Saturday, January 01, 2022

SPECIAL IMAGES...O.S.S. Captain Nick and wife Mira Lalich, with George "Guv" Musulin 1952 in Greece/ Heroes of the Halyard Mission Rescue Operation of WWII

O.S.S. Captain Nick Lalich, wife Mira, and George "Guv" Musulin - 1952 Greece.
Lalich Archives.


"TIME...FLIES...BY...Greece circa 1952. Seventy years ago. My Mama Mira surrounded by her CIA bodyguards, Mr. Nick Lalich and Mr. George "Guv" Musulin. The Three Musketeers. Happy New Year 2022! Photo from the Archives of Nick Lalich"


Courtesy of Captain Nick Lalich's daughter, Stephanie Lalich Adams, who has made it her mission to share her father's legacy with the world...


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If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com

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Thursday, March 11, 2021

PETITION / PETICIJA / Help stop hate speech - The Los Angeles Times denies WWII genocide [Dara of Jasenovac]


A Review or REFUTE of History? (NA SRPSKOM DOLE)

[By Juliana Pandurević]

To Robert Abele and the Los Angeles Times,

On Thursday, February 4th, [2021] your review of ‘Dara of Jasenovac’, titled as “A Holocaust Drama with an Agenda” was published. 

You begin by accusing the film of having a thin veneer of historical reality that “will test the patience of even the most rigorous students of cultural representations of genocide.” In this opening statement you make quite clear your agenda for this article; not to review a film based on a detailed analysis and assessment of the film – which you have every right to do – but to engage in historical revisionism and genocide denial. The reason we can make this claim is because you spend most of your article denying war crimes that, at this point, are common knowledge and not something anyone can legitimately refute.

Before presenting some basic facts about Jasenovac, I would like to share a deeply personal experience from my childhood. One of my earliest memories is sitting with my grandfather as he told me what happened to his family in what is known as “The Glina Massacres.” As you demonstrate to know, the Ustashe, led by Ante Pavelić, established a pro-Nazi government with Adolf Hitler's support shortly after the invasion of Yugoslavia, ruling an enlarged “Independent State of Croatia (NDH)”. The Ustashe’s racial policy towards Serbs was “kill a third, expel a third, convert a third.” The creator of this policy was Mile Budak, a high-ranking NDH official and one of the chief ideologists of the Croatian fascist Ustasha movement. To note, this movement began long before the creation of the NDH.

The policy was put into effect immediately. Hundreds of prominent Serbs from the Krajina region of Croatia were arrested and shot by Ustashe soldiers. The majority of the Serb population went into hiding. The Ustashe responded by offering an amnesty to Serbs if they converted to Roman Catholicism. Many Serbs, wanting to spare their families' lives, responded and turned up at the Serbian Orthodox church in Glina. The exact numbers are disputed, but, just to note, the Nuremberg Trials heard that 250 had arrived at the church. The Serbs were herded inside and the doors of the church were locked shut after the last had entered. The Ustashe massacred everyone using clubs and knives. The bodies were taken by trucks to a burial pit, and the church was then burned down. 

Words cannot describe the way I felt after hearing this story for the first time. I had never seen my grandfather cry until that day. 

The following are some basic facts about Jasenovac: 

Jasenovac, known as “The Auschwitz of the Balkans”, was a concentration and extermination camp where, according to the Jewish Virtual Library, an estimated 700,000 people were killed. The Jasenovac Research Institute estimates between 300,000-700,000 and the former director of the Belgrade Museum of the Holocaust, Milan Bulajić, estimated the total deaths at 500,000 to 700,000. Other organizations estimate smaller numbers, but there is no need to engage in a political debate about the number of deaths. That is not what this petition is about. The focus here are your actions.

For example, you stated in your article that the “massive Jasenovac complex of camps was one more hell on Earth for Jews. But what director Peter Antonijević’s epic of barbarism and sentimentality wants to drive home is that the annihilation of ethnic Serbs was the real focus, and that children got their own camp.” Clearly you have done some research on the subject. However, the majority of victims were Serbs (as part of the Genocide of the Serbs), but also included Jews, Roma, and some political dissidents. Therefore the annihilation of ethnic Serbs was the real focus of the Ustashe. It is evident that you intentionally disavowed Serb (and other) victims. In doing so, you engaged in genocide denial.

Furthermore, there was a separate camp for children in the NDH. In fact, there were many. Most children were held at the Stara Gradiška camp within the Jasenovac complex. It was specifically designed for women and children. Other children were held at associated camps in Jablanac and Mlaka, while others were also held in other Ustashe concentration camps for children in the NDH (such as Sisak and Jastrebarsko). By rejecting these facts in your review, you are abnegating genocide and the trauma of an entire nation.

As the film’s release poster reads, “the human spirit will not be erased.” It is because of people like Dara in the movie, that Serbs have the strength to walk in grace and defend our history against people like yourself who are ignorant and neglectful in your journalistic and personal practises. 

On behalf of the Serbian diaspora, I, Juliana Pandurević, and all who have signed this petition, implore you to remove this publication for its historical revisionism and denial of genocide. 

NA SRPSKOM: 

Pregled ili opovrgavanje istorije?

Započinjete optuživanjem filma da ima tanki sloj istorijske stvarnosti koji će "testirati strpljenje čak i najrigoroznijih učenika kulturnih predstava o genocidu". U ovoj uvodnoj reči sasvim ste jasno istakli svoj dnevni red za ovaj članak; ne da pregledate film na osnovu detaljne analize i procene filma - na šta imate svako pravo - već da se uključite u istorijski revizionizam i poricanje genocida. Razlog zbog kojeg možemo izneti ovu tvrdnju je taj što veći deo svog članka trošite negirajući ratne zločine koji su u ovom trenutku opštepoznati i nisu nešto što bilo ko može legitimno opovrgnuti.

