Zuroff expressed ‘unequivocal opposition’ to awarding Sedlar

The Simon Wiesenthal Center joined on Tuesday with representatives of the Jewish and Serbian minorities and anti-fascists, calling for the director Jakov Sedlar not to be awarded the City of Zagreb Award, accusing him of revising history in his film and downplaying the crimes of the Ustaše, which he rejects, stating that he only encouraged a discussion about data that were hidden during the communist regime with the aim of accusing individuals or the Croatian people of genetic genocide.

In a letter addressed to the President of the City Assembly Andrija Mikulić by Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff, who is also responsible for Eastern Europe, the Simon Wiesenthal Center expresses “unequivocal opposition” to awarding Sedlar, whose latest film, as he states, “aims to distort the history of World War II and the Holocaust.”

‘Jasenovac-truth’ …

“Mr. Sedlar’s latest film ‘Jasenovac-truth’ … shamefully seeks to change the history of the Independent State of Croatia and deny the extent of the horrific crimes committed in the Jasenovac concentration camp.

His attempt to downplay the number of innocent Serbs, Jews, Roma, and Croatian anti-fascists killed by the Ustaše in Jasenovac is an insult to the victims and a reason for sharp criticism, not any award from the City of Zagreb,” the letter states.

The letter also claims that the fact that Sedlar’s films are archived at the Yad Vashem Visual Center should not be interpreted as evidence of their value or acceptance of their content.

“We openly invite you to reject any proposal to award Sedlar, whose work belongs in the trash can of Croatian history and is not worthy of approval or recognition,” Zuroff states.

The Jewish and Serbian minorities and anti-fascists oppose the awarding of the City of Zagreb Award to Jakov Sedlar

Representatives of the Jewish and Serbian national minorities and the Anti-Fascist League of Croatia earlier on Tuesday sent letters to Mayor Milan Bandić and the President and members of the City Assembly requesting that they refuse to award the City of Zagreb Award to director Jakov Sedlar due to his “loud, persistent, and deep historical revisionism.”

Sedlar’s revisionist views, it is emphasized in the letter, are particularly present in his film from last year “Jasenovac – truth,” which, they claim, caused outrage among the local and international public. In that film, the death camp is depicted as a labor camp, and the “victims of Jasenovac are downplayed and devalued, the Holocaust and genocide committed by the Ustaše regime are denied.”

Sedlar rejected the accusations

Jakov Sedlar on Tuesday rejected all accusations of revisionism and incitement to hatred.

“Never, in any of my films or public appearances, have I incited hatred, I have never tried to conceal any crime or anyone’s crime, I have never in any thought said anything positive about fascism. Fascism (like communism) is evil that only a sick person can support and promote,” Sedlar told reporters in Zagreb.

Sedlar states that in a number of cases he has been the initiator of dialogue and discussions “when it came to newly discovered data that were hidden during the communist regime with the aim of accusing individuals or the entire Croatian people of genetic genocide.”

Regarding Jasenovac, he states that what “the Greater Serbian communist brotherhood, for example, finds objectionable in my attempt to get as close to the truth about Jasenovac is the proven fact that this camp continued its operations even after 1945, only in that post-war period the Ustaše did not kill but Tito’s communists. In that film, I did not defend or downplay anyone’s crime, I only encouraged a discussion about everything that happened there, but without any unproven claims that Croats killed a million Jews and Serbs there.”