Sunday, June 28, 2015

VIDEO / ВИДОВДАН - VIDOVDAN Гоца Лазаревић / "Vidovdan je dan kada se sećamo svih onih koji su dali život za Srbiju!" / "Vidovdan (June 28) is the day that we remember all those who gave their lives for Serbia."


Slavski Kolač, Sveća, i Žito na SNO Vidovdan Slava June 30, 2013 Chicago.
The Slava Bread, Candle, and Wheat along with the Icon of St. Lazar of Serbia.
Serbian National Defense Vidovdan commemoration
at New Gracanica Monastery in Third Lake, IL June 30, 2013.
Photo by Aleksandra Rebic.

"Vidovdan je dan kada se sećamo svih onih koji su dali život za Srbiju! Vidovdan (June 28) is the day that we remember all those who gave their lives for Serbia starting from the Battle of Kosovo, through the Balkan Wars, WWI, WWII, the 90's Wars and up until the present day."

Vera Dragisich
Secretary of the Movement of Serbian Chetniks Ravne Gore
June 28, 2015

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VIDOVDAN

"U nebo gledam
Prolaze vekovi

Secanja davnih
Jedini lekovi

Kud god da krenem tebi se vracam ponovo
Ko da mi otme iz moje duse Kosovo

Vidovdan!
Ko vecni plamen
U nasim srcima
Kosovskog boja
Ostaje istina

Vidovdan!
Oprosti boze sve
Nase grehove
Junastvom daruj
Kceri i sinove."


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"I look at the sky
Centuries go by
The long ago memories
Are the only cure

Wherever I may to turn to,
I’ll always return to you again
Nobody can take Kosovo away from my soul

St. Vitus Day!
Like an eternal flame
Burning in our hearts
Kosovo’s battle
Stays true

St. Vitus Day!
God, please forgive
Us for our sins
Give courage to our
Daughters and sons."


VIDEO posted on You Tube by "Делије Шабац"
Published on Jun 27, 2011




https://youtu.be/46wEk7WNd6g

*****

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

*****

Friday, June 26, 2015

Srpsko-hrvatske varnice oko Stepinca / "Politika" June 25, 2015

Politika
Jelena Čalija
Objavljeno: 25.06.2015.

Posle izjave srpskog premijera Aleksandra Vučića da Stepinac nije svetac, hrvatska šefica diplomatije Vesna Pusić rekla je da Vučić ima još veći problem nego što se ranije mislilo.

Kardinal Alojzije Stepinac: Čeka se najavljeni dijalog dve crkve
o kanonizaciji
 
Nijednom još nisu seli za sto predstavnici Srpske pravoslavne crkve i Katoličke crkve u Hrvatskoj, kako bi razgovarali o spornim detaljima biografije kardinala Alojzija Stepinca i njegovoj najavljenoj kanonizaciji. Političke srpsko-hrvatske varnice, međutim, uveliko lete i lome se diplomatska koplja oko životopisa kardinala Stepinca. Od dijaloga, dakle, za sada nema ništa.

Dok se najviši predstavnici dveju država časte međusobnim optužbama i oštrim kritikama, ni jedna ni druga crkva, ni SPC ni Katolička crkva u Hrvatskoj, nisu se setile da pozovu političare da smire strasti i sačekaju da se sastanu predstavnici dve crkve i jedni drugima kažu šta misle o kardinalu Stepincu i njegovoj najavljenoj kanonizaciji.

Naime, još se ne zna kada će inicijativa pape Franje, da se o spornim delovima Stepinčeve biografije razgovara, biti sprovedena u delo. Srpska crkva prihvatila je papin poziv na dijalog i potvrdila to odlukom najvišeg crkvenog tela, Svetog arhijerejskog Sabora da oformi posebnu komisiju za dijalog o spornim pitanjima iz perioda Drugog svetskog rata. Ne zna se, međutim, kada će predstavnici dve crkve razgovarati o visokom crkvenom velikodostojniku, Alojziju Stepincu. Nismo to uspeli juče da saznamo ni od predsednika komisije SPC, mitropolita zagrebačko-ljubljanskog Porfirija. Predstavnici dve države, međutim, podsetili su nas koliki nas jaz deli u shvatanju Stepinčeve uloge u Drugom svetskom ratu. Ukoliko je neko, kojim slučajem, zaboravio da je Stepinac za hrvatsku stranu svetac, a za srpsku stranu najblaže govoreći – sporan.

Lavina u kojoj smo, svi zajedno, ponovo postali „četnici i ustaše“, počela je izjavom ministra za rad, zapošljavanje, boračka i socijalna pitanja Aleksandra Vulina koji je na komemoraciji u Jadovnu Stepinca nazvao ustaškim vikarom.

Hrvatski politički vrh jasno je stavio do znanja da Vulinove reči smatra provokacijom, i to u sopstvenoj kući, a predsednica Hrvatske, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, poručila je da se neće spuštati na tu „razinu“ i da je provokator Vulin – Vučićev problem.

U svom saopštenju, Nadbiskupski duhovni stol u Zagrebu nije osudio samo srpskog ministra, već i sopstvenu vladu zbog mlake reakcije. Iz vrha Katoličke crkve u Hrvatskoj poručuju da Vulin neutemeljeno povezuje „Blaženika sa ubistvima ljudi i spominje njegovo ime u kontekstu stradanja dece u koncentracionim logorima“, ali su iznenađeni da hrvatska vlada dopušta iznošenje neistina i vređanje hrvatskih građana od strane predstavnika druge države.

Polemika se dalje nastavila, kada su novinari u Briselu upitali premijera Srbije Aleksandra Vučića – šta misli o Vulinovim izjavama. Doduše, Vučić je pokušao da objasni da srpska vlada nerado komentariše izjave hrvatskih kolega, i da iskreno želi dobre odnose dve države. Ali, Vučić je dodao još nešto:

– Ako mislite da u Srbiji ili među Srbima propagirate Alojzija Stepinca kao sveca, ta propaganda neće proći. Takođe se slažem da možda nije izabran najbolji trenutak ni mesto da se o tome govori. Ali, moja cela porodica je stradala od ustaškog noža. Ako mislite meni da kažete da je Stepinac bio svetac, ja vam neću poverovati, a sumnjam da ćete naći ijednog Srbina koji će u to poverovati – bio je jasan Vučić.

Na njegovu izjavu, potom se osvrnula hrvatska šefica diplomatije Vesna Pusić koja je prokomentarisala da „Vučić ima još veći problem nego što se ranije mislilo“.