Pre nego što iznesem neke osnovne činjenice o Jasenovcu, želela bih da podelim duboko lično iskustvo iz detinjstva. Jedno od mojih najranijih sećanja je sedenje sa dedom dok mi je pričao šta se dogodilo sa njegovom porodicom u onome što je poznato kao "masakr u Glini". Kao što znate, ustaše, predvođene Antom Pavelićem, uspostavile su pro-nacističku vladu uz podršku Adolfa Hitlera ubrzo nakon invazije na Jugoslaviju, vladajući proširenom "Nezavisnom Državom Hrvatskom (NDH)". Ustaška rasna politika prema Srbima bila je "trećinu ubiti, trećinu proterati, trećinu pokrstiti". Tvorac ove politike bio je Mile Budak, visoki funkcioner NDH i jedan od glavnih ideologa hrvatskog fašističkog ustaškog pokreta. Da primetimo, ovaj pokret započeo je mnogo pre stvaranja NDH.

Politika je odmah stupila na snagu. Stotine istaknutih Srba iz krajiške regije Hrvatske uhapsili su i streljali ustaški vojnici. Većina srpskog stanovništva se sakrila. Ustaše su odgovorile nudeći amnestiju Srbima ako su prešli na rimokatoličanstvo. Mnogi Srbi, želeći da poštede život svoje porodice, odazvali su se i pojavili se u Srpskoj pravoslavnoj crkvi u Glini. Tačni brojevi su sporni, ali samo da napomenem, Nirnberški proces je čuo da je 250 stiglo u crkvu. Srbi su zatrpani unutra i vrata crkve su zaključana nakon što su poslednji ušli. Ustaše su masakrirale sve koristeći palice i noževe. Tela su kamionima odvezena u jamu, a crkva je potom spaljena.

Reči ne mogu opisati način na koji sam se osećala nakon što sam prvi put čula ovu priču.Nikad nisam videla svog dedu da plače do tog dana.

Slede neke osnovne činjenice o Jasenovcu: 

Jasenovac, poznat kao "Aušvic Balkana", bio je koncentracioni logor i logor za uništavanje u kome je, prema Jevrejskoj virtuelnoj biblioteci, ubijeno oko 700 000 ljudi. Istraživački institut Jasenovac procenjuje između 300.000-700.000, a bivši direktor beogradskog Muzeja holokausta Milan Bulajić procenio je ukupnu smrtnost na 500.000 do 700.000. Druge organizacije procenjuju manji broj, ali nema potrebe da se uključuje u političku raspravu o broju umrlih. O tome se ne radi u ovoj peticiji. Fokus ovde su vaše akcije.

Na primer, u svom članku ste izjavili da je "masivni kompleks logora Jasenovac bio još jedan pakao na Zemlji za Jevreje. Ali ono što epsko delo o varvarstvu i sentimentalnosti reditelja Predraga Antonijevića želi da prikaže jeste da je uništavanje etničkih Srba bilo pravi fokus i da su deca imala svoj logor." Jasno je da ste napravili neko istraživanje na tu temu. Međutim, većinu žrtava činili su Srbi (kao deo genocida nad Srbima), ali takođe su bili Jevreji, Romi i neki politički neistomišljenici. Stoga je uništavanje etničkih Srba bilo pravi fokus ustaša. Čini se sasvim očiglednim da ste namerno odbacili srpske (i druge) žrtve. Čineći to, uključili ste se u poricanje genocida.

Dalje, u NDH je postojao zaseban kamp za decu. Zapravo ih je bilo mnogo. Većina dece je držana u logoru Stara Gradiška u okviru kompleksa Jasenovac. Bio je posebno dizajniran za žene i decu. Ostala deca držana su u pridruženim logorima u Jablancu i Mlaki, dok su druga bila držana u drugim ustaškim koncentracijskim logorima za djecu u NDH (poput Siska i Jastrebarskog). Odbacujući ove činjenice u svojoj recenziji, vi odbacujete genocid i traumu čitave nacije.

Kako stoji na posteru filma, "ljudski duh neće biti izbrisan". Upravo zbog ljudi poput Dare u filmu, Srbi imaju snage da koračaju u milosti i brane našu istoriju od ljudi poput vas koji su neuki i zanemarljivi u vašoj novinarskoj i ličnoj praksi.

U ime srpske dijaspore, ja, Juliana Pandurević, i svi koji smo potpisali ovu peticiju, molim vas da uklonite ovu publikaciju zbog njenog istorijskog revizionizma i poricanja genocida.


PETITION:

www.change.org/justicefordara


https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-02-04/review-dara-jasenovac-holocaust-drama-serbia


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If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com

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Monday, February 08, 2021

VIDEO / "DARA OF JASENOVAC" [Film] | Official Trailer | 101 Studios / January 2021


"DARA OF JASENOVAC" [Film] | Official Trailer | 101 Studios

"Predrag Peter Antonijević's Dara Iz Jasenovca (Dara of Jasenovac) - Serbia’s official submission for the 2020-21 Academy Awards. Now playing in select theaters.

