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VOL I, Nr. 1, NEW YORK - APRIL 2005 VOL I, Nr. 1, NEW YORK - APRIL 2005. WELCOME TO JRI OBTAINS MONUMENT WHY JASENOVAC? OUR READERS! FOR VICTIMS OF JASENOVAC IN NEW YORK By Col. Antun Miletic, (Ret.), By Barry M. Lituchy, JRI JRI Honorary Advisory National Coordinator CITY’S HOLOCAUST Board Chairman MEMORIAL PARK As the chief executive officer and The Jasenovac Research Institute, founder of the JRI it is my privilege 16 February 2005 based in North America but with to welcome you to the first issue of active members in Serbia, is the our newsletter. Within these pages Three years and three months only international non-profit insti- we hope to inform our Associates, after the Jasenovac Research Insti- tution concerned with scholarly friends and colleagues of our work tute filed its application, and after research on the genocidal crimes in the coming period as well as pro- encountering many difficulties in that took place in the Ustashe con- vide news on events, research and the process, the Jasenovac Research centration camp in Jasenovac. The publications relating to the Holo- Institute finally won approval today question may be posed immedi- caust in the Balkans, on a quarterly from the City of New York for the ately: Why the Ustashe Concentra- basis. tion Camp in Jasenovac? The initial effort to establish the The Ustashe of the Independent JRI came at the end of the final State of Croatia (NDH, Nezavisne session of the First International Drzave Hrvatske) were, by defini- Conference and Exhibition on tion, national chauvinists, Nazi- Jasenovac on October 31, 1997 at Fascists, and in many instances Kingsborough Community College clerico-Fascists. They came to in Brooklyn, NY, when a number of power with support from Hitler participants came together to find and Mussolini on April 10, 1941, a new approach for dealing with and announced the creation of the the study and commemoration of NDH. Immediately after the proc- the Holocaust in Yugoslavia. What lamation of the NDH, the Ustashe, was needed was an institutional led by Ante Pavelic, took control of and international approach to this all the prisons and jails under the problem modeled on the practice jurisdiction of the Yugoslav monar- of other Holocaust institutions. In chy on the territory of the former early 1998 a Board of Trustees was banovine (administrative districts organized and the JRI was soon Main monument at New York‘s Holocaust Park ruled by a ban—TN*) in Croatia thereafter incorporated as an offi- and Bosnia-Herzegovina. After- cial 501c-3 non-profit corporation first public monument to the victims wards, they began announcing in registered with the U.S. federal of Jasenovac to be unveiled outside their official newspaper, Narodne government. of the former Yugoslavia. novine (the People’s Newspaper), a series of genocidal laws regulat- The historical experience of the The inscription for the Jasenovac ing racial qualifications, the regis- twentieth century has revealed monument was formally approved tration of Serbs and Jews (officially that the lessons of history, and of by the New York City Department referred to as Yids), and the depor- the Holocaust especially, are not of Parks & Recreation’s Holocaust tation to concentration camps of all learned without struggle. We have Advisory Committee yesterday Jews, Serbs and Roma. learned from the past mistakes of afternoon, 15 February 2005, with others that we must fight for the some minor changes to the inscrip- The goal was an even greater mass truth to be known and we must cre- tion. The information was trans- incarceration of Orthodox Serbs, continued on page 2 continued on page 3 continued on page 2 1 continued from page 1 continued from page 1 chain factory, a blacksmith, a lock- ate our own institutions with which Jews and Roma in concentration smith, a carpentry shop, an electri- to advance it. Without an institution camps in accordance with the cians’ workshop, a brick factory, a such as ours it is uncertain whether Ustashe racist-clerico-fascist poli- manufacturer of pliers, a tinsmith, the crimes of the Holocaust in the tics of “the voice of blood, race an upholstery shop, a gunsmith, an Balkans would ever be fully rec- and soil,” along with all those auto repair shop, a steam-operated ognized or the victims would ever who opposed the Ustashe regime, sawmill and a steam-operated elec- be properly honored. Without an especially the anti-fascists. For trical generating plant. organization such as ours the peo- this reason, the Ustashe estab- ples most affected by these crimes lished, between August 15-21, In the very village of Jasenovac, – Serbs, Jews and Romas – would 1941, the Jasenovac Concentration there was a part of the Concentra- be intellectually disarmed in the Camp, one of the largest of Hitler’s tion Camp called “Kozara” or POW face of those who would perpetu- camps