Stepinac nije samo kamen spoticanja na klizavom političkom terenu. Ni na nešto egzaktnijem polju nauke, tačnije istorije, stvari ne stoje mnogo bolje, iako je rečnik uljudniji, a mišljenja argumentovanija. Srpski istoričari uvereni su da je kardinal Stepinac bio deo Nezavisne Države Hrvatske kao poglavar katoličke crkve u toj zemlji, i to ne njen tihi deo i nemi svedok događanja, već aktivni učesnik. Pod time se podrazumeva da je bio dobro upoznat sa programom NDH u pogledu rešavanja srpskog, jevrejskog i romskog pitanja, da je pozvao svoje biskupe i sveštenstvo da budu odani Pavelićevom režimu, da nijednom nije osudio postojanje logora smrti na teritoriji NDH, da je učestvovao, odnosno podržao, pokrštavanje pravoslavnih Srba.

S druge strane, hrvatski istoričari ističu da je Stepinac bio rodoljub, a ne Pavelićev poslušnik, da je više puta protestovao protiv pogroma nad Srbima, Jevrejima i Romima, da je čak spasavao Srbe, kao i da je pokrštavanje koristio kao način da nekatolike spase od ustaškog noža.

Dve crkve, SPC i Katolička crkva u Hrvatskoj nemaju mnogo drugačije pozicije od onih koje su već zauzeli političari i istoričari dve zemlje po pitanju Stepinca. U izjavi hrvatskim medijima jedan ogorčeni katolički hrvatski velikodostojnik naveo je da je spreman čak da istupi iz crkve ukoliko Stepinac ne bude proglašen svetim. Nesumnjivo je da je i za pojedine srpske arhijereje, kao i za Vulina, hrvatski kardinal „ustaški vikar“ – bez mogućnosti pomilovanja.

U takvom ozračju, dijalog koji je papa Franjo predložio, mnogi vide kao povlačenje ručne kočnice na putu ka kanonizaciji Stepinca, kako bi se učinio ustupak Srpskoj crkvi, ali i Vaseljenskoj patrijaršiji i Ruskoj pravoslavnoj crkvi, koje su poglavaru Svete stolice, takođe, skrenule pažnju na kontroverznu kanonizaciju. Povlačenje ručne, međutim, ne znači da se u jednom trenutku neće ubaciti u startnu brzinu. Iako se svi slažu da je svaki dijalog dobar, teško je zamisliti da će iz ovog međucrkvenog sučeljavanja o Stepincu obe strane izaći zadovoljne.

Jelena Čalija
Objavljeno: 25.06.2015.


http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Drustvo/Srpsko-hrvatske-varnice-oko-Stepinca.lt.html


*****

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

*****

Thursday, June 25, 2015

70th Anniversary Commemoration Day for the VICTIMS OF COMMUNIST TERRORISM AND REVOLUTION in SLOVENIA at the end of World War II. / Jerry (Nejče) G. Zupan / Ohio June 21, 2015


Photo: National Museum of Contemporary History
Ljubljana, Slovenia
 
Speech by Jerry (Nejče) G. Zupan in Geneva, Ohio
June 21, 2015
 
Commemoration and Remembrance Day
(70th Anniversary) at Slovenska Pristava
 
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Why Are You Here?
 

I want to address primarily the young people here. Please be patient for just a moment.

Pozdravljeni.

Pred sedemdesetimi leti se je dogajalo na Slovenski zemlji nekaj kar se med ljudmi ne bi smelo. Vi ki govorite slovensko se zavedate zakaj smo tu zbrani. Nadaljeval bom z nagovorom v angleščini, namerjen potomcem da se zavedajo zakaj smo tu zbrani.
 
To those of you who have no idea what I just said, I know the feeling.  This annual commemoration started about 60 years ago at the Marian Shrine on Chardon Road. My parents took me every year until I was twelve. A sea of people, talking in a language I didn't understand. Dozens of colorful national costumes. People singing Marian hymns loud enough to bring down the heavens. Eventually everybody was in tears. I had no idea what they were saying or why they were crying. I just cared about playing imaginary Cowboys and Indians on the trail of the Stations of the Cross. I had no idea why I was there. Decades later, I learned. Much too late. I regret I missed so many commemorations.  I want to share the reason for my change of heart.
 
Bad history is repeating itself. Every day we hear news about atrocities by Isis terrorists in the Mideast. They overrun towns then cut off heads of men, women, and children. The victims are Christians who refused to give up their Faith. A fanatic believes: if you are not one of us, then you must be killed.
 
This is exactly what happened in Slovenia 70 years ago.  During World War II, Hitler added Jugoslavia to his belt of scalped European countries. The conquerors tried their best to wipe Slovenia off the face of the world. The Slovenian flag could no longer be flown. The official language became German or Italian. Everything was German or Italian: newspapers, radio, school classes, street signs, names of towns, money, even sermons.  Young Slovenians were itching to fight back. Several underground resistance groups were immediately created by various democratic political parties that existed before the war. But a few months later, whispers came about a new kid on the block:  the Slovenian initials were OF [1] - the Liberation Front. What a patriotic name! Its slogan: Death to Fascism, Freedom for the People!  Who could argue with that? Join our fighters, the Partisans, they urged. Young Slovenians rushed to join these guerrillas. The Partisans quickly chalked up quite a body count of enemies. One hundred, then one thousand, then two thousand. But something seemed strange. The dead were not German or Italian soldiers, but fellow Slovenians. The Partisans always gave the same explanation: they had just killed an "Enemy of the People." But each victim was always the same type: a good Catholic Slovenian who would never become a communist.
 
The list of "Enemies of the People" contained every sex, age, and profession:  a priest, a university student, a husband and wife, a pregnant woman, a paralytic, a fourth-grader, an entire family. Each one I mentioned has a name: Rev. Henrik Novak, Lojze Grozde, Mr. & Mrs. Franc and Helena Kolenc, Mrs. Ivanka Škrabec-Novak in her 3rd trimester, Janez Kozina (age 35) who was crippled, Štefan Jakopin (age 9), the entire Mavsar family. Real people, names like yours and mine.
 
But not simply killed. The killings were always sadistic. University student Lojze Grozde had his toes, ear, and eyes cut out before a blow to the head with a pick-ax. This was "Death to Fascism"? Parents Franc and Helena Kolenc and their 4-year old daughter were shot at home. Death to Fascism? Pregnant in her last trimester, Ivanka Škrabec-Novak begged them to wait until her baby was born, but no mercy:  she was forced to dig her own grave. Death to Fascism? A schoolteacher was gang-raped before she was shot in the head. [2] Death to Fascism? Seven members of the Mavsar family were tossed alive into a fire (the youngest, Stanko, was only a 4th grader). The remaining 3 members of this family of 10 were killed by the end of the war. Death to Fascism?  This is just a sample of the hundreds of killings.
 
