A conference dedicated to Croatian priest Alojzije Stepinac was held at the headquarters of the European Parliament, at the initiative of Croatian MEP (from the HDZ party) Željana Zovko.
This has caused numerous protests from Serbia, Canada, Italy and the US considering that Stepinac was a proponent of the formation of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a fascist satellite, in World War II.
The founder of the Diana Budisavljević Institute, Gojko Rončević, who was, as a child, imprisoned at the Jastebarsko concentration camp for children, as well as various institutes, non-governmental organizations and historians from Italy, Canada and the USA sent protest notes to the European Parliament.
On behalf of the Diana Budisavljević Institute for Researching Children’s Death Camps in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), Rončević, emphasized that he feels a duty and obligation to address the European Parliament, as a surviving child of the Jastrebarsko camp, but also on behalf of the 74,000 children brutally killed in the NDH.
“I am completely crushed by the willingness of the EP and European deputies to support the initiative of the Croatian parliamentarian Željana Zovko, to hold a conference on Stepinac”, he said and reminded that he was a witness to various tortures and atrocities committed by the Ustasha (Croatian fascists) who, with Stepinac’s blessings, went on brutal campaigns carrying out various crimes against humanity.
“Alive people were burned, nailed to tree stumps, their skin was torn, open wounds were sprinkled with salt, their eyes were gouged out, ears, noses, tongues were cut off, nails were driven into their heads, their heads were smashed with sledgehammers, fetuses were removed from mothers’ wombs, babies were killed on bayonets…”, he stated and warned that today’s society couldn’t even comprehend, let alone understand those horrendous crimes, reports Sputnik.
In his protest note, Serbian Foreign Minister, Ivica Dačić, the conference is an attempt to rehabilitate and relativize the movement that symbolized the genocide of Serbs, Jews and Roma.
“The path of reconciliation in our region cannot lead through the rehabilitation of Alojzije Stepinac, and especially not in the European institutions. These institutions were created as are a result of the victory over fascism. Is there a greater irony than that? I could only imagine how everybody who fought against fascism would react to this – to the rehabilitation of fascism in a European institution,” Dačić added.
The director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center from Jerusalem, Efraim Zuroff, also spoke out and said that any attempt to honour or glorify people who supported the genocidal government of the Independent State of Croatia is shameful and should be opposed.
“Stepinac, who supported the NDH and Ante Pavelić, head of the NDH, who was responsible for initiating three genocides – against Serbs, Jews and Roma – deserves to be severely ostracized, not praised,” wrote Zuroff.
(021.rs, Politika, 22.03.2023)
https://www.politika.rs/sr/clanak/543935/stepinac-protest-eu