Israeli historian Ephraim Zuroff stated today that both a ban and punishment for the display of Ustasha symbols must exist and that the European Union should punish Croatia for tolerating it.
Commenting on the increasingly frequent use and toleration of symbols associated with the Ustasha regime and the NDH in public spaces, especially at the concerts of the controversial singer who glorifies Ustashism, Marko Perkovic Thompson, which were recently held in BiH and Croatia, Zuroff assessed that it is a very dangerous thing that proves that many people have not learned the lessons about the terrible crimes of the Ustasha.
Zuroff reminded that the songs and symbols at Thompson’s concerts are symbols of the mass killing of Serbs, Jews, and Roma.
“There must be both a ban and punishment for the display of such symbols. If that is missing, it is proof that they have learned nothing from the trial of Dinko Sakic, nor from the terrible crimes committed by the Ustasha. And the EU should punish Croatia for tolerating the display of these symbols,” the until-recently director of the “Simon Wiesenthal” Center told Glas Srpske.
He stated that such events insult the memory of the victims of the Ustasha regime and the Holocaust, but that in Croatia they do not care about that.
“There is very little education about the Holocaust in the former Yugoslavia, except in Serbia and Republika Srpska. Glorifying the Ustasha is like a curse for all the people who suffered under the Ustasha regime,” says Zuroff, reports Tanjug.
He added that he did everything to ensure justice reached most of the criminals from World War II, and that his greatest effort was to bring the Ustasha to justice.
“Thank God I had the privilege of bringing the terrible criminal Dinko Sakic to court and putting him in prison. And that is exactly what I should have done with all those commanders of Jasenovac and other concentration camps held by the Ustasha,” Zuroff pointed out, adding that the “Sakic” case was the most important in his career.
He noted that there were cases where the cooperation of states in prosecuting criminals disappointed him, citing the example of Austria, which did everything possible not to bring Nazis to justice.
“And Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. All the countries of Eastern Europe want to pretend that they are not guilty of anything,” Zuroff concluded.
Zuroff did not rule out the possibility that the denial of Ustasha crimes and the Holocaust will grow as the generations of survivors disappear.
“Because if they don’t stop someone like Thompson today, if they don’t stop giving honors to someone like Thompson, if they don’t prevent the public display of Ustasha emblems – who knows. Maybe someone decides to try to do that again, to commit crimes,” Zuroff concluded.
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Source: Politika; Photo: ATA Images