Fascist Records

The fiction about Croatia's "Nazi past" began to feed upon itself, growing with each retelling as one reporter cited another unnamed reporter as a source. In September 1994, Forward, a respected Jewish journal published in Washington D.C. breathlessly reported that the Croatian Government was destroying files that could be used to track down World War II war criminals.

Cited as the source of the article was an official report by the Australian Attorney General's office. The article did not mention that the research for the report was conducted between 1987 and early 1990, before Croatia declared independence and before there was a Croatian government. In fact, the report specifically stated that it was the communist Yugoslav Federal Secretariat of Justice in Belgrade, Serbia, that denied access to materials. The article also failed to note that the report, compiled by the Australian Special Investigations Unit (SIU), was written by a single individual after the SIU was disbanded.

Despite statements by a number of scholars, Jewish, Gentile, Croatian, and American, the claim that Croatians destroyed Holocaust records continued to circulate. Finally, in December of 1994, the author of the report, Graham T. Blewitt, then Deputy Prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, wrote the editor of Forward demanding a retraction and stating that he had experienced superb cooperation from the Croatian government. Even the Vice Chairman of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, wrote to defend the Croatian government and to condemn Belgrade authorities where he received "a lot of promises but no action."

Schindler's List

With each new layer of myth, some journalists sought not only to link the young Croatian state to fascism, but to drive a wedge between Christian and Jewish Croatians. Even when the Croatian government made extraordinary efforts to strengthen ties with Croatia's Jewish communits fascist finders sought to sabotage such endeavors.

On March 25, 1994, the Oscar-winning film Schindler's List opened in Zagreb. The film, which chronicled the deliverance of 1,100 Jews from Nazi extermination camps during World War II by Oskar Schindler, had more than a few Croatian connections. The Oscar- winning co-producer, Branko Lustig, was a Croatian Jew who had survived the death camps, and much of the postproduction work was done in Croatia. For reasons of historical accuracy, actual filming was done by Croatian crews in Krakow, Poland. Of the production work by numerous Croatian artists Lustig said: "Since I couldn't film in Zagreb, I brought Zagreb to me" referring to the numerous film makers from Croatia who worked on the film. The gala opening night was sponsored by Croatian President Franjo Tudjman who invited Lustig, the entire diplomatic corps, representatives of the United Nations, the leadership of the Red Cross, the European Union and the leaders of Croatia's Jewish communities. Tudjman was the only head of state to personally initiate the opening of the film and to attend its premier.

After the showing, a somber Tudjman, with Lustig and Ljubica Stefan, a Croatian recipient of the Medal of Righteous Among Nations awarded by Yad Vashem, at his side, said:

Schindler's List is the strongest work of art I have ever seen on the subject of the war and evil - the evil which we had to live through and that I myself fought against in the four-year war against Nazi-Fascism, with the aim that we would never again have to experience something like this.

Unfortunately, we are witnessing similar events in our time, not in the same form but nevertheless the same. This testimony of the Holocaust should be seen by every person so that it will never happen again, in any form.

Steven Spielberg, the co-producer of the film, lauded the cooperation of the Croatian government and people in making the film. Spielberg commented "I felt everyone showed a great understanding and a wish to use the film and its message to oppose a new holocaust which...is happening today in Bosnia." The following day Tudjman presented Lustig the Croatian Order of Prince Trpimir.

Most of the American press, including the Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun and the Voice of America reported the event accurately and quoted both Lustig and Tudjman. Additionally, the event was broadcast by satellite throughout North America and seen by tens of thousands on television.

NEXT| INDEX| HOME