"Set in 1940s Croatia, DARA OF JASENOVAC tells story of young Dara who comes face-to-face with the horrors of the Holocaust era after she, her mother and siblings are sent to the concentration camp complex known as Jasenovac. Considered one of the most overlooked parts of history, Jasenovac is run by the fascist Ustase who brutally murdered Jews, Serb and Roma people, which included many children. As unspeakable atrocities start to unfold, Dara must summon tremendous courage to protect her infant brother from a terrible fate while she safeguards her own survival and plots a precarious path towards freedom."


Directed by: Predrag Peter “Gaga” Antonijević

Cast: Biljana Čekić, Zlatan Vidovic, Nikolina Friganović, Igor Đorđević, Nataša Ninković and Anja Stanić


Follow us @DaraTheFilm

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/darathefilm

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/darathefilm

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/darathefilm/


DARA OF JASENOVAC | Official Trailer | 101 Studios

Posted on You Tube by "101 Studios"

January 18, 2021



https://youtu.be/7RDs2Vuw_AQ


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If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com

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Friday, February 05, 2021

Serbian Oscar Bid "Dara in Jasenovac" Enters Distribution in USA [On Friday February 5, 2021] / "Film New Europe" Feb. 3, 2021


filmneweurope.com

By Zoran Janković

February 3, 2021


Dara in Jasenovac by Predrag AntonijevićSource: Film Center Serbia

Serbian Oscar Bid "Dara in Jasenovac" Enters Distribution in USA

BELGRADE: Dara in Jasenovac / Dara iz Jasenovca, Serbia’s bid for the 2021 Oscars in the best international feature film category, will enter cinema distribution in the USA on 5 February 2021. The WWII drama directed by Predrag Antonijević will be distributed by Studio 101.

This feature, based on testimonies of survivors, is the story of a little girl (Dara) who is sent to the Holocaust extermination camp of Jasenovac, one of the Croatian fascist organisation Ustaše's concentration camps, where the Serbs were sent after the Kozara Mountain Offensive.

Dara in Jasenovac / Dara iz Jasenovca is an entirely Serbian production, produced by Dandelion Production Inc in coproduction with Film Danas and Komuna. It was supported by the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia and Film Center Serbia.

The script was written by Nataša Drakulić. The film’s DoP is Miloš Kodemo. The key characters are played by Biljana Čekić, Anja Stanić Ilić, Zlatan Vidović, Nikolina Friganović, Nataša Ninković, Vuk Kostić, Marko Janketić, Igor Đorđević, Tatjana Kecman, Bojan Žirović, and Jovo Maksić. The film was produced by Predrag Antonijević and Maksa Ćatović.

The distribution in Serbia is set for 22 April 2021. The local distributor is MCF Megacom Film. The film was originally set to premiere in early 2020 to mark the 75th anniversary of the escape of prisoners from the camp. It was postponed to October, and then postponed a second time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


https://www.filmneweurope.com/news/serbia-news/item/121291-serbian-oscar-bid-dara-in-jasenovac-enters-distribution-in-usa#:~:text=BELGRADE%3A%20Dara%20in%20Jasenovac%20%2F%20Dara,be%20distributed%20by%20Studio%20101.


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If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com

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Friday, December 04, 2020

„Дара из Јасеновца” први српски филм у трци за Златни глобус / „Dara iz Jasenovca” prvi srpski film u trci za Zlatni globus / "Politika" Dec. 1, 2020

Politika

Dec. 1, 2020

„Дара из Јасеновца” први српски филм у трци за Златни глобус.

Детаљ са снимања филма "Дара из Јасеновца" (Видео исечак)


Филм „Дара из Јасеновца” у режији Предрага Гаге Антонијевића по сценарију Наташе Дракулић, српски кандидат за Оскара, амерички дистрибутери кандидовали су и за награду Златни глобус, саопштили су продуценти.

Селекциона комисија Златног глобуса прихватила је кандидатуру овог филма за све категорије, а не само за најбољи страни филм, а мала глумица Биљана Чекић кандидована је за најбољу женску улогу, раме уз раме са највећим холивудским именима.

„Ово је велико признање за филм 'Дара из Јасеновца', као и за српску кинематографију која доживљава свој повратак на светску позорницу'', саопштио је продуцент филма Макса Ћатовић.

Снимана на основу аутентичних сведочанстава преживелих логораша, „Дара из Јасеновца”, драма и први играни филм на тему хрватског усташког логора Јасеновац у Другом светском рату, осврће се на период 1942. године када после велике усташко-немачке офанзиве на Козари, у Босни и Херцеговини, локално становништво масовно завршава у концентрационим логорима.

Водеће улоге у филму играју глумци из Републике Српске Ања Станић Илић, Златан Видовић, Николина Фригановић, Сандра Љубојевић, Жељко Еркић и Горан Јокић, док су глумачку екипу из Србије чинили Марко Јанкетић, Игор Ђорђевић, Наташа Нинковић, Бојан Жировић, Јово Максић, Радослав Рале Миленковић, Вук Костић, Татјана Кецман, Петар Зекавица, Јелена Грујчић, Богдан Богдановић и многи други, преноси Танјуг.

У главној улози девојчице Даре нашла се Биљана Чекић, а остале улоге најмлађих заробљеника поверене су Марку Пипићу, Николи Радуљу, Рајку Лукачу, Анђели Јањић, Ангелини Доцић, Луки, Јакову и Симону Шарановићу.

