Habulin at the commemoration in Jasenovac stated: We will not allow historical revisionism to prevail

Organized by the Association of Anti-Fascist Fighters and Anti-Fascists of Croatia (SABA RH) and the Serbian National Council (SNV), a commemoration for the murdered detainees of the Ustaša camp Jasenovac and all victims of the Ustaša regime of the NDH was held on Saturday in front of the Stone Flower monument.

The commemoration began with a prayer by Orthodox priests, a minute of silence for the fallen, and the Croatian anthem “Lijepa naša”. Alongside the surviving camp inmates, numerous citizens from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia attended the commemoration, as well as ambassadors from the USA, Norway, Austria, Russia, Great Britain, Australia, France, Canada, and Serbia, along with representatives of the Government of Serbia and others.

The commemoration renewed the memory not only of the murdered inmates of the Ustaša camp Jasenovac but also of the last group of 1,073 inmates who, 72 years ago today, attempted to break out of the camp, of which 92 survived.

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On behalf of SABA RH, the president of the Union, Franjo Habulin, addressed those gathered and emphasized that due to the wavering stance of the current authorities regarding the assessment and character of the Ustaša regime, its symbols, and greetings, they decided not to participate in the official commemoration this year.

“We neither can nor want to accept the formation of something called the Council for Facing the Consequences of the Rule of Undemocratic Regimes. We will not, because it is clear to us, because we know that this Council is for settling accounts with the idea of communism and the practice of socialism,” said Habulin.

He further stated that it is known that the communists played a leading role in organizing the National Liberation Struggle (NOB), and that socialism, despite a number of its evident mistakes, aimed for the welfare of the working man and society as a whole.

Habulin: It is undeniable that the Ustaše are criminals in Jasenovac

Habulin also stated that it is undeniable that the victims of the Jasenovac camp: Serbs, Jews, Roma, and Croats, as well as anti-fascists, were innocent victims, while the Ustaše were criminals. Refusing the possibility of politicizing the commemoration, as some claim, Habulin noted that it is necessary to speak about what Nazism and fascism were, who the Ustaše were, what happened in Jasenovac and other Ustaša concentration camps, because otherwise, he emphasizes, the lie imposed by historical revisionists will prevail.

“We will not allow historical revisionism, which has taken deep roots in today’s Croatia, to prevail, whose ultimate goal is to turn the victors of World War II into defeated criminals, and those who were truly defeated and who were proven to be criminals into national heroes,” concluded Habulin.

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On behalf of the Anti-Fascist League of Croatia, Zoran Pusić emphasized that in any normal society, the crimes committed by the Ustaše would be terrible events and added:

“However, we live in a society where it seems that precious experience has been erased. We live in a society where both intellectuals and some academics want to erase the traces of crimes and the crimes of Ustaša ideology. Therefore, I am convinced that instead of candles and flowers that we lay for the victims in Jasenovac, it would be more important for them to have our commitment to oppose the evil and the ideology that led to this.”

Pupovac and Bernardić sent a message that the commemoration should be a unified event

Milorad Pupovac stated that Jasenovac is a terrible place of crime and that this horror has two faces: the terrible suffering of those detained who were killed in the camp and those who survived, as well as the idea that made the crime possible and the laws enacted in a state that thought it could do this. He emphasized that the purpose of any possible politics is to oppose what was done in Jasenovac, to say ‘no’ to such politics and such crimes. And that is all the politics that can be heard and learned here, he added. Pupovac expressed regret that they are not holding the commemoration together with the government this year and condemned the placing of a plaque with the Ustaša salute on the building of a kindergarten in Jasenovac, where about 21,000 children were killed nearby in the Ustaša camp.

“This place obliges us, even if we do not criticize, but to call on the government and everyone else to turn to mutual respect and mutual repentance in this place,” he said, adding that he would not want Jasenovac to be a place where some want to turn a bad past into a good future. “That cannot be, and that cannot pass,” said Pupovac.

The president of the SDP, Davor Bernardić, attending the commemoration in Jasenovac, told Hina that “Croatia must be united at this place, not divided.” He believes that the current authorities should have sat down with the survivors and the families of the victims to agree and send a message that there is no place for the ghosts of the past in Croatia anymore.

The commemoration in Jasenovac will be held on Sunday by the state leadership, and on Monday by the Jewish community.