Hello everyone. 

I received Dr. Greif's book "Jasenovac: Aushwitz of the Balkans" in the mail today. I was shocked by its sheer size. I have spent the last few hours reading it. I am overwhelmed by how well put together it is. How much effort and dedication went into this book. It is a historic book in terms of its documentation of the Ustasa and the genocide they committed against the Serbian, Jewish and Roma peoples. I particularly like how at the beginning it provides many examples of neo-Ustasa incidents in modern day Croatia. There is so much material to use it was hard for me to decide which picture and quotes to use in this update. 

The picture I used is meant to draw attention to the undeniable fact that neo-Ustasism is present in modern day Croatia. It is embedded in Croatian politics. The picture shows how a 2017 promo poster used by the Croatian Justice Party is almost an exact replica of Nazi propaganda from 1938. The only major difference is that the Croatian one contains the U symbol which is associated with the Ustasa. This is just one example of Ustasism in modern day Croatia. 

Here is an excerpt from the book "Jasenovac: Aushwitz of the Balkans" by Gideon Greif (pg 78): 

"The attempts to commemorate, rehabilitate and celebrate Ustasha heroes by giving their names to streets and by erecting monuments in their honour, the rehabilitation of Ustasha leaders is nothing else than the continuation of the crime which the Ustahsa movement committed during WWII. Instead of rejecting and condemning that criminal ideology, the present Croatian society prefers to praise the criminal Ustashas. Thus, Ustasha crimes are given justification.

It continues:

"The attempts to glorify the Ustasha butchers are sometimes initiated by the families of the criminals and not directly by the Croatian government. An example of this is the case of Davor Ivo Stier, who was born in Argentina and raised to the position of minister of foreign affairs of Croatia. As a direct descendant of a notorious Ustasha officer in Jasenovac, he tried to actively glorify the memory of his grandfather."

Croatian historian Hrvoje Klasic asserts on page 79 that the phrase "za dom spremni" which means "for the homeland" is "unequivocally a Ustasha greeting and nothing else." He goes on to say that "much more important is the fact that those who utter it know this very well and just do not have the courage to publicly say this and so they make up stories about an old Croatian greeting, opera librettos and so on."

As early as 1997, The New York Times published the following observation:

"Perhaps no other country has failed as openly as Croatia to come to terms with its fascist legacy."

Most troubling, British historian Rory Yeomans writes on page 80 that:

"such views [downplaying Ustasha crimes] used to be seen as the lunatic fringe; now they are part of the mainstream. That's terrifying."

Thank you for your signatures. We still need more though. Please share this with all friends and family on social media and donate. 

Clearly, we are far from done.