Први део филма сниман је на локацији села Колут, у близини Сомбора, где је за потребе снимања зграда старе циглане са управним објектом претворена у злогласни логор Јасеновац, а други део на локалитетима Беле Цркве. Сценограф је Горан Јоксимовић.


http://www.politika.rs/scc/clanak/467920/Dara-iz-Jasenovca-prvi-srpski-film-u-trci-za-Zlatni-globus

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Politika

Dec. 1, 2020

„Dara iz Jasenovca” prvi srpski film u trci za Zlatni globus.

Детаљ са снимања филма "Дара из Јасеновца" (Видео исечак)


Film „Dara iz Jasenovca” u režiji Predraga Gage Antonijevića po scenariju Nataše Drakulić, srpski kandidat za Oskara, američki distributeri kandidovali su i za nagradu Zlatni globus, saopštili su producenti.

Selekciona komisija Zlatnog globusa prihvatila je kandidaturu ovog filma za sve kategorije, a ne samo za najbolji strani film, a mala glumica Biljana Čekić kandidovana je za najbolju žensku ulogu, rame uz rame sa najvećim holivudskim imenima.

„Ovo je veliko priznanje za film 'Dara iz Jasenovca', kao i za srpsku kinematografiju koja doživljava svoj povratak na svetsku pozornicu'', saopštio je producent filma Maksa Ćatović.

Snimana na osnovu autentičnih svedočanstava preživelih logoraša, „Dara iz Jasenovca”, drama i prvi igrani film na temu hrvatskog ustaškog logora Jasenovac u Drugom svetskom ratu, osvrće se na period 1942. godine kada posle velike ustaško-nemačke ofanzive na Kozari, u Bosni i Hercegovini, lokalno stanovništvo masovno završava u koncentracionim logorima.

Vodeće uloge u filmu igraju glumci iz Republike Srpske Anja Stanić Ilić, Zlatan Vidović, Nikolina Friganović, Sandra Ljubojević, Željko Erkić i Goran Jokić, dok su glumačku ekipu iz Srbije činili Marko Janketić, Igor Đorđević, Nataša Ninković, Bojan Žirović, Jovo Maksić, Radoslav Rale Milenković, Vuk Kostić, Tatjana Kecman, Petar Zekavica, Jelena Grujčić, Bogdan Bogdanović i mnogi drugi, prenosi Tanjug.

U glavnoj ulozi devojčice Dare našla se Biljana Čekić, a ostale uloge najmlađih zarobljenika poverene su Marku Pipiću, Nikoli Radulju, Rajku Lukaču, Anđeli Janjić, Angelini Docić, Luki, Jakovu i Simonu Šaranoviću.

Prvi deo filma sniman je na lokaciji sela Kolut, u blizini Sombora, gde je za potrebe snimanja zgrada stare ciglane sa upravnim objektom pretvorena u zloglasni logor Jasenovac, a drugi deo na lokalitetima Bele Crkve. Scenograf je Goran Joksimović.


http://www.politika.rs/sr/clanak/467920/Dara-iz-Jasenovca-prvi-srpski-film-u-trci-za-Zlatni-globus


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If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com

*****

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Interview with Serbian journalist and historian Miloslav Samardžić, on the foundations of the communist ideology, communism in Yugoslavia and America, and Trump / "Conservative Hardliner" Oct. 22, 2020

 Conservative Hardliner

October 22, 2020

Milos

Interview with Serbian journalist and historian Miloslav Samardžić, on the foundations of the communist ideology, communism in Yugoslavia and America, and Trump.


(Editor's note: This is an interview by our writer Milos in Serbia, with Miloslav Samardžić, a journalist and historian who knows very well the communists' insatiable thirst for power.  He gives us a walk through several points in history, and has an excellent perspective on the communist movement here in the United States.  In fact, in the final words in the interview, he makes an excellent point on why the communists' chances for success are nil, which was a perfect way for the interview to end.  It also never ceases to amaze me how someone like Milos or Miloslav, who live on the other side of the planet, understand our country better than seemingly every leftist who lives here.  We think you'll enjoy this interview very much, especially with the AntiFa-BLM Marxists failing everywhere.)

Mr. Samardžić, can you tell us something about your biography? How did you become interested in history, and especially in the WWII?

I graduated from the Faculty of Economics in the city of Kragujevac, and before that from the high school of journalism. As a freshman, I also graduated from the journalism school of "Večernje novosti" ("Evening news"), then the highest-circulation newspaper in Yugoslavia. I was one of their correspondents. Afterwards, I became an associate, and then the editor of the newspaper "Pogledi" ("Views"), a student newspaper of the University of Kragujevac. Journalism schools, as well as the experience from "Novosti", were crucial, both for my future career and for "Pogledi". Namely, in one student newspaper, I introduced professional standards. That was in 1987, when I became editor-in-chief.


At that time, I already had a year of experience with the secret police, which was called SDB, analogous to the KGB. Let me remind you, Yugoslavia was still a socialist, that is, a communist, country. The secret police had spies in all the companies, and they especially wanted to control the students. They called me for a so-called informative conversation the first time in early October 1986. The previous issue of "Pogledi" was banned by the decision of the public prosecutor in Belgrade, and burned. Half of the editorial office was replaced. I found myself in the remaining half, because I was editing the "University" section, within which the disputed articles for the prosecutor were not published. Those criticisms of the regime were, by the way, less than one percent of the criticisms that Trump receives today in some newspapers in America. But, even that little was not allowed.


That first "informative conversation", which, of course, I will always remember, had the goal of intimidating me. On the wall of the office hung a "Heckler", under which sat a huge inspector, who just kept silent and looked across at me. Across from me sat a smiling inspector, who, among other things, told me that the other one was serving them, for example, to take out the refrigerator on the 10th floor, when the elevator was not working...


