The lecture for the Svedish community in Stockholm was organised jointly by the following organisations: Embessy of Serbia, Foundation carisa Jelena, Serbian orthodox church in Stockhom, Reretive office of Republica Srpska. The lecture was held at the rooms of ABF (Trade union council) of Stockholm
The British philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote: “The largest conspiracy is that one about crimes of genocide commited in Yugoslavia during WWII which were organised by Vatican”.
The roman-catholic clergy, mainly of the Franciscan order, or by jesuits used for centuries to teach Croatian children to hate all those who were not of roman-catholic fate, that means the orthodox Serbs, Jews and Roma. The Roman –catholic archbishops, bishops, clergy and religious teachers at schools asked the people of Croatia to kill, torture, rob etc. Serbs, Jews and Roma or to try to convert them into the roman-catholic fate. Some of them asked Croats to cut off the three fingers of the right hand of Serbian children so that they can never again a sign of cross in the orthodox way. I have been asked many times whether in my opinion Croats are a genoicidal nation. My reply has always been that Croats were not borne to commit genocide or to hate anybody, but they have been educated, trained and indoctrinated to exterminate non-catholic in Croatia. So, it is not surprising that in 1941, when Germany started the war against the kingdom of Yugoslavia Croats established a separate The Independent State of Croatia, which immediately proclaimed that their official policy is to have a roman- catholic state or Civitas dei. They decided to exterminate all Roma and Jews and to kill one third of Serbs, to expel one third, and to forcefully convert one third into the roman-catholic fate. The parliament of Croatia passed the very severe laws by which Serbs, Jews and Roma were deprived of all legal and human rights. Anybody could kill. rob, torture, rape etc .them without having to answer for that crime in any court of justice. These severe laws were passed in the presence of the archbishop of Zagreb and Croatia Alojzije Stepinac, the papal representative Giusepe Marconi, bishops and clergy of the roman catholic church and catholic who were members of the parliament. Roma people were proclaimed a lower race, a kind of animals which must be exterminated. The state of Croatia had organised the killing of Serbs and Jews at Pag, Jadovno and the Velebit mountain. The Italian forces in Dalmatia saw the bestial behaviour of Croats towards the innocent Serbian population. Croats used to kill even small children or newborn babies by smashing their heads on trees or stones. To stop this behaviour of Croats the Italian forces expelled Croats from their territory. After that the state of Croatia formed concentration camps for extermination of Serbs, Jews and Roma in Jasenovac. According to the report of the International commission for the truth on Jasenovac (there were no members of that commission from Serbia, Croatia or former Yugoslavia) Croats managed in the Jasenovac system of camps to exterminate 700 000 Serbs, 23 000 Jews and 80 000 Roma. The camps in Jasenovac were in operation well into 1945. There were 110 000 children under the age of 14 among the victims. Croatia was the only state in the world that had a concentration camp for extermination of small children run by roman-catholic nuns. The archbishop of Croatia Alojzije Stepinac was in charge of the roman-catholic clergy who used to kill, torture etc. Serbs, Jews and Roma. He personally led murderers from Jasenovac to Vatican to be honoured by the pope. Recently, the roman-catholic church have decided to proclaim Alojzije Stepinac as a roman-catholic saint. Serbs, Jews and Roma were tortured, raped, robed and killed in all places in Croatia. Murderers used to throw victims into the cold waters of the rivers Sava, Una, Vrbas etc. The atrocities were commited by the ordinary people of Croatia, educated and non-educated, peasants and intellectuals but above all it was the state of Croatia by its laws, officials, police and army who was the main criminal. Cadavers of small Serbian children were exhibited with a notice: ”Sebian meat – 1 din. per Kg”.
At a meeting of the International commission for the truth on Jasenovac in New York, USA in year 2000, chaired by the American professor Bernard Klein the American forensic expert stated that more than 1400 roman-catholic priests and nuns were murderers, torturers and killers in Croatia Two out of three priests in Croatia had hands stained by blood of their victims. After that statement the International commission managed to find the names of 1371 roman-catholic priests who were murderers.
All that I have said so far may seem to somebody as a product of my sick mind, or as a criminal attempt to put a blame on the roman-catholic church in Croatia for all these unbelievable crimes and atrocities. I must, because of that, quote some of the testimonies of those victims who managed to survive.
We can find in the book “Srpska mladez sreza Perucac (Lika) a testimony of an Italian officer who wrote in his report to his superiors the following: “What these poor Serbs did to them? Is it human to cut out unborn children from the wombs of their mothers, and then to hang them on the wall with a note –Serbian meat – 1 dinar per Kg.”…”They killed the fathers of these children…They expelled Serbian mothers with many children, from their homes, and soon after that they with their children started to rob the houses of their former neighbours…These Croats would snatch small children from the hands of their mothers, took them by their legs and smash their heads on trees and stones, and after that they would throw them into pits.”