The OF was unmasked. The Liberation Front was a con game by the Communist Party. A smokescreen for their sinister goal: to have a communist Slovenia at the end of the war. In the meantime, while World War II was in progress, they were going to eliminate any obstacle to their goal. Who was their enemy? Not the Fascists, not the Nazis, but any Slovenian who could not be converted to their philosophy of Godless communism. Any Slovenian, any age, any sex, who refused to renounce his Catholic beliefs. "If you are not with us, we will kill you!"
 
The real Fascists, the Italian occupation troops, refused to lift a finger, even if they heard these killings nearby. After all, Slovenian not Italian blood was being spilled. Civilians were not permitted to own guns. Defenseless farmers in their fields were constantly looking over their shoulders. Families spent each long night in fear of a Partisan rifle butt beating on their door. Can you imagine how hopeless and helpless they felt, day and night, month after month?
 
The men of one village [3] had enough. They dug up some rifles and stood guard from dusk to dawn.  They called themselves the Village Guard. They successfully repulsed an attack by the communist-led Partisans (fellow Slovenians!) and the concept of self-defense spread like wildfire to other villages. The Village Guard was later replaced by the Slovenian Home Guard, the domobranci, who kept the Partisan terrorism against fellow Slovenians at bay until the end of the war. As bad as the war years were, the worst was yet to come.
 
After 5 years of war, the end was only a few days away. But not how Slovenians had hoped. They expected the British or the Americans to liberate their country. Instead, it appeared that the Allies had agreed to hand Jugoslavia to the Soviet Red Army and Tito's forces. The Homeguard had no choice but to retreat to Austria. Slovenian civilians panicked. Their wartime protectors were leaving and they knew what to expect when Tito took over. To save their lives, they joined the flight to Austria, known as the Slovenian Exodus of May 1945. World War II ended the same week, but for thousands of Slovenians it was a week of running for your life, with the Partisans in hot and bloodthirsty pursuit. The lucky ones reached the British lines in Austria and created a tent city in the vast open fields around a village named Vetrinj. Eleven thousand domobranci, the same number of Slovenian civilians, and thousands of POWs of every nationality who had fought against Tito  – Serbs, Croatians, Montenegrins, Cossacks.
 
The POWs and the refugees assumed they were now safe under British Army protection. They were wrong. They were safe for only ten days. The British said they would transport everyone to Italy. The British lied. They handed the Homeguards back to their mortal enemies, Tito's forces. In the last week of May, ten thousand Homeguards and several hundred civilians were back in Slovenia. The communist killers were even more sadistic now than during wartime. Here are two examples. The domobranci had several military chaplains. As groups of 40 were being led away to death, Chaplain Rev. Franc Kunstelj  gave them a final blessing. The guards spotted this, knew he was a priest, and broke his bones from fingers to wrists. He afterwards continued to try to give his blessings, so they cut off his hands with a hatchet. Second case. The British allowed wives with babies to accompany their husband Homeguards, otherwise the "to Italy" ruse would be exposed. The communists wrestled the infants from their mothers arms, placed them on a flatbed farm wagon where they cried and writhed under a hot sun until they died. Their helpless mothers stretched their bloodied arms through the barbed wire fence, screaming in agony, and in vain. By the end of June, virtually all the repatriates were killed. Thousands. History calls this "The Vetrinj Tragedy".
 
This is one reason we are here – to commemorate the Tragedy of Vetrinj. Mass graves continue to be discovered in Slovenia. Hundreds of mass graves. Here lie the thousands of anti-communist forces that the British repatriated from Austria – Slovenians, Serbs, Croatian, Montenegrins. Also the graves for the thousands of Homeguards and civilians who remained behind. In the two months after World War II ended, the communists tortured and slaughtered tens of thousands. The victims were not traitors or Nazi collaborators, as some continue to insist. They were not "Enemies of the People." They were not pro-German or pro-Fascist or pro-Hitler. They were pro-God, pro-Faith, pro-Slovenia, pro-democracy, pro-freedom. They faced a choice: join the communist cause – in other words, give up your Faith – or die. Today we salute them for making their choice and paying the ultimate price – would you have been brave enough to do the same?
 
There is another Tragedy of Vetrinj, rarely mentioned. The Exodus broke apart many familes. Some of you are here today. Many a refugee left behind in Slovenia a pregnant wife, a baby, or a sick child, with good reasons for this painful choice: the life-or-death race to Austria had no guarantee of success; second, they honestly believed that they would return in 3 weeks, after the postwar chaos subsided – they expected the pre-war democratic Jugoslav government to be restored. It never happened. We have the luxury of hindsight, they did not. The 3 weeks turned into 10 years of separation, as babies grew into children, children grew into teens. Those left behind in Slovenia also suffered very much, too much. Ten years later they were reunited, but as virtual strangers, to resume some sort of family life. Both sides had permanent psychological scars. I am sure such exodus refugees plead from their graves: Forgive us, if we had known that we would not return, we never would have left you behind. Today is a good moment for the separated children to forgive back.
 
Today we must also commemorate the Miracle of Vetrinj.  The British actually planned to repatriate all the civilians after they finished repatriating the Homeguards.  On the last day of May, Mary's month, the civilians were spared, thanks to the brave protest by a Slovenian physician, Dr. Meršol, and a Canadian officer, Major Barre. The Canadian knew his military career would be finished because he challenged a direct order, but he saved thousands of Slovenians. But there is more to the miracle. The spared Slovenian refugees were removed from the tent city in Vetrinj to 5 scattered DP camps (Displaced Persons). Barracks for wartime workers. In each DP camp, the very first thing the Slovenians did was to convert one barrack into a chapel. Each chapel displayed a large picture of Our Lady of Brezje: Mary, Help of Christians. She saved them during the exodus run and then from repatriation. They needed Mary's help now more than ever. They were scared, wondering what would happen to them.
 
