DR. ESTHER GITMAN (PhD City University of New York) (New York City, November 28, 2017)
Reply to Daniel Ivin (Goldstein) and to Ephraim Zuroff in the article: ‘They are killing victims for the second time with their lies’ - Daniel Ivin, son of a Jewish librarian murdered in an Ustasa-run concentration camp Efraim Zuroff, who has spent more than 40 years hunting Nazis for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, describes Croatia as a country that has gone from being one of the cradles of the Holocaust to a “cradle of Holocaust distortion”. He groups Croatia alongside some of the Eastern European states that he says have selective amnesia about the wartime records of collaborators, quislings and local anti-Semites, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Hungary and to some extent Poland.
Naturally some deniers of the Holocaust still exist in Croatia, Serbia and in other parts of the world. However, the deniers of the Holocaust in every country exhibit a frivolous conduct, when considering the mere fact that before WWII the Jewish population in Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina numbered approximately 40 thousand Jews, after the war, four years later a mere 9.5 thousands or 20 percent of the population survived. The Serbian population prior the war numbered approximately 16 thousands, after the war 1,600 survived 10 percent of the population survived. The Ustashi were brutal and mostly did it for monetary gain. Nazi Germany was clever when it promised Pavelić an independent state and in addition the assets of every Jew they kill. The zeal and the excitement of all these sudden blessings a state and financial solvency, transformed ordinary human beings into animals. The Nazis, who hoped to rule the world aimed to have a clean slate as far as the atrocities were concerned, they requested of the local regimes to kill and plunder, in short, do their dirty work. Even though the initiator of the crimes was Nazi Germany, it doesn’t absolve either the collaborationist Croatian regime or the Serbian regime of heinous crimes committed against the Jewish and Roma minorities. The Serbian regime, thanks to individuals like Ephraim Zuroff and Gideon Grief, over the years managed to exculpate themselves from all the crimes committed by Milan Nedić's regime and Draža Mihajlović's Četniks. But the archives throughout the world contain documents that cannot be easily removed or obliterated. The situation for the Croats was not so easy, they refused to disassociate themselves from the Universal Catholic Church and the Vatican, and thus Croatia was punished and doomed to bear the responsibility for all the crimes committed in the South Slavs against Jews and other dissidents. Despite the wrong that Ante Pavelić and his Ustaše thugs had committed no one has the right, decades later to incriminate the entire Croatian nation least of them Mr. Daniel (Danko) Ivin (Goldstein)! 1
I think that Mr. Ivin has conveniently forgotten that first: as soon as Mr. and Mrs. Ivo Goldstein, Ivin's father and mother, were taken by the Ustashe, on April 12, 1941 and sent to the detention center in Zagreb, Mr. Trontel Tomica, from Karlovac, a boyhood friend (non Jew) of his father Ivo came and fetched him and in his home Ivin remain until his grandfather came to take him to Tuzla, in Bosnia. Thanks to Mr. Stilinović, chief of the local Karlovac police, Lea Goldstein, Ivin's mother, was released from the detention center in Zagreb and was provided with a permit to travel to Karlovac. However, a notation was attached, stating that her safety cannot be guaranteed and it would be wise for her to depart Karlovac sooner than later. Upon Lea Goldstein's arrival in the Italian Zone of Occupation she began searching among the locals for a person, who without major risk would travel to Tuzla and bring her younger son Danko (Ivin) to the safety provided to Jews by the Italian Second Armata. The third time that the family received assistance was offered by the most unlikely individual a young Ustasha soldier who volunteered to leave his post, at the request of Ivin's mother Lea, and fetch Ivin from the danger posed to him in Bosnia. The young Ustaša, placed himself and his entire family in danger when he agreed to meet the challenge and travel to Bosnia and save the life of this young Jewish boy, Danko (Daniel) Goldstein now Ivin, and bring him to his mother. Mr. Ivin, in his politically charged article, had no decency even to acknowledge the courageous acts of the three Croatian man, mentioned above, who endangered themslves and their family members just to save him. Even more surprising is that in his article he has convenient forgotten to mention one woman who was instrumental for his survival and the survival of his brother Slavko Goldstein. Agata Jaga Gjerek from Banski Kovačevac known as Jaga, bagged the entire Goldstein family to move to her village where already in 1940 they had built a room just in case troubled ensued and deportation of Jews were initiated. The Goldsteins, however, didn't anticipate that two days after the Ustaše took control their family would be targeted. In fact, the maid Jaga who became an integral part of the Goldstein family, established continuous contact with the children by sending each Friday her younger sister Jana to Karlovac loaded with produce such as: cheese eggs, meat and bread. After the war, at the request of Slavko Goldstein, Jaga received from Yad Vashem the honorary award of Righteous Among the Nations. (See the book Croatian Righteous, edited by Miriam Aviezer). Yet despite the humanitarian deeds of all those mentioned above, Mr. Ivin attributes his survival to the Partisans. He was fortunate that four Croatian individuals saved him earlier and much before September 8, 1943, when the Italian Army capitulated to the Allied forces. The Partisans, realising that 3,600 Jews were left unprotected, arrived in nick of time to save the Jewish prisoners who thus far were under the protection of Italian Army in the concentration camp on the Island of Rab.