Dusan Bursac in his book “Andjeli u paklu” gives on page 26 a description of the way in which the roman-catholic nuns used to poison the small Serbian children.
One of the victims who managed to survive Mrs.Zorka Delic-Skiba, after describing how her whole family was killed wrote that a roman-catholic nun named Pulheria pooled her hair backward better to expose her neck to the killer who tried to cut her throat. Somehow killer just cut her throat superficially and pushed her alive into a mass grave. During night she managed to pool herself out of the grave, but was taken by a Croatian killer, who took her home. Archbishop Stepinac himself then converted her into the roman-catholic fate, and she survived the war.
Cadik Danon described in his book “Saseceno stablo Danonovih” how he observed from the distance of approximately 30 m. how the Croatian killers murdered the small children. “They would snatch a child from the hands of his mother in the most brutal way…The murderer would grab a child and brake his skull with a mallet, and then throw him into the grave.
Dr. Dragoslav Stijakovic gives a detailed description of the way in which the roman-catholic Croats and their Moslem helpers killed Serbs, Jews and Roma. The book has more than 500 pages. The most monstrous is the description is how they slaughtered pregnant women whose children were cut off their wombs, or the description of rape of small girls, school girls and young women.
Vasa Kazimirovic in his book “Nezavisna drzava Hrvatska” quotes the report of Glez von Horstenau written on 14th June 1941 who said: “They used to kill in a beastly way small children, even newborn… many women and their children were left on plane stone… naked skeletons…the commanding officer is a wild beast… they raped these women, tortured them and then killed…they killed children.
Writing about atrocities and crimes of roman-catholic Croats and Moslems Dusan Babic tells among many frightening facts how the communist dictator Josip Broz Tito and his partisan followers never wished to stop the extermination of Serbs, Jews and Roma in Croatia. They tried to suppress the knowledge of these crimes. He describes how a Propaganda Unit of the Communist Party in Karlovac described in its bulletin the massacre of Serbs at Jasenovac. Because of that, all members of the Propaganda Unit were court martialed and executed on 13 and 14 of July 1941. The roman-catholic church recognised Croatia as Civitas Dei. Alojzije Stepinac, the archbishop of Zagreb and leader of the roman-catholic church in Croatia issued an oreder to all his clergy dated 14th April 1941 in which he welcomed the establishment of State of Croatia …”not only as a son of Croatian nation, but also as the representative of the Holy Sea”…He also wrote that Crtoatia must be a “clean area” in which only roman-catholic Croats can live.
Dane Lastavica also wrote about rape of small girls while their mothers were forced to whach that crime.
Jozo Borovac admitted in court that he forced Mrs Stojanka Bulat to hold her 13 years old daughter Mileva while he was raping her. Also Miss Stana Arnaut , a school teacher was raped by her students. The historian Djuro Zatezalo in his large book wrote how the absent-minded and perverse roman-catholic priests used to fix children on chests of their mothers and then kill them so that mothers would suffer more pain. Mothers would be killed then.
Roman-catholic priest Jozo Felinovic, in his personal dairy gives a list of women that were raped, by name of each women and the name of the person who raped her. Croats used to rape girls in an open space so that all the people could watch that. They raped and took virginity of girls of 14 and under. They forced children to watch how they rape their mothers. They used to force girls to take off their cloth to be exposed naked so that evrybody could watch them. They would bring Croatian soldiers to rape them. They were killed at the end of the torture.
It is impossible to tell everything that we know about all these crimes. The question is why most people does not know about Croatian and roman-catholic crimes and atrocities against Serbs, jews and Roma during the Second World War. There is an explanation in the attitude of roman-catholic church towards the orthodox people and Jews. Also there is an explanation of the behaviour of the communist party of Yugoslavia towards the crimes against Serbs. There was a decision by a communist international conference in 1922 to destroy the Serbian people and the Serbian orthodox church in the Balkans, before the communist establish their rule in the whole of Europe. The Communist party of Yugoslavia made an agreement with Croatian nationalistic Ustasa movement to act jointly in destruction of Serbs and the Serbian orthodox church. The pact was signed by Mosa Pijade for the Communist party of Yugoslavia and by Mile Budak for Croatian ustase movement.Yugoslav communist dictator cooperated during the war with Croatian ustasa movement and also with Vatican. After the end of the WWII the communist government of Yugoslavia ordered all parts of the Jasenovac camps to be destroyed, and all traces to be removed. They hoped that Croatian atrocities would be forgotten by the people. The policy of “Brotherhood and unity” was proclaimed and all mentioning of |Croatian crimes was forbidden. The communist government t erected a number of monuments for the innocent victims of naci or fascist crimes, well knowing that neither fascists nor naci ever existed in Croatia. Extermination of Serbs, Jews and Roma in Croatia started before the concentration camps in Germany and occupied Poland were formed.