in Europe. It was capable Camp IV. POW Camp V in the con- ate racial hatred. We know that of receiving indefinite numbers centration camp system was Stara the denial of the Holocaust and of of detainees. On August 23, 1941, Gradiska. Vjekoslav “Maks” Lubu- the crimes of genocide committed the news reports announced that ric received instructions for the against Serbs, Jews and Romas the first barracks had been built organization of the Jasenovac con- in the Balkans during 1941-1945 to house workers who were forced centration camp from the Dachau became a conspicuous and pro- by the new legal statutes to par- Concentration Camp, but he made found problem in the 1990’s. This ticipate in projects on the Trebiza unique changes in the method of denial was a crime of racial hatred River and in the Lonje area of one liquidation applied to the detain- that resulted in massive violence. of the tributaries of the Sava River, ees: Dachau used industrial means “Never again!” is the first lesson i.e., to participate in draining the of liquidation; while Jasenovac of the Holocaust, and the creation Lonjska swamplands. In any case, would use daggers, mallets, hatch- of the JRI is the application of that these news reports were merely ets, metal bars as the instruments lesson. for public consumption because of liquidation. Those who were not the Ustashe exploited the public liquidated with these weapons died It is with a profound sense of works projects on racist principles of torture, hunger and illness. responsibility and personal com- to work the laborers to death with mitment that I urge you to support long hours, bad food and unhy- The Ustashe exceeded their Hit- us in our efforts and to encour- gienic living conditions, and it lerian tutors in sadistic crimes in age others in your community to was directed against Serbs, Jews many different ways. The laws of do the same. Our efforts already and Roma. civilized mankind did not apply to are yielding tangible results and them. The bestiality of their evil influencing the work of other Holo- In a geographic sense, they chose deeds are incomprehensible to the caust institutions. Not only have we the broad region from the village normal human mind. For this rea- embarked on an ambitious publish- of Jasenovac to Stara Gradiska son, the Ustashe regime determined ing and commemoration schedule, on the right bank of the Sava the fate of Serbs, Jews and Roma but we are fighting for restitution of River, which was an area of more on the basis of racial decrees con- properties and assets seized from than 210 square kilometers. The cerning “racial affiliation” and laws Holocaust victims in Ustashe Cro- Ustashe chose this spot because of about “the protection of the Arian atia. As part of our mission, our its strategic position, which easily blood and honor of the Croatian organization is dedicated to peace afforded security and defense; it people,” which, in essence, did not and tolerance through justice and was connected to railroad lines and distinguish themselves from the rac- human rights. But no understand- surrounded by water, i.e., situated ist laws of the German Third Reich ing of human rights in the Balkans on a navigable conjunction of the (Hitler’s Germany). The Ustashe can begin without a discussion rivers Sava, Una and Velika Struga committed the unprecedented of the greatest crimes ever com- in the middle of the swamplands of crime of genocide in the Jasenovac mitted there: the triple genocide Lonjska Polja, while on the other Concentration Camp for the sake against Serbs, Jews and Roma by bank of the Sava River was Gra- of creating of “an ethnically pure the Nazi, Ustashe and other fascists dina, which was difficult to reach. Croatian state” and “a pure Croa- in wartime Yugoslavia. Let us work However, when the principal parts tian nation.” Serbs, Jews and Roma together to establish the truth once of the Jasenovac Concentration discovered that they were obstacles and for all, and help others incor- Camp were taken into consider- blocking the path toward the cre- porate this history into the curricu- ation, it was a complex of build- ation a “pure Croatian lebensraum” lum of schools around the world. ings surrounding Baciceve Brick and national “internal cleansing.” Works (owned by Mr. Bacic and For that reason, it was necessary to others), where one could find: a systematically exterminate all the 2 Jews and Roma, but a special fate Several changes were imposed on ships with both of these institutions was reserved for the Serbs: one- the inscription. The City’s Holo- during the process of obtaining the third would be killed, one-third caust Advisory Committee removed monument. would be driven into exile, and one- a sentence stating that the total third would be converted to Roman number of victims was between But most important of all is that Catholicism.
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