Of course, my chair was much lower than theirs.


The one who laughed, talked a lot, obviously with the desire that I see he knew everything. Indeed, he knew in detail what we, the members of the editorial office, were talking about, not only in the office, but also on the street. In general, he knew very well the situation in the student press, as well as in the student movement, throughout the country. Later, I found out that they were tapping our phones and that several members of the editorial board and journalists worked for them. I think their motive was primarily fear.


Of course, they scared me, too. It was clear that they could do whatever they wanted to anyone. Under socialism, there is no control of the secret police, no association of civil rights activists, there are no civil rights either. On the contrary, there were laws according to which you could be convicted if you say something against them, even a joke, and especially if you criticize socialism in general and the "character and work of Josip Broz Tito" in particular. He passed away in 1980, after which they passed a law that, word for word, was called: "Law for the protection of the name and work of Josip Broz Tito".


But they didn't scare me for good. I served in the army in special units, the "Heckler" seemed like a toy to me in relation to the "Kalashnikov" that I carried, and especially to my former sniper. I practiced karate and some other Japanese martial arts. After all, I was 24, when everything looks different.


In short, they scared me, but not blocked me. Because of them, I published more slowly, but I still published. Thus, in November 1989, I published the first affirmative article about General Draža Mihailović. He was decorated in America, but in Yugoslavia, he was 100% satanized. If I had published it only a few months earlier, I would have ended up in prison no doubt. Then, however, exactly that month, dictator Ceausescu was killed in Romania, and with him many members of the secret police. This significantly influenced the events in Yugoslavia. Besides, Slobodan Milošević came to power in Serbia a little earlier. He was later satanized all over the world. However, he had a positive role at the time, as he was the first politician to oppose the cult of Josip Broz Tito. So, the cult of the dictator and the mass murderer, under whose picture they swore before each session. Until Milošević refused, in 1988. Also, Milošević reduced the pressure on students, and allowed a certain freedom of speech. He became a negative character only in 1990, when he delayed the announcement of the first free elections as much as possible and when it became clear that he did not want a real democratic system.


In general, shortly after that November 1989 issue, "Pogledi" became the most widely circulated political magazine in Yugoslavia, reaching a circulation of 200,000 copies. And formally, we were the first opposition newspaper since 1945.


Who were Marx and Engels, and what is the value of their writings and deeds?


As an economics student, I had to memorize their major work, "Capital", almost by heart. And other books, too, including the "Manifesto of the Communist Party". Which is, by the way, a great example of, as they say today, hate speech.


Practically all of us who have studied Marxism have seen that this ideology has no value. Controversial, or simply stupid things, were ridiculed by the professors themselves. By then, it was already possible.


Marxism is, in essence, a perversion of the principle of abstraction. This principle is applied in every science. It serves to separate the essential from the irrelevant, in order to determine the main currents. Marxism, therefore, takes one or more irrelevant details, and declares them to be not only important, but also crucial. That way, it can "prove" practically everything. Of course, with the help of the secret police, that is, coercion, because, as I said, it was punishable by law to challenge that quasi-religion.


Marxism, for example, proved that life is better in Albania than in Switzerland, not to mention America. America was highlighted in class as an example of a bad country, both externally (imperialism) and internally (oppression and exploitation of "working people and citizens"). Whenever there was talk of America, it was said that there were many murders, many drug addicts, prostitutes, and the like. In fact, I can't even remember what was, beside that, said in the Marxism classes. We have learned, and they have claimed that it has been scientifically proven, that the entire Eastern bloc was better for life than the entire Western world. By 1965, Yugoslavia's borders were closed, as they are today in North Korea. There were no passports (with some exceptions). When the borders were opened, millions fled to Western countries. But, again, when these people came to visit their relatives, they had to say that it was better in Yugoslavia. In the socialist system, everything is a lie, everyone lies to everyone.


One of the main characteristics of Marxism is that it deals with the distribution of social wealth, and not with the questions of how citizens can acquire wealth. Unfortunately, that is still, to a certain extent, a characteristic of leftists around the world.


Fortunately, in the 1980s, they introduced marketing to the faculties of economics, and I opted for that direction. We studied according to the American Philip Kotler. He visited Belgrade 7-8 years ago. He looked much younger to me than I imagined.


I read Karl Popper's book "Open Society" as soon as it was published in Serbian. The difference in relation to Marx and Engels is incredible. That book will last, while for the books of these two, definitely no one is fighting in libraries. With the exceptions of North Korea, Cuba, and China.


Who was Josip Broz Tito? What did the 4th Congress of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Dresden (1928) bring?


He was a Croat born in the village of Kumrovec, a locksmith's assistant by profession. As an Austro-Hungarian soldier, he took part in the attack on Serbia in 1914. He was a member of the so-called Devil's division, known for war crimes. After the war, he often changed jobs, because he was not very hardworking.


Throughout history, it has been difficult to find a Marxist successful in any profession. Going to Stalin's Soviet Union was crucial for Tito. There were the so-called purges, that is mass murders of their own citizens, declared "enemies of the people". The most common accusations were that someone was a foreign agent, usually from Great Britain or America. At one point, Tito realized that in order to advance, it was "only" necessary to say that someone was a foreign agent. That one would be killed, or sent to a camp in Siberia, and he would advance.