My father told me when I was young that their five years in DP camps were the happiest times of their lives. Wow, how lucky, I thought, it sounded like a 5-year vacation. Little did I know what he meant. They struggled to survive the 5 years of war, the exodus, and the repatriation. They would continue to struggle for the next 5 years. The British failed to repatriate them in May of 1945, but continued their efforts, deviously. They would make life so difficult that these refugees would want to return to Slovenia of their own accord. The tools were starvation, travel restrictions, job restrictions. No travel meant no jobs, no jobs meant no money, no money meant no food or clothes. Anyone who strayed too far from the camp or tried to smuggle food into the camp was sentenced to one month in jail. To the DPs, Faith and Freedom were more important than their stomachs, so they tightened their belts, literally. They chose to starve rather than go back. And starve they did. In the end, the British gave up after countries opened their doors to immigration. Immigration - another trauma. All hope of returning home was gone. The refugees were dispersed across continents, to strange lands with strange customs and strange languages, to start a new life at the bottom of the heap. A former mayor of a Slovenian town got a job in a railroad yard, the CEO of a publishing company worked in an electronics factory, a shoemaker worked in an automobile assembly line, a high school professor in a mattress factory.[4] Many mothers cleaned offices at night. They didn't mind the sacrifices because they had saved their lives, their freedom, and their Catholic faith. Not for themselves, but for their children, and their children's children, who today can own a car, own a house, go to college, go to church – with no fear of a rifle butt breaking down your door at night. I now understand what my father meant by those years of hardship being the happiest: the DPs left all their material possessions behind in Slovenia, but they kept their spiritual treasures: their Catholic Faith and Christian values. Our Lady of Brezje, Help of Christians, did not let the DPs down. They survived. That's the Miracle of Vetrinj.
 
This is why we are here today. The Homeguards who died and the DPs who survived pass on their legacy to you and me.  First – no matter what the cost, never surrender your love of God-Family-Country. That was the Homeguard motto.  Secondly, "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing."[5] 70 years ago, many good people refused to surrender their Christian values and paid with a bullet in the head, and many good people became refugees who paid with a lifetime of hardships. Sooner or later, all of us will face the same choice. God is under attack everywhere today. Ideologies are always trying to remove God from every facet of our lives. Back then, communism and socialism, now liberalism and materialism, all in the name of "political correctness" and "open-mindedness" and "anything goes". Bad history is repeating itself. What's your choice? Do nothing? Just give in? Simply hope that the future becomes brighter for your children? Or will you draw a line in the sand like the Homeguards and the refugees?

 
Today we remember, we thank, we forgive, we reflect on the events in Slovenia 70 years ago. The Homeguards and the DPs showed us the way. The number of refugee survivors  is dwindling; if you know anyone, give them a big hug. The battle of Good vs Evil continues. And good history will repeat itself, as long as you young people, future generations, continue to commemorate each year the Tragedy and the Miracle of Vetrinj. This is why we are here today.
 
 
Jerry (Nejče) G. Zupan
June 21, 2015
Commemoration and Remembrance Day (70th Anniversary) at Slovenska Pristava (Geneva, Ohio)

______________

[1] Osvobodilna Fronta
[2] Darinka
Čebulj
[3] Šent Jošt... Vaške Straže.
[4] In sequence: Zdravko Kalan, inž. Jože Sodja, Miha Sršen, prof. Vinko Lipovec.
[5] Statesman Edmund Burke

*****

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

*****

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Far-right surges in Croatia as EU disappointment spreads / "AP / Yahoo News" June 23, 2015


Aleksandra's Note: Surprise, Surprise!

NOT.

This "phenomenon" should not, and must not, be dismissed. Unlike Germany, Croatia has never renounced its Nazi past. That is because it is not just "in the past". If you want to know who these Croatians are, just ask a Serb whose family is from the Serbian parts of Croatia.

It's quite ironic that Croatians memorialize those Croats who were executed by the Yugoslav Communists after WWII yet despise the Serbian patriots who were executed by those very same Yugoslav Communists.

Fascism is not rising in Croatia. It has been there all along.

Sincerely,
Aleksandra Rebic

*****

AP / Yahoo News
By DUSAN STOJANOVIC and DARKO BANDIC
June 23, 2015

In this May 16, 2015 photo, a man from Croatia wearing WWII Croatian "Ustasha" insignia attends a memorial to the thousands of victims of the mass killings by Yugoslav communists, in Bleiburg, Austria. At the time when most of Europe marked the 70th anniversary of liberation from the Nazi occupiers, thousands of right-wing Croats were out in a field in southern Austria honoring the WWII Ustasha state that was responsible for sending tens of thousands of Serbs, Gypsies and Jews to their death in concentration camps. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — It was one of the biggest nights in Croatia's sporting calendar: a European Championship soccer qualifying match with Italy. Seconds after kick-off in a game beamed around the world, a gigantic swastika materialized on the pitch under the shocked gaze of European soccer officials.

The swastika, sprayed by an unknown vandal with a chemical that became visible only when floodlights went on to start the game, has become the most potent symbol of a rise in ultra-nationalist sentiment that appears to be bleeding into the mainstream population in the European Union's newest member state.

But it's not the only one. In the mixed ethnic towns of eastern Croatia, road signs in the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet have been destroyed and Serbian Orthodox churches have been vandalized with a "U'' symbol representing the Nazi-linked World War II Ustasha regime. On weekends, Ustasha chants echo at sports venues and rock concerts.

The appearance of such symbols is perhaps unsurprising for a country that during World War II which sent tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies to death camps. But the Balkan state's current leaders have called for change after the global outcry prompted by the swastika on the field.

"This act has inflicted immeasurable damage on the reputation of Croatian citizens and their homeland all over the world," said Croatia's new conservative president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. "Therefore, we must finally put a stop to such things."

The rise of the right in Croatia has been fueled by deep economic hardship and growing public anger over the inability of the left-leaning government to deal with it, even after the country entered the EU two years ago, fueling dreams of sudden riches that have not materialized.

Minorities, especially Serbs, have complained of fears for their safety since Grabar-Kitarovic was elected president in December. The Anti-Serb graffiti has evoked memories of the bloodshed that engulfed the region during the 1990s Balkans wars that tore apart the former Yugoslavia.

At an event last month in southern Austria, Croatian ultranationalist Ivica Safaric proudly brandished the "U'' Ustasha symbol on a medallion around his neck. His companions in black shirts raised their right arms high in a Nazi salute, shouting out a dreaded battle call "For the homeland — Ready!" used by wartime Croatian fascist troops.

"I respect the Ustasha movement because it created the independent state of Croatia," said Safaric, who fought for Croatia's independence in the 1990s.

The gathering in Bleiburg was a memorial to tens of thousands of pro-Nazi soldiers, their families, children and civilians killed by communist guerrillas at the end of the war in 1945.

Commemorations for the Bleiburg massacre victims are held every year in May, but last month's gathering was by far the largest ever, with an estimated 40,000 people participating. It happened as much of Europe marked the 70th anniversary of liberation from the Nazis, and the pro-Nazi imagery at Bleiburg was met by muted response from Croatia's politicians.

Grabar-Kitarovic endorsed the Bleiburg commemorations and honored the victims just days ahead of the main event, but did not go there when the crowds gathered. She also paid an informal visit to the site of an Ustasha-run death camp in Jasenovac, but did not attend official commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the camp's liberation.