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Ivin, erroneous claims that at the age of ten was saved by the Partisans and in fact became one of them. From my extensive research of the period I don't think that he was a partisan at the age of 10. All women and children, not suited for battle were sent to "Zbjeg," where ordinary citizens of all religions and ethnic groups followed the partisans to the Croatian liberated territories. It is possible but not probable that the 10 year old Ivin was an exception to this rule. What was and still is the objective of Mr. Ivin in writing the article mentioned above? And for what reason was he concealing the truth of his survival? One must also question: what motivates Mr. Zuroff to shield and protect the atrocities committed by Milan Nedić and Draža Mihailović and all their folowers during WWII? Yes, it is true that Zuroff has spent 40 years hunting Nazis for the Simon Wiesenthal Center but the question is why is he protecting the Serbians? Serbia and Croatia were in similar predicaments, the Nazis occupied all the states of former Yugoslavia and inserted their chosen local regimes to run their respective countries, while creating antagonism between them "divide and rule. In Serbia it was Milan Nedić and his bandits and in Croatia it was Ante Pavelić and his group of criminals. In both cases neither of these two individuals were elected nor were they fully supported by the citizens, although Nedić was buttressed by the Serbian Orthodox Church! Both individuals Nedić and Pavelić were chosen for their brutality and their willingness to do the Nazi dirty work of killing and murdering Jews, Roma and other dissidents including Serbs and Croats who chose the Partisans over the local regimes. The Nazis, like Alexander Macedon, chose to give orders but rarely did they kill or murder in daylight. This dirty work, as said earlier, of murder, mass killing, and using gassed trucks to suffocate the victims they had delegated to the local authorities. The Nazis granted generous rewarded the murderers: As stated above for every Jew murdered by the local regime the assets of that Jew became the asset of the local government. Indeed as that statement goes money, makes the world turn around. Serbia became the first country to be Juden frei ( free of Jews) Belgrade was the first European capital without its Jewish population; 90 percent of the Jewish Serbian population was decimated. There is no way that the Germans would've been in a position to accomplish this task without the assistance of the local regime. Prime movers of anti-Semitism in Yugoslavia, between the two World Wars, were not the Ustaše but media publishers of books such as Protocols of the Elders of Zion translated and published from 1929 to 1945 in Serbia. Although the Yugoslav Public Prosecutor in March 1935 banned its distribution, nevertheless from 1933-1940 more than 10 anti-Semitic brochures were published. Lazar Prokić, "Our problems: Jews in Serbia," Obnova, November 15, 1941 Zbor (assembly) published a brochure titled: Serb People in Claws of Jews." Obnova, (Renewal) founder, Dimitrije Ljotić, modeled his work on Mein Campf. In Obnova and Naša Borba (Our Struggle)... Milorad Mojić advocated: “An energetic liquidation of Jewry unless we want to witness destruction of the Christian civilization.” From 1941-45, fifty one (51) anti-Semitic 3
brochures were published in Serbia.1 Yugoslav Foreign Secretary, Anton Korošec, in September 1938, stated: "Jewish issue did not exist in Yugoslavia.” But a year later he proclaimed “Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany are not welcome here.”2 Anti-Semitic Posters From Milan Nedić’s Serbia (1941-1944) Patriarch (Petar Rosić) Varnava in 1937 showed "interest in Hitler and his policy which, he argued, serves the whole of mankind." In May, 1937, the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) in its official publication indicated that "Jews are a force hiding behind the Free Masonry, Capitalism and Communism, the three biggest evils of the world."3 The Serbian claim was that Jews in fact represented the Free Masonry, capitalism, and the proletariat revolution in the South Slavs and in the world. Rosić stated: They are just Jews and nothing