The Dresden Congress was the culmination of a change in communist politics in the Balkans. In the beginning, they have, as everywhere else, claimed that the capitalists oppressed the workers. But, in the elections in the Kingdom of Serbs Croats and Slovenes, the future Yugoslavia, in 1921, it turned out that members of national minorities who hated the country voted for the communists the most. For example, Albanians, who mourned the Turkish occupation, during which they were privileged over the Orthodox, or Hungarians, who mourned the Austro-Hungarian occupation. Thus, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, by order from Moscow, puts the national question in the foreground instead of the class one. At that congress, they proclaimed the right to secession for Albanians and Hungarians, and the disintegration of Yugoslavia in general.


Who was General Dragoljub Draža Mihailović? What was the Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland, also known as the Chetniks, during the WWII? What were their goals and achievements?


He was a Serbian officer, decorated with the highest domestic and foreign decorations in the First and Second Balkan Wars and in the First World War. Between the two world wars, he graduated from the highest military schools in Yugoslavia and France. As a professor at the Military Academy in Belgrade, he promoted the "Chetnik war", that is, the guerrilla war. Earlier, the Chetniks, as special units, had only tactical significance. Mihailović gave them strategic importance, claiming that, when necessary, the entire army should become guerrilla. In particular, he believed that Yugoslavia could not defend itself from Hitler's tanks and planes in the frontal war, and that it should therefore immediately prepare food and ammunition depots in the mountains for the future guerrilla war. His idea was not accepted. But, after the collapse of all fronts, and the surrender of most of the army, in April 1941, he turned his theory into practice. On the mountain Ravna Gora, 80 km south of Belgrade, he formed the Command of the Chetnik detachments of the Yugoslav Army. It was the largest guerrilla in occupied Europe. It bound first four and then several German divisions, as well as several Bulgarian and Italian divisions. Only its sabotage group "Gordon" carried out 1,499 diversions and sabotages on the railways, during the Battle for Africa in 1942 and early 1943. That is, so many diversions and sabotages of this group were counted by the Germans, when they finally destroyed it, at the end of the summer of 1943. I think that is, for one sabotage group, a world record in the entire history.


Another name for the battle is the Battle for Supply. One of the closest routes for supplying German troops in Africa went through Serbia.


In September and October 1943, the Chetniks carried out the largest anti-Axis operation behind the lines of the great fronts. They were attacking the Germans towards the Adriatic Sea, expecting an Allied landing. However, it did not happen, and in the meantime, just at that time, the Western allies transferred support from the Yugoslav Royal Army, and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in general, to the so-called partisans, who were terrorist formations of the illegal CPY. This was the result of the Western Allies' trade with Stalin.


During 1944, the Chetniks rescued over 500 American pilots, who were shot down by the Germans. This is the well-known Halyard Mission today, as the Americans called it. The American ambassador in Belgrade has been regularly coming to the place where the Chetniks built one of the three improvised airports for the evacuation of pilots, in the village of Pranjani near Čačak, for almost 15 years. He comes in gratitude for the rescuing of the Americans.


What were Tito's partisans during the WWII? What were their goals and achievements?


Terrorists. Their goal was to use the war to carry out a communist revolution. They expected that already in the fall of 1941 the Soviet Union would send paratroopers to Yugoslavia, who would defeat the Germans and put them in power. They expected, of course, that the Red Army would defeat the Germans on the Eastern Front in record time. It is interesting that the general public in Serbia still does not know that America sent to the Red Army, across the North Sea, more than 10,000 tanks, planes, trucks, then huge quantities of food, ammunition, etc. without which Hitler's troops would have hardly been beaten in 1943.


However, since the communists, which was already characteristic of that movement, looked at things unrealistically, in 1941 they proclaimed the so-called second phase of the revolution. The first phase is the conquest of power - they thought, therefore, that it was only a matter of days, with the help of Soviet paratroopers - and the second phase means the killing of real and potential enemies of their party. By the end of 1941, they killed at least 1,000 people in Serbia alone, by the rule those who were more rich, more respectable, and more successful. They were often clergy, too.


When they were expelled from here, at the beginning of 1942, they declared the second phase of the revolution in Montenegro and part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, again waiting for the Soviet paratroopers. They killed at least another 1,500 people then. In Herzegovina, they declared that every peasant who had more than two cows or 20 sheep was an exploiter of other peasants and must be killed.


That second phase of the revolution was most successful after the Red Army invaded Serbia in October 1944. After the Red Army tanks put them in power, they killed over 100,000 people in Serbia. One state commission, set up to list communist victims, reached 60,000 listed names, and then its work was obstructed.


As for the combat contribution of the partisans, it was in fact negative. That is, they only bothered the regular Yugoslav army (Chetniks). In two ways: first, by attacking it, and second, by its very existence, because the regular army is obliged to defend the lives of its citizens from terrorists, and also to defend the constitutional order. In a word, the communists diminished the fighting power of the army.


Why was General Mihailović abandoned by the Allies, and how communist Tito came to power in Yugoslavia in 1945? Was there an attempt from the American military mission to General Mihailović to bring him to power instead of Tito?


Because the goal of the Western Allies was to win the war with as few casualties as possible. They were terrified of the massacre from the First World War, they never wanted it to happen again, for their armies to suffer so much. That is why they transferred the main war effort to the Soviet Union. And successfully: while America had 270,000 and Britain 300,000 by the end of the war, the Soviet Union had nine million soldiers killed.