In an illustration of the ideological divide in the country, Croatia's embattled leftist Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic did participate in the official ceremonies at Jasenovac, where at least 80,000 people, mostly Serbs, were killed. He urged Croats to acknowledge what happened in the death camp as part of the Nazi genocidal machine.

Analysts say the right-wing advance in Croatia — traditionally deeply split between left-wing and conservative traditions — has surged to its highest point since the country gained independence from the former Serb-led Yugoslavia in the 1991-95 war.

"Sadly, the extreme right is more visible than ever in the past 25 years in Croatia," said historian Hrvoje Klasic.

Minority Serbs, who fought against Croatia's independence during the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, have been under increasing pressure by the nationalists. Croatian war veterans campaigning under the slogan "100 percent Croatia" — implying an ethnically pure state — have demanded that Serbs stop using the Cyrillic alphabet in Croatia, although their right to do so is guaranteed by the country's laws.

Alarmed by the surge, thousands of gay activists and their liberal supporters marched in Croatia's capital Zagreb last weekend under the slogan: "Louder and More Courageous: Antifascism Without Compromise."

"We chose the slogan because we don't like where Croatia is heading," said Marko Jurcic, one of the march organizers. "We don't want a 100 percent pure Croatia, we want a diverse Croatia."

Most Croatian officials are downplaying the far-right surge, saying it is part of pre-election campaigning.

"Croatian society is not better or worse than in the other EU countries," said Parliament speaker Josip Leko. "We are in an election year and some themes are being opened by those who want to attract sympathizers."

In this May 16, 2015 photo, men from Croatia stand on railway tracks as they attend a memorial to the thousands of victims of the mass killings by Yugoslav communists, in Bleiburg, Austria. At the time when most of Europe marked the 70th anniversary of liberation from the Nazi occupiers, thousands of right-wing Croats were out in a field in southern Austria honoring the WWII Ustasha state that was responsible for sending tens of thousands of Serbs, Gypsies and Jews to their death in concentration camps. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
 
In this May 16, 2015 photo, a monument depicting "Ustasha" Nazi sign and reading: "In honor and glory to killed Croatian soldiers, May 1945" is pictured during a memorial to the thousands of victims of the mass killings by Yugoslav communists, in Bleiburg, Austria. At the time when most of Europe marked the 70th anniversary of liberation from the Nazi occupiers, thousands of right-wing Croats were out in a field in southern Austria honoring the WWII Ustasha state that was responsible for sending tens of thousands of Serbs, Gypsies and Jews to their death in concentration camps. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
 
 In this May 16, 2015 photo, men from Croatia attend a memorial to the thousands of victims of the mass killings by Yugoslav communists, in Bleiburg, Austria. At the time when most of Europe marked the 70th anniversary of liberation from the Nazi occupiers, thousands of right-wing Croats were out in a field in southern Austria honoring the WWII Ustasha state that was responsible for sending tens of thousands of Serbs, Gypsies and Jews to their death in concentration camps. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)


http://news.yahoo.com/far-surges-croatia-eu-disappointment-spreads-102111213.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

*****


Sunday, June 21, 2015

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to our beloved fathers both here on Earth and in Heaven / June 21, 2015


1963
 
Aleksandra's Note: Fortunately, I know how blessed I am to still have my father Rade with me here on earth...but, like all children who love their fathers and whose fathers love them, I'll always have him. Those of us who are the descendants of Serb and non-Serb patriots and heroes who knew and understood full well the importance of imparting the legacy of General Mihailovich and his Chetniks will forever maintain a bond with our fathers that will never be broken by the passage of time, by world events, by distance, or by mortality.

Thankful for so many of the things that my father has given me, but most of all thankful that the Holy Father gave me this earthly gift of having such a man in my life that I will cherish always.

Happy Father's Day, Tata!

Sincerely,
Aleksandra Rebic
June 21, 2015

2015


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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

*****

Friday, June 19, 2015

"FORGOTTEN 500" UPDATED LIST of Halyard Mission Rescued American Airmen by the Mihailovich Chetniks in WWII! / Gregory A. Freeman June 18, 2015

Gregory A. Freeman
Facebook
June 18, 2015

Author Gregory A. Freeman
 
 
From Gregory A. Freeman on Facebook
June 18, 2015:

"Forgotten 500 list of rescued airmen has been updated!

The list of airmen rescued in Operation Halyard that was included in THE FORGOTTEN 500 was known to be incomplete, and many people have asked if their family members might have been rescued even though they weren’t on the list. Now we have an updated list, thanks to the great research by Wendy Irwin, a relative of one of the men rescued.

Using the Missing Air Crew Reports that were filed after a bomber went down, Wendy has added a number of crew members who most likely were sheltered by Draza Mihailovich and rescued in the Operation Halyard flights. We still can’t call the list complete, so your relative might have been part of Operation Halyard even if his name isn’t included. But this is a great addition to the Forgotten 500 canon and I hope it answers important questions for some families."

See the updated list here:

[AR Note: The name of American Airman SSGT Curtis "Bud" Diles, Jr. needs to be added to the list.]

http://www.gregoryafreeman.com/OperationHalyard.pdf.


Page 1 of 3 of updated list.

Page 2 of 3 of updated list.

Page 3 of 3 of updated list.

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You can order the book "THE FORGOTTEN 500" here:

http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-500-Untold-GreatestRescue-Mission/dp/0451222121/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1434572153

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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

*****

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

ОДРЕЂЕНИ ДОБИТНИЦИ НАГРАДЕ "ДРАГИША КАШИКОВИЋ" ЗА 2015. ГОДИНУ / ИК "Српска реч" и Републичка асоцијација за неговање тековина равногорског покрета

www.spo.rs
June 14, 2015


Вељко Лалић, главни и одговорни уредник часописа „Недељник“ из Београда добитник је награде "Драгиша Кашиковић" за новинарство у Србији, а Драган Јаковљевић, главни и одговорни уредник „Српских недељних новина“ из Будимпеште, лауреат је признања за новинарство у дијаспори.

Лалићу и Јаковљевићу награда је припала за високо професионално умеће, истраживачко и аналитичко новинарство, објективност, независност и непристрасност, као и за храброст у објављивању информација и ставова.

Признање које од 1994. године додељују Издавачка кућа "Српска реч" и Републичка асоцијација за неговање тековина Равногорског покрета, за врхунски домет и ширење слободе стваралаштва у областима којима се бавио новинар и свестрани уметник Драгиша Кашиковић (1932-1977), припало је историчару др Срђану Цветковићу за књигу „Између српа и чекића“, која је плод деценијског истраживања аутора о политичким суђењима, дисиденству у комунистичкој Србији, прогонима унутрашњег непријатеља и улози тајних служби.

