| Balkan holocaust anniversary rears more than memories |
|
|
|
| Written by Dominic Hipkins | |
| Sunday, 19 January 2003 | |
 A striking monument of a huge orchid stands in silent tribute on windswept fields where Balkan victims of the Holocaust fell six decades before. A mile from the Flower of Remembrance, in the Croatian farming town of Jasenovac, pensioner Marija Maras recalls the day her uncle was thrown in to the concentration camp there. “He gave food to the prisoners. He thought it was no crime to help people starving in that terrible place,” she explains. Anyone caught helping those later murdered at Jasenovac – tens of thousands of ethnic Serbs, Jews, Roma and Croat political prisoners – shared in their tragic fate. Although the town’s memorial museum has been refurbished, on average just three visitors a day make the hour-long journey 50 miles south of Croatia’s capital, Zagreb.  The Flower of Remembrance “I realized something was missing from school history books. There was no mention of the Holocaust. Or why Jews were forced to wear the Star of David.” Together with six teachers, Jovicic last year examined 23 different textbooks in an eight-month trawl through Croatia’s classrooms. What they found in books rewritten following Croatia”s 1992 secession from Yugoslavia shocked them into action. The group compiled a report concluding the Holocaust and Croatia’s role in its horrors had simply been ignored. They delivered the document to the “highest levels”. Three months later it was returned with no reply. Undeterred, the authors went public – bringing a barrage of telephoned death threats. But Jovicic’s lonely fight for the truth is inching forward. Materials used in UK schools to teach the subject have now been passed on to Croatia. “Interethnic strife over the last decade has seen less sympathy for anyone different. If children understand differences should be respected we can heal history’s wounds. If we do nothing, intolerance breeds.” After preparing Braille briefings on the subject for David Blunkett, who visited Croatia as Secretary of State for Education, her government colleagues “expressed astonishment a blind citizen could hold a senior position”. In highlighting the cases of the Croats who helped neighbors in WWII, the Jasenovac museum hopes to solve some present day problems too. After the Nineties civil war with Serb forces, many Croats felt collective guilt was not theirs to bear.  The train that brought Jews to Jasenovac The bulk of Holocaust victims in the Balkans were of Serb origin. However, officials are ruling out a public exhibition about the Holocaust for fear of a repeat of violent protests, which marred the country’s first Gay Pride march last summer. Croatia’s best-selling pop star, Marko Perkovic aka Thompson, regularly gives concerts dressed in the black uniform once worn by the Croatian SS and is an icon for the Far-Right. His performances are broadcast live at prime-time on state-run television. At a recent concert 40,000 strong, mostly young people, raised right armed salutes. Critics wonder aloud what other country in Europe’s 21st Century enjoys such spectacles. But change, although slow, is coming. A group of children recently visited the Holocaust museum independently after their nearby school shunned the doorstep history lesson. “Childrens’ curiosity is the best chance Croatia has to become a normal country,” a delighted curator says. Related Items:
                             |