In encouraging Stalin to continue the war, the Western Allies at one point gave him the option of gaining access to the warm seas - the Adriatic Sea, as part of the Mediterranean Sea. Then they started praising Tito and criticizing General Mihailović. During 1944, however, they wanted to leave Yugoslavia in their sphere of Western interest. In that scenario, the communists would go to the polls after the war and, of course, they would be defeated. So that the partisans would remain only one small episode in history. However, Stalin saw through that. In the summer of 1944, he did not honor the agreement with the Western Allies on a simultaneous attack on Berlin. He stopped the attacks on Berlin, and turned south to occupy the Balkan countries. Churchill was shocked and then his urgent departure to Moscow followed, in October 1944, when he managed to save Greece. So, only Greece.


This turn of Stalin towards the Balkans was used by the Germans to launch the so-called Ardennes offensive against the Western Allies. At that time, they inflicted them great losses, as far as I remember, of about 60,000 killed and wounded. The Ardennes were a stain on the plan to minimize their own losses.


Before Churchill went to Moscow, Colonel Dr. Robert McDowell, from the OSS, came to General Mihailović's headquarters. That was at the end of August 1944. His plan was for the Germans in the Balkans to surrender to the Chetniks, so that they would get enough weapons to defeat the communists. Because, in the meantime, the Western allies gave the communists weapons and equipment for about 150,000 people. McDowell negotiated with the Germans and some of their officers agreed to surrender. Only one battalion of American paratroopers was supposed to land to Mihailović. The goal was that the American flags prevent invading of the Red Army. To declare the defeat of the Germans in the Balkans and to say that there was no need for the Red Army to come there. However, already in September 1944, the Red Army began to enter Serbia, and in October, at a meeting in Moscow, Churchill failed to cope with that. Thus, on November 1st 1944, McDowell returned with the job undone.


Was a danger of a communist revolution in the United States after the WWII real? Are there any communist forces in America right now?


It was not. I think it's not even now, but now the communists have a better chance. As an exam question from Marxism, I had the question "Communist Party of America". I remember that its main theorists, and leaders, were Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy. I also know for sure that the CPA headquarters was across from the Serbian Church of St. Sava in New York, Manhattan. It is that huge church, which burned down a few years ago. I know this because the CIA came to the priest and asked him to install wiretapping devices, that is microphones aimed at the building where the communists met. And one of those priests told me that later. They, of course, like almost all Serbs in America, gladly helped everything that was against the communists.


The CPA was funded by the Soviet Union until 1990. They gave them three million dollars a year. Gorbachev abolished it. As foreign agents, and mercenaries, the communists had no chance, even if they received much more money. That's when their chances grow. When they shut down the KPA, they founded several socialist associations and NGOs, got in touch with some controversial wealthy people, like Soros, who finance them, and finally, they got in touch with the Democratic Party. As William Engdahl wrote on the New Eastern Outlook website, all these riots in America, allegedly because of the Coronavirus, are actually the result of communist action. He sees this as an attempt at a communist revolution, with which I agree. Throughout their history, communists have used the difficult situation in a country to carry out a revolution. They did it for the first time in 1871, the so-called Paris Commune, when the French suffered a heavy defeat by the Germans. Then 1905, the first Russian revolution, when Russia lost the war to Japan. Then in 1917, when the Germans sent Lenin, with lots of gold, as the fifth column. I have already mentioned the example of Yugoslavia in 1941.


What do you think about President Trump, and what are your hopes for him?


I hope he wins. God forbid he loses! What worries me is that a number of people in Western countries have a naive, romantic view of communist ideas, or rather slogans. However, it has been proven that everything the communists say is a lie. They simply want to subdue you. If they win in America, America will have the system that North Korea, Cuba and China have today. That means opening a camp for unsuitable citizens, night arrests, mass murders, of course a drop in the standard of living of citizens, a drastic drop.


I am sorry that Serbia does not have such a party as the Republican Party. I think that, professionally speaking, it is the strongest party in the world, in the history of the world. It outlived both Marx and Engels and those other socialists (Hitler's) and who knows what else. It made a great choice with Trump and I believe that he will win once again. In short, I do not believe that the Democratic Party can overpower the Republican. Especially now that the Democratic Party has gone too far to the left, reaching the threshold of the communist revolution. Besides, I would like to remind you that the communist revolution has never succeeded in history without help from another country. In the case of America, there is no that other country.



https://conservativehardliner.com/interview-serbian-journalist-and-historian-miloslav-samardzic-foundations-communist-ideology


If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com

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Saturday, October 17, 2020

PETICIJA: СПОМЕНИК ГЕНЕРАЛУ ДРАГОЉУБУ ДРАЖИ МИХАИЛОВИЋУ У БЕОГРАДУ / PETITION: Monument to General Mihailovich in Belgrade, Serbia


Генерал Драгољуб Дража Михаиловић је први устаник окупиране Европе од нацизма, чувар и носилац најдрагоценијих слободарских тековина српског народа.

Носилац најзначајнијих признања од америчког и француског председника, генерал кога су се на крају Другог светског рата одрекли и краљ и савезници а он се њих одрекао није, човек који је осуђен у монтираном комунистичком процесу, мученик који је убијен под велом тајне и не зна му се гроб.

Ако су одлуком Народне скупштине републике Србије припадници покрета Драже Михаиловића изједначени са партизанима у антифашистичкој борби, онда захтевамо да се српска престоница одужи генералу Михаиловићу подизањем споменика у центру Београда.