Драгослав Митровић, афористичар из Цириха у Швајцарској овогодишњи је лауреат награде за збирку афоризма „Благо њима, ковчег нама“, у којој се налазе изузетно духовите, критичке и сатиричние мисли о времену у којем живимо.

Награда, која се састоји из плакете и новчаног износа, добитницима ће бити уручена у Удружењу књижевника Србије, Француска 7, у среду, 17. јуна, са почетком у 12 часова, на годишњицу убиства Драгише Кашиковића, главног уредника листа „Слобода“ у Чикагу.

О добитницима је одлучивао жири у саставу: књижевник Александар Чотрић (председник), књижевник Миодраг Јакшић и историчар Предраг Остојић (чланови). Признање ће добитницима уручити директор ИК „Српске речи“ Даница Драшковић.

Признање носи име по Драгиши Кашиковићу, једном од најзначајнијих стваралаца у дијаспори, сатиричару, писцу, публицисти, сликару, преводиоцу, новинару и уреднику. Кашиковић је од савременика назван „витезом српске политичке емиграције“. Рођен је 1932. године у Хаџићима, поред Сарајева. Кашиковић је као политички емигрант 1957. године дошао у САД, где је завршио факултет и перфектно овладао енглеским, немачким и француским језиком. Покренуо и књижевни часопис „Данас“, као и сатирични лист „Чичак“. Поред осталих, Кашиковић је објавио књиге „Поручник Каваја“, „Дупљаци“ (драма) и „Партија те тужи, Партија ти суди“ (афоризми). Кашиковић је убијен у Чикагу од припадника југословенске Службе државне безбедности, у редакцији листа "Слобода", гласила организације Српска народна одбране, коју је основао научник Михаило Пупин 1908. године.


http://www.spo.rs/vesti/466-odredjeni-dobitnici-nagrade-dragisa-kasikovic-za-2015-godinu.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

*****
 

Sunday, June 14, 2015

JASENOVAC REMEMBERED by William Dorich / "Britić - The British Serb magazine" June 10, 2015

Britić - The British Serb magazine
William Dorich
June 10, 2015



As the author of six books on Balkan history I am most proud of my monograph: Jasenovac Then & Now: A Conspiracy of Silence.

As the victim of double Balkan genocide it is important that these war crimes are never forgotten. In 1942, in the village of Vojnic, Croatia where my father was born 97 Serbs were gathered in their church believing they could convert to Catholicism to save their lives…the doors were locked from the outside and the church was burned to the ground—17 of those victims were my relatives.

In 1995 during “Operation Storm” when 230,000 Serbs were cleansed from Croatia, the last five relatives of my name were too old and too sick to flee…I was notified a month later by the Red Cross that they were found with their throats slit.

In 1997 I was invited to participate and speak at the First International Conference and Exhibition on the Jasenovac Concentration Camp at Kingsborough College in New York.

I immediately accepted the invitation and within days wrote my speech and as requested sent a copy to Dr. Kline whose department sponsored the event. Within 2 days I received a telephone call uninviting me to participate…when I asked the reason I was told that a Croatian professor at the college said she would refuse to participate if I spoke.  I was outraged that the host of the conference shared my speech without consideration to my privacy and that Croatian Nazis murdered all of my family and she was more interested in politics than the alleged scholarly investigation.

Since I volunteered to assist in raising money to finance the $7,000 required to bring several Jasenovac survivors to New York to participate, my major donor said he would withhold his contribution if I were removed from the panel of speakers.

My invitation was again extended however I had suspicions that this was going to be a political set up, so I went back over my speech which contained 29 footnotes for reference and confirmation of my words before this important presentation.  I printed that monograph of 65 pages that included 22 first-person witness statement in 1945 including, three Ustasha Catholic priests, German military officials, several survivors, a number of Croatian officials and a statement by Senator Herbert Lehman of New York. This monograph now in its 3rd edition has been made available over the Internet for an inexpensive download on all of the major tablets.

At the conclusion of my presentation, Dr. Kline, a Jew, came to the microphone to “distance himself and the college from my presentation”…by that time my monograph was being distributed among the audience…Here is my speech, you be the judge about its content.

*****

The American lexicon of the 1940s included such repugnant words as “Japs, Kikes and Pollocks.” I remember those days—my father was an immigrant coal miner, and I was automatically addressed by the bigoted word—“Hunky.” Today, in more subtle ways, name calling still haunts modern society. In the contemporary context it has been easy for Americans to deny knowledge of the Holocaust as though Auschwitz and Jasenovac were a mere anomaly of history—but they are naive, millions have been killed since Nuremberg. Today, it is politically incorrect to attack blacks, Asians, Arabs and homosexuals, but perfectly acceptable to attack a Serb—a name that has become synonymous with evil. Terminology that demonizes Serbs with collective guilt thrives.  Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleberger said “Serbs are not too smart,” and Richard Holbrooke unashamedly called Serbs “murderous assholes.”1 Morton Kondracke called Serbs “Bastards”2 on national television, while Senator Biden used CNN to inform the world that Serbs were “illiterates and degenerates.”3 The Serbians have been denied food and medicine for the past five years in a process known as “negative earmarking.”4 This can only be described as—GENOCIDE by SANCTIONS.5 This conference will surely expose one important reality—that Jasenovac was not a symptom, but the full-blown disease of manifest hatred.

In this century, in which the word genocide was coined in 1944, the following chilling words were spoken in testimony by Antun Miletich, a Croatian writer: “…There is not a pen capable of describing the horror and terror of the atmosphere at Jasenovac. It surpasses any human fantasy. Imagine Hell, the Inquisition, a terror more dreadful than any that ever before existed anywhere, run by bloodthirsty wild animals whose most hidden and disgusting instincts had come to the surface in a way never before seen in human beings—and still you have not said enough.”6 Jasenovac screamed out at the world and nobody heard that Serbs were the victims of “the greatest genocide, in proportion to a nation’s population,”7 in WWII, as Jasenovac became the “Yugoslav Dachau.”8

Today, journalists conceal the fact that Serbia lost half of her adult male population in WWI—their losses 23 years later at Jasenovac would pain the Serb psyche for the remainder of this century—a century that witnessed the slaughter of more than 170 million victims, beginning with the first genocide in 1907, when the Germans liquidated 120,000 Tanzanians—followed in 1922 by the first Holocaust in Asia Minor, where Turkey massacred 3.5 million Armenians and Greeks. In my generation when “never again” was repeated like a mantra, 30 million Chinese and Russians were liquidated in the 1950s and 1960s with impunity, followed by 1.7 million Cambodians in the 1970s, and 2 million Sudanese and Ethiopians in the 1980s.  Since Nuremberg, war criminals, dictators and genocidal maniacs have murdered hundreds of thousands of the “politically incorrect,” while remaining political untouchables.