else…Therefore enemy is as sly as a snake and appears in several shapes. That is why it is dangerous.4 It would not be an exaggeration to say that Milan Nedić played a decisive role in the persecution and destruction of Serbia's Jews. On September 2, 1941, Nedić promised that he will act in the strongest way against the Jews and against Freemasons.5 On September 29, Bӧhme ordered the German authorities to resume arming the Serbian police. Towards the end of October, 1941, armed Serbian forces under German supervision were performing with effectiveness all that had to be accomplished, including the murder of Jews.6 Besides the exhibits at the exhibition, an enormous amount of propaganda material was prepared: over 200 thousand various brochures, 60 thousand posters, 100 thousand flyers, 108 thousand of samples of 9 different types of envelopes, 176 propaganda movie clips, four different postage stamps etc. Organizers in Belgrade advertised that "This concept of exhibition will be the best publicity against the Jews.7 Serbian newspapers such as Obnova (Renewal) and Naša Borba (Our Struggle) praised this exhibit, proclaiming that Jews were the ancient enemies of the Serbian people and that Serbs
1
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Serbian Nazi Past and the Holocaust of Jews, P.3-.4. June 17, 2009 http://www.helsinki.org.yu/doc/reports.
2
AMHI, doc. 16, file 1'''4, box 2.7; doc· 2.6, file 1"'6, box 27, cited in Philip Cohen, See also. Serbia's secret war: propaganda and the deceit of history, 72. See also, Obnova and Naša Borba ... by Milorad Mojić. He advocated: "a swift and energetic liquidation of Jewry unless we want to witness destruction of the Christian civilization." In 194145 period 51 anti-Semitic brochure were published. 3
Foreign Review; "Patriarch Varnava urges fight against Communism," Gazette of the SOC Patriarchy, Belgrade, 1 and 2 February 1937. 4
Through the church press; Three specters, Gazette of the SOC, 12 May 1937.
5
N.ARA, microcopy T-I20, roll 200, frames I 53408-09, Felix Benzlers report about his meeting with Milan Nedić on September 2, 1941.
6
Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews. \lo\. 2. New York: Holmes and Meier, (I.985), p. 683.
7
Raphael Israeli, The death Camps of Croatia: visions and revisions, 1941-1945, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick: NJ, 2013, p.24.
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should not wait for the Germans to begin the extermination of the Jews.8 A few months later, Serbian authorities issued postage stamps commemorating the opening of this popular exhibit. These stamps, which juxtaposed Jewish and Serbian symbols (but did not contain Nazi symbols), portrayed Judaism as the source of world evil and advocated the humiliation and violent subjugation of Jews. The 20 most vile posters in the exhibition give a sense of the contemptible and hateful conduct demonstrated by the organizers.9 The exhibition and the theme chosen attempted to demonstrated Jewish alleged domination of the American Press and "Finance," particularly control of The New York Times. This type of anti-Semitic propaganda is useful for seeing how art and advertising posters, in particular, can help create a new and other truth. Jews were described as both capitalists and communists at the same time, and the alleged secret force that dominated all aspects of European life, including world economy. Norman Cohn has described this as a "warrant for genocide." unique not only in Serbia and the Balkans, not only in southeastern Europe and Europe, but in the world."10
8
Ibid, Israeli, p.25.
9
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota, Visualizing Otherness II, Driven to Discover, Belgrade Masonic Exhibition of 1941-1942,
10
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Serbian Nazi Past and the Holocaust of Jews, Anti-Semitism, p.3.See also, Center for Holocaust Studies, University of Minnesota, Driven to Discover, Belgrade's Anti-Masonic Exhibition, 1941-1942. See also, The Belgrade "Anti-Masonic" exhibition also issued "Anti-Masonic" stamps and first-day covers. The cover shown is dated January 1, 1942 "Anti-Masonic Exhibition, Belgrade." "Masonic" in this case, as in the exhibition itself, meant "Jewish."