Бранимир Нешић, издавачка кућа Catena mundi


https://www.peticije.online/289545



If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com


Thursday, June 25, 2020

Croatia’s fascist movement is on the rise yet again / "The Independent-UK" June 25, 2020

The Independent - UK
Menachem Z. Rosensaft
June 25, 2020

Croatia’s fascist movement is on the rise yet again

Germany has outlawed the symbols of its Nazi past. It’s time the same was done in Croatia to stop the rehabilitation of the Ustaša movement while authorities turn a blind eye.


Fascism was and is a far-right, authoritarian and ultra-nationalist ideology. It is predicated more often than not on a belief in racist or ethnic superiority coupled with often violent xenophobia, antisemitism, and other forms of bigotry. During the Second World War, home-grown fascist movements throughout Europe joined Nazi Germany in perpetrating genocide and crimes against humanity against minorities in their respective countries. The Croatian Ustaša organisation was one such movement.

In the so-called Independent State of Croatia, a Nazi-puppet state carved out in 1941 from what had been the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the fanatically nationalist and separatist Ustaša, led by Ante Pavelić, aggressively and ardently murdered hundreds of thousands of Serbs and tens of thousands of Jews, as well as many Roma and Croatian anti-fascists.

For some time now, we have been witnessing a widespread attempt to rehabilitate and legitimize the Ustaša by characterizing it and its members as patriots rather than as cold-blooded murderers and war criminals. This is a falsification of history, made worse by the fact that similar scenarios are being played out across eastern and central Europe.

Still, the glorification of the Ustaša in Croatia, often with the tacit if not blatant support of authorities, stands out as the most egregious manifestation of such malignant historical revisionism. At a time when Americans are removing and tearing down monuments to men who supported slavery, it is unseemly that large segments of Croatian society seem oblivious to the horrific crimes committed in its name by the Ustaša.

In order to carry out their genocidal scheme, the Ustaša established a network of concentration camps infamous for their brutality and comparable to the barbarity of the German death camps. The most notorious of these was Jasenovac, often referred to as the “Auschwitz of the Balkans,” where, according to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, somewhere between 77,000 and 104,000 Serbs, Jews, Roma, and Croat opponents of the Ustaša regime were brutally murdered. The Jasenovac Memorial Site has identified by name 83,145 victims who perished there.

And yet, extremist right-wing elements in Croatia have for years tried to sanitize the interrelated connotations of Jasenovac and the Ustaša.

In 2016, Jakov Sedlar, a controversial Croatian filmmaker, produced a documentary film entitled Jasenovac – the Truth which portrayed Jasenovac as a benign labour camp whose number of victims had been greatly exaggerated. After attending the film’s widely-publicised premiere, Zlatko Hasanbegović, the extreme-nationalist Croatian minister of culture, declared that, “This is the best way to finally shed light on a number of controversial places in Croatian history.”

In 2018, the journalist Milan Ivkošić grotesquely wrote in Croatia’s most-read daily, Vecernji list, that while conditions at Jasenovac may have been severe, “there was fun in the camp. There were sporting matches, especially football, concerts, theatrical performances . . .”

Fun? In Jasenovac?

In an oral history interview taken by and maintained at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, former Jasenovac prisoner Milo Despot described witnessing how a Ustaša unit took more than 100 Serb girls on a barge, ordered them to take off their clothes and then grabbed them by their hair, cut their throats, and threw their corpses into the river.

In another testimony, Mara Vejnovic said that she saw the Ustaša kill a group of children with poisonous gas in a Jasenovac barrack.

Equally troubling is the widespread use of the Ustaša slogan “Za dom spremni,” or “Ready for the Homeland,” as a euphemism for racist or xenophobic slurs that are, in theory at least, prohibited under Croatian law. “Za dom spremni” was the Ustaša equivalent of the Nazi “Sieg Heil” salute, and its present-day use leaves little to the imagination. When the term is shouted by Croatian fans at a football match against an Israeli team, the crowd hears the antisemitic dog-whistle loud and clear.

A case in point is the ongoing controversy surrounding Marko Perković, the popular ultra-nationalist Croatian singer known as Thompson, who for years has prominently shouted and sung “Za dom spremni” during his performances with only minimal adverse consequences.

Most recently, the Court of High Misdemeanors in Zagreb ruled that Perković’s use of this fascist salute did not violate public order and breach the peace. The Croatian Constitutional Court subsequently reiterated that “Za dom spremni” was an Ustaša greeting of the Independent State of Croatia, and that its use is inconsistent with the Croatian Constitution. The fact remains, however, that the Croatian authorities, for the most part, turn a blind eye to the reintegration of Ustaša terminology into their country’s contemporary culture, and, by extension, into the wider Croatian political mindset.

In sharp contrast, Zoran Milanović, Croatia’s president, has demonstrated tremendous courage and integrity in publicly opposing and condemning any legitimization of the Ustaša. To the fury of right-wing elements and the Croatian war veterans’ minister, he has called for the removal of a “Za dom spremni” plaque in a town near Jasenovac. President Milanović also left a ceremony commemorating a 1995 Croatian offensive against Serb separatists when several participants sported T-shirts with the Ustaša slogan.

The time has come for the international community to speak out loudly and clearly against any glorification or rehabilitation of those movements and individuals that perpetrated some of the most gruesome crimes in history. Germany has outlawed the symbols of its Nazi past. Croatia must now effectively prohibit and prosecute all evocations of the Ustaša.


Menachem Z. Rosensaft is associate executive vice president and general counsel of the World Jewish Congress. He teaches about the law of genocide at the law schools of Columbia and Cornell Universities.


https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/croatia-fascism-nazi-usta-a-sasenovac-antisemitism-zoran-milanovi-a9583146.html


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If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com

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