books
  • Sindbaek, Tia (2012). Usable History?: Representations of Yugoslavia's Difficult Past from 1945 to 2002. ISD LLC. ISBN 978-8-77124-107-5.
  • Ciment, James; Hill, Kenneth (2012). Political Violence in Twentieth-Century Europe. Routledge. ISBN 9781136596216.
  • Bürgschwentner, Joachim; Egger, Matthias; Barth-Scalmani, Gunda (2014). Other Fronts, Other Wars?: First World War Studies on the Eve of the Centennial. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-24365-1.
  • Horvitz, Leslie Alan; Catherwood, Christopher (2014). Encyclopedia of War Crimes and Genocide. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781438110295.
  • Parenti, Michael (2002). To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia. Verso Books. ISBN 9781859843666.
  • Ramet, Sabrina (2007). Democratic Transition in Croatia: Value Transformation, Education, and Media. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 9781603444521.
  • Walasek, Helen (2016). Bosnia and the Destruction of Cultural Heritage. Routledge. ISBN 9781317172994.
  • Mojzes, Paul (2011). Balkan Genocides: Holocaust and Ethnic Cleansing in the 20th Century. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442206632.
  • Huttenbach, Henry R. (2016). "Genocide Denial". In Chorbajian, Levon; Shirinian, George (eds.). Studies in Comparative Genocide. Springer. ISBN 9781349273485.

Journals


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