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In September, 1943, Milan Nedić on an official visit to Adolf Hitler in Berlin Nedic's aim was to discuss plans for creating Greater Serbia under Hitler's protection. Nedić also wanted to reestablish his command over the Serbian State Guard and Serbian Volunteer Corps and to increase the latter's numbers from five thousand to fifty thousand.11
The territory under German control was known as “Nedićeva Srbija” (Nedić’s Serbia). Milan Nedić established the Serbian State Guard, numbering about 20,000, compared to the 3,400 German police in Serbia. Recruiting advertisements for the Serb police force specified that "applicants must have no Jewish or Gypsy blood". Dimitrije Ljotić, the principal Fascist ideologist of Serbia organized the Serbian Volunteers Corps, whose primary function was rounding up Jews, Gypsies, and partisans for execution. Serbian citizens and police received cash bounties for the capture and delivery of Jews. Serbian Jewish Survivors Grieve Lucija Rainer last saw her father, Vladislav, on Nov. 14, 1941, through a barbed-wire fence at a concentration camp Topovske Šupe, in Belgrade. She never learned his fate, but assumes he died the same way as 6,000 other Jews and 1,500 Roma who passed through the camp gunned down or gassed en masse. The cluster of warehouses that formed the camp still stand; rubbish litters the floors and graffiti scars the walls. A small plaque is all that marks the location’s dark history. Most of the land had already been sold. Rainer and a small group of 11
NARA, microcopy T-120, roll 61, frames 49474-85; Kostich (1949), pp. 411-142.
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historians and activists say the destruction of Topovske Šupe is emblematic of how far Serbia still has to go in recognizing the Holocaust on its soil. In August 1942, when 90 percent of the country’s 16,000 Jews had perished. Rainer states:“No one wants to talk about the fact that without collaborators from here, the Nazis would never have been so effective.”Holocaust on its soil. Lucija Rainer on the location of the then concentration camp Topovske Šupe
A document that describes the suffering of the inmates in this camp, the Nedić government starved the inmates by feeding them even below the allotment of the Nazi authorities
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Aleksandar Lebl, (Serbian Jew) Round Table "Extremism in Serbia," European Movement in Serbia, February 2003 Although Serbia portrays itself as a helpless, Nazi occupied territory. It is known that in November 1941, Mihajlo Olčan, a minister in Nedić's government, boasted: Serbia has been allowed, what no other occupied country has been allowed, to establish law and order with its own armed forces.12 It was not just Olčan's bragging, SS General Harald Turner, a month after his arrival in Belgrade, declared: Today, executive power in Serbia is carried out by the police and rgendarmes who are equipped with German weapons ... internal relations are regulated by local organs without German interference.13 Aleksandar Lebl reminds us that Serbia was always anti-Semitic and nothing has changed, WHY? Regardless of Article 134 of the Criminal Code that penalizes publishing of 12
Mihailo Olčan, "Nastupa novo vreme, dolazi novi duh, a taj duh je, našom srećom i duh našga naroda." [A New Time is Beginning, a New Spirit is coming, and the spirit through Our Good Fortune, Is the Spirit our Nation as Well], Obnova, Belgrade, November 21,1941," p. 5. 13
Holocaust History Misappropriated, Midstream: A Monthly Jewish Review November 1992. Volume XXXVIII No.8.
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anti-Semitic literature and spreading hatred, it continues unabated. Serbian authorities react but it all boils down to just empty words: As a rule, the police never really finds authors of antiSemitic graffiti or those who demolish Jewish tombstones and monuments.14 This article can go on and on and demonstrate both Serbian crimes during WWII, during Tito's regime and also during the dismemberment of the second Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The remnant of Jews that remained after the war was shipped off to Israel but not before all their possessions were signed off to the government. I as a Holocaust survivor don't see a difference between Tito's communists secret service and Nazi Germany's SS and other divisions served the dictatorial regimes by plundering, killing and murdering those who failed to succumb to their deviant ideologies. How and why would Mr. Ivin support such regimes, remains a mystery to be solved!?
DR. ESTHER GITMAN (New York City, November 28, 2017)
14
http://www.helsinki.org.rs.
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