But in 1990s Bosnia, the moral line in the sand has been drawn to prosecute “Serbian war criminals”9 for killing an alleged “200,000 Bosnian Muslims,”10 the single largest deception of this war.  Serbians are accused of killing “7,079 Srebrenica Muslims,”according to Pulitzer prize awardee David Rohde.11 Four thousand of these alleged victims were seen and recorded in Tuzla by John Pomfret of The Washington Post on July 18, 1995.12   This is deceit for a political agenda. Jasenovac is Croatia’s deceit of history and her conspiracy of silence.13

Many of the criminals who perpetrated these war crimes in Jasenovac have returned from exile. One such war criminal is Dinko Sakic, one of the men who ran Jasenovac.  He is now the security advisor to Croatian President Tudjman.  Sakic proclaimed in a Zagreb magazine: “If I were offered the same duty today, I would accept it.”14 Why is Sakic not being dragged off to The Hague? Equally repugnant is the fact Germany’s “Neo-Nazis Help Croatians in Bosnia”15 during this current war.

Tito and Croatian apologists, aided by the Vatican, buried their crimes at Jasenovac along with their victims.  “It now appears that a vast international conspiracy involving Marshal Josip Broz Tito, founder of modern Yugoslavia, his ruling Yugoslav League of Communists, the United Nations, some Vatican officials, and even Jewish organizations strove to keep the Jasenovac story buried forever.”… ” The silence of Jewish organizations is less easily explained, particularly since Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal was aware of the slaughter,”16 mocking his own words, “Hope lives when people remember.”17 Professor John Ranz, chairperson in the U.S. of the Survivors of Buchenwald, even finds reason to discredit the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles as “an insult to the memory of the Holocaust.”18  The only reference to ‘Jasenovac’ at the Museum of Tolerance is a wall map showing the concentration camps of World War II.  In spite of the fact that thousands of Jews were exterminated at Jasenovac, the tour guides at the Museum of Tolerance intolerably never mention its name.

In July of 1994, Dr. Milan Bulajic, recognized as an expert on genocide by the United Nations, visited Washington, meeting with officials of the National Holocaust Memorial Museum, to bring justice to the victims of Jasenovac and to find out why this tax-supported American institution would omit the Yugoslav Jews and Serbians who died there?  He did not get a clear cut answer as to why the third most lethal camp in WWII, nicknamed by historians as “The Auschwitz of the Balkans,” is conspicuously missing at this museum?

In my book, The Serbian Genocide—1941-45, published on the 50th anniversary of WWII, co-authored by the late David Martin, who was Jewish and the author of the 1990 book, The Web of Disinformation, and an expert on the Balkans, wrote: “Initial reports claimed that 150,000 Serbs had been massacred; while arriving reports claimed 600,000 were killed.  All reports were replete with details of such psychopathic fiendishness that on first reading they seemed almost absurd.  The facts of the massacres would indeed be incredible if they had not been authenticated from so many different sources, including photographic evidence by Ustashi themselves, as such evidence was one sure way of receiving Pavelic’s approval and elevation to higher rank within the Ustasha militia.” … ”Numerous reports of entire Serbian communities being locked in their churches and burned alive and reports that the Ustashi were adorning themselves with necklaces made of Serbian eyes were so horrible that one simply cannot blame the civilized western world for initially disbelieving them.” …

“Today no one denies that the massacres take place.  It is of interest to note that in ‘The Yugoslav Peoples Fight to Live,’ Tito stated: ‘During three months of 1941, with the aid of the Ustashi, the Nazis succeeded in exterminating more than half a million Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Vojvodina.’”19 If we are to believe today’s revisionists, such a statement would imply that no Serbs were killed after 1941.

If there is any value in Simon Wiesenthal’s words that ‘hope lives when people remember,’ then Serbs will surely find it hopeless that their bravery in saving the lives of thousands of Jews during the war in Yugoslavia has been easily erased from history.  Serbs also find hopeless a new attempt to tell the story of World War II in the Balkans entitled Serbia’s Secret War—Propaganda and the Deceit of History by Philip Cohen.  Jasenovac only appears twice in this book—on pages 91 and 125—less than 90 words were used to describe Jasenovac, where, according to most scholars, more than a half million Serbs were exterminated.20

Asserting that he has discovered a “Secret War” of the Serbs, Philip Cohen is unburdened with credentials in Balkan Studies and cannot speak in the Serbo-Croatian language, nor read the Cyrillic alphabet, which would have been necessary to comb through the thousands of documents to make this alleged secret discovery—apparently, Mr. Cohen relied on others to do his so-called “meticulous and excruciatingly well-documented study,”21 according to Stjepan G. Mestrovic, a Croatian at Texas A&M University. No respectable Croatian would dare to author such a book.

In his foreword to the same book, Jewish Professor David Riesman, Emeritus of Social Sciences at Harvard, also found it obligatory to use racism by saying: “… The account makes clear, there is an important cultural difference between Serbia and Croatia; it is in Serbia that illiterates could rise to leadership and even to the monarchy…”22 This remark was obviously meant to be as insulting as possible to the Serbian nation. Today, the Serbs do a dance without musical accompaniment, it is called the “silent kolo,”—invented in the 18th century because Serbs were denied the right to an education and musical instruments by their Ottoman oppressors. Riesman’s kind of hateful attack on Serbians was what made Jasenovac a reality.23

Conspicuously missing from this book is any mention of Ante Starcevic (1823-1896), who contributed to two World Wars and is considered the Croatian “father of hate.”24 Missing, too, is any mention of Andrija Artukovic,the minister of the Interior of the First Independent State of Croatia in 1941.25 In 1985, the U.S. Justice Department introduced evidence at Artukovic’s Los Angeles extradition trial, signed by Artukovic—Artukovic’s son claimed his father’s signature were “authentic.”These documents directed punitive measures against Serbs, Jews and Roma whom he sent to Jasenovac. In 1941,  Fr. Ivan Raguz yelled from a Croatian Roman Catholic pulpit: “Kill all Serbs and Jews, including children, so that not even the seeds of the beasts are left.”26 Therein lies the foundation, the pretext and the horror of Jasenovac.

There are more than 12 million Serbs today in the world, and there is scarcely a family that did not lose a close member or a relative during the Holocaust—a great many of whom died at Jasenovac.  This author lost 17 members of his family during the war—they were burned to death in the Serbian Orthodox church in the village of Vojnic for refusing to convert to Roman Catholicism. Today’s ‘talking heads’ in the partisan media tell me that this is “ancient history,” in spite of the fact that it happened to my family in my lifetime—there is no statute of limitations on murder, meanwhile irresponsible legal minds pursue an arbitrary mandate of only prosecuting war criminals after 1990 and only in former Yugoslavia. Entering the 21st Century practicing such selective justice only insures that we will repeat the mistakes of this century.