A pressure was put to Yugoslav communist government, by the veterans of WWII to eventuly investigate the crimes in Jasenovac concentration camps. A team of forensic anthropologists was formed in 1964 to examine the mass graves in Jasenovac on the left bank of the Sava river and Donja Gradina on the right bank of the river. Nobody from Croatia wished to take part in that investigation. The report of the team of anthropologists was taken by the government and hidden. It was published in 1992 by
Predrag Dragic Kijuk who, after more than two years of searching found it in archives. As a member of the team, I had to emigrate from Yugoslavia early in 1965, less than six month after our investigation in Jasenovac and Donja Gradina.
Forensic anthropologist found the main methods of extermination of Serbs, Jews and Roma at Jasenovac system of Croatian concentration camps for extermination of innocent victims. I shall mention some of the main one.
1. Killing by starvation of victims or by total deprivation of food and water. This caused unbearable suffering of victims and their mass death. Tens of thousands of victims have died in that way, many of them were small children. Some victims managed to stay alive for days or weeks, but they also eventually died.
2. 2. Death by infection or infestation. Many victims lost their lifes because of infection or infestation because they have been deprived of any sanitary facilities, drugs or treatment of any kind.
3. 3. A special, very severe method of killing and very slow death was by nailing of alive victims, using masonry nails, to trees. Forensic anthropologists have found many such trees in Donja Gradina.
4. Stabbing by sharp, pointed object, usually a knife. Surviving victims have described how murderers used to stab victims, usually in the chest, or as a kind of torture, anywhere else in the body or in the limbs. Many pregnant women were stabbed in the womb. There were many cases when breasts of women have been cut off.
5. 5. There was a huge furnace at Jasenovac called Pacilli furnace. Many victims were thrown alive into the furnace and burned to death. Forensic anthropologists managed to find fragments of burned bones in the furnace.
6. Killing by hard labour and torture. Victims were forced to do hard labour without food or water. Exhausted victims were buried alive on the spot.
7. Thousands of victims were drowned in the waters of the Sava river. This was confirmed in the court of justice.
8. Children were tortured to death in the special concentration camp for extermination of small children run by roman-catholic nuns. Children were forbidden to cry or to empty bowels after six o’clock in the evening. They would take such children by their legs and smash their heads on the wall, killing them in such severe way.
9. Hanging. A small number of victims were executed by hanging. They could not kill a large number of victims in such way. A large number of photographs of hanging were found later on.
10. Killing by firearms. Croatian murderers tried to save their ammunition and they seldom used shooting to kill victims.
11. Slaughter. This was a common way of killing. Croats used specially devised knifes called “srbosek” (or knifes for killing Serbs) which enabled murderers to cut throuts of a large number of victims without much effort. On many occasions murderers would not make a deep cut, the victim would bleed, but not die, and he was thrown into the mss grave alive, to die slowly.
12. Head injuries and skull fractures caused by hitting victims on the head by a bar or a mallet. Croatian murderers used wooden or metal bars for killing. A strong impact would kill victim instantly. But if it was not strong enough it would cause only injuries to soft tissues, and victim would be thrown into the mass grave alive, to face a slow death there. We know from the testimonies of some victims who managed to survive the slaughter that Croats used to tie together two victims, take them to the edge of the mass grave and kill by hitting one on one side of the head and the other on the other side of their heads.
There were more then forty ways in which Croats used to kill victims. All these ways of killing were described in the report of forensic team
Finaly, I must say that I am really sorry for all that I said so far. I shall try now to be on a more positive side. The International commission for the truth on Jasenovac insists on a new and systematic, multidisciplinary investigation of all mass graves at Jasenovac and Donja Gradina. Most of the documents and artefacts in the Jasenovac museum were destroyed by Croats during the civil war in former Yugoslavia. Croats have built a new museum in which one can not see who were victims and who were murderers. Republica Srpske, on which territory is Donja Gradina is building now a Memorial Centre at Donja Gradina, and in The Great Britain a Jasenovac and Holocaust Memorial Foundation has been founded to collect the money for building this centre. The Parliament of Republika Srpska just passed a declaration on the genocide against Serbs, Jews and Roma in Croatia during WWII. The aim is to inform all countries of the world and also the general public on Croatian atrocities in the Independent state of Croatia. This Declatation is printed in 8 languages and sent to all countries in the world.
I would like now to finish this talk by quoting the Holy orthodox patriarh of the Serbian Orthodox Church who had said on his visit to Jasenovac:
“As Christian people we must forgive the murderers, but we must never forget the victims if we are human”.