The United States is the world’s beacon for freedom, then why in God’s name would we deny free speech to the Serbian people?27  In 1942, during WWII, the Legion of Merit Award, the United States’ highest honor to a foreign citizen, was given to General Draza Mihailovich by an act of Congress. Was it in the name of “freedom” that the U.S. State Department kept that award secret for more than 20 years?—insulting Serbian allies who saved over 500 American airmen downed over occupied Yugoslav territory at great personal sacrifice? Erasing these facts from the records,28 and obliterating Jasenovac from historic research, has been accomplished by influential Croatians, the Vatican and their patrons. These were not ordinary perpetrators—they included hundreds of Roman Catholic priests who killed Serbs and Jews with their own hands, then fled into exile with false passports generated by Fr. Krunoslav Draganovic—a Croatian priest—who operated the infamous “Ratline” from inside the Vatican.29

In 1991, President Tudjman was quoted in the Jerusalem Post as saying, “I am a doubly lucky man, my wife is neither Serbian nor Jewish.”30 This is the same Croatian president whose army destroyed Jasenovac Concentration Camp and its Museum and who claims that only “20,000 Serbs died at Jasenovac.” One only need see the repulsive photographs taken by Croatian perpetrators at Jasenovac to know that even 5,000 dead Serbs accomplished in this sadistic manner represents the worst crimes against humanity in the 20th century.  I know many Croatians who are good and decent people.  Why have Croatians refused to speak out against this genocide and apologize for its brutality?

In 1991, His Holiness Pavle, Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, led the first anti-war demonstration of million Serbs through the streets of Belgrade. His effort has been repeated a number of times since.  Why has every overture of the Serbian Orthodox Church been rebuffed by the Croatians and, equally important, why is there a worldwide effort today to discredit Eastern Orthodoxy, the religion of 280 million Christian people?

In 1991, His Holiness Pavle invited the Pope of Rome to Jasenovac to serve a joint liturgy on the 50th anniversary of World War II. Pope John Paul II refused, saying, “It is too dangerous to come to the Balkans at this time.” Then, two years later, at the height of the Bosnian Civil War, the Pope went to Zagreb—where his first official duty was to lay a wreath on the tomb of convicted war criminal, Archbishop Stepinac. Americans fought and died to destroy fascism and death camps like Jasenovac, then turned and looked away as the Roman Catholic Diocese in White Plains, New York named one of their schools, Archbishop Stepinac High School in the 1950s.

Absent from Cohen’s Serbia’s Secret War is Fr. Miroslav Filipovic Majstorovic, a Franciscan friar, who was nicknamed “Friar Satan”—by one of the guards at Jasenovac, and for good reason. On February 7, 1942 the Ustashi, under his leadership, massacred 2,300 Serbian adults and 551 children in the village of Drakulic.31 (recounted on the following pages). The children in the village were selected as the first victims—their noses, ears and genitals were cut off—body parts that allowed the victims to remain alive through rapes and tortures.   The most grotesque crime of all was the decapitation of these children—their heads thrown into the laps of their mothers, who, in shocked horror, were then murdered.32

Hearing about these bloody massacres, Ante Pavelic was so pleased that he made Fr. Filipovic the commandant of Jasenovac for four months.  Filipovic admitted to personally killing 40,000 victims at his Yugoslav trial, in direct contradiction to Tudjman’s statement that only ‘20,000 Serbs died at Jasenovac.’ Fr. Filipovic was not the only crazed Roman priest.  Fr. Petar Brzica was nicknamed “King of the Killers.”33 He won that title on the night of August 29, 1942 in a contest to see who could kill the most Serbs in the shortest period of time at Jasenovac. Fr. Brzica won, putting to death 1,350 Serbs by slitting their throats.34 Do not misinterpret my outrage, all war criminals deserve to be punished—including Serbs and Muslims.

Philip Cohen refers to author Curzio Malaparte’s description of seeing a basket of gouged out Serbian eyes on the desk of Ante Pavelic in Malaparte’s book, Kaputt—as “fiction”—and refers to the  book as a “novel,” an attempt to draw attention away from this unspeakably horrible practice of the Ustashi.35 Equally deceptive was the use of footnote 66, Chapter 5, in which his reference source, Michael McAdams, claims that ”Ustasha atrocities in WWII were more fiction than fact.” McAdams, it turns out, is a Croatian-Nazi apologist at a Jesuit university in California. I was in that courtroom where McAdams was a character witness for Andrija Artukovic, at his 1985 extradition trial, and where Cardinal Manning of Los Angeles referred to Artukovic as “a great, good man.”36

The words of United States Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes seem appropriate here, “When I want to understand what is happening today or try to decide what will happen tomorrow, I look back.”

On behalf of the one million Americans of Serbian heritage,  I wish to thank Dr. Kline, Professor Lituchy and Kingsborough College for having the courage to stop the falsification of Balkan history, and for being the first institution in the United States to exhibit the evidence of Jasenovac—and, above all, to finally give its victims a voice and a place in time.  Official academic obfuscation would have gone on unhindered if not for the scholarly dedication of these few individuals.

The Serbian people owe them a debt of gratitude. The ancient Chinese had a wonderful saying—“a journey begins with the first step.” May this courageous step inspire others to imitate you and to share your interest in Jasenovac.  Academia should be embarrassed that so many individuals have spent a lifetime preventing the crimes of Jasenovac from surfacing at institutions of higher learning. Universities across this nation should also be called to account for their record of preventing good, loyal and decent American Serbs from appearing on panel discussions and seminars related to the current Balkan crisis.

For the students at this institution, I leave you with this crucial question—why did our elected officials prevent Serbian scholars, authors, journalists and political leaders from appearing before Congress, the Senate, the Foreign Relations Committee, the Helsinki Commission and the Human Rights Caucus for the past several years? No ethnic group deserves to be singled out and muzzled in this country—the greatest experiment in a democratic society.

In closing, I would like to recall the eloquent words of William Arthur Ward:

“Each of us will one day be judged by our standard of life—not by our standard of living; by our measure of giving—not by our measure of wealth; by our simple goodness—not by our seeming greatness.”

William "Bill" Dorich

I photographed the Serbian church ruins in 1972 on a trip to Yugoslavia.  In 1995 President Tudjman of Croatia bulldozed the site at the same time he destroyed the Jasenovac camp and museum. (William Dorich)
 
The plaque on the ruins tells about this church but apparently the Croatians do not wish to be reminded of the hideous war crimes they perpetrated 70 years ago. (William Dorich)
 
 
 
 
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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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