From: josip@src.umd.edu (Josip Loncaric)
Subject: Re: Irony continues in our history
Followup-To: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Organization: Systems Research Center, Maryversity of Uniland, College Park
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 03:39:32 GMT

In article <1992Aug14.160353.24463@cco.caltech.edu> simic@pollux.ccsf.caltech.edu (Petar Simic) writes:
>	Josip Loncaric writes:
>>>>
>...the Holocaust.  The complicity of Serbia in this crime has been documented
>even better than what happened in France, but some Serbians like Mr. Simic
>still deny responsibility.
>
>  This line of argument is very ugly.  Mr. Simic's selective memory distorts
>what happened in an effort to justify Serbian aggression.  What I'm saying
>is that we know (and Mr. Simic has told us many times) what happened in
>Croatia in WWII --- but that he is glossing over Serbian complicity
>in the Holocaust.  About half of the Jews who perished in Yugoslavia
>in WWII had lived in Serbia --- but Mr. Simic is fond of forgetting.
>
><<<
>
> [About Mr. Simic's family sheltering Jewish families.]
> This is about personal responsibility part of your comment.
>
>	As far as "selective memories" and "justifications", let me remaind you
> that we are discussing the historical facts, and it is not my intention to
> justify anything. Serbia proper was occupied by the Germans. Regular
> Serbian army was in the woods traying to organize anti-fascistic
> resistance. Irregulars (partisans) were in the hills doing the same.
> The overall feeling of the population was violently anti-fascist. The
> overal feeling toward Jews was traditionally friendly. The only organized
> killing machine were German divisions who executed several thousands of
> Jews, and deported to Croatia and Germany the rest. There, they were
> eventually executed by fascists. In Serbia, Germans also have executed
> many thousands of Serbian civilians in retributions for frequent guerilla
> attacks on them. Hundred civilians for one Germans solder was the Hitlers
> rule *for Serbia*. If there were cases of Serbs from local administration
> doing wrong to Jews, such cases were as rare as the circumstances would
> allow, and can not be  * by any strech of imagination *  (or available 
> historic documentation) compared to the share Germans have for attrocities
> against Jews in Serbia, or with what Croatian fascists did to Jews and Serbs
> in their Croatian independent state.

Unlike those Serbs who resisted occupation and saved people, there were
other Serbs who collaborated with the Nazis and killed people.  You,
and many others, have never come to terms with this legacy.  Serbian
"ethnic cleansing" and concentration camps today are in part due to
the failure of the Serbian nation to confront some of the darker episodes
in its past.  Croats have had to confront their Ustashe past, and they
were horrified.  Today, when even in France far right wins 15% of the
vote in peacetime, Croatian far right has failed to get more than 6%
even though there is a war going on which favors them.  By contrast,
in Serbia and Montenegro neo-fascists have won 24% of the seats in
the parliament.

This is indicative of the lack of awareness in Serbia of the evil some
parts of Serbian society are capable of doing.  Just like Mr. Simic
has pointed out earlier, most Serbs share unreservedly positive image of 
their own role in history.  No blemishes are remembered, but perhaps
they should have been, as a warning.  That way, some of today's
evil might have been avoided.

So, Mr. Simic, here are two references which ought to make you
rethink this "unreservedly positive" historical role.  While your family
sheltered people, other Serbs have very efficiently participated in
the Holocaust.

Encyclopedia Judaica: "Yugoslavia", page 876

Christopher R. Browning: "Fateful Months: Essays on the Emergence of the
               Final Solution", pp. 42-44, New York, Holmes & Meier, 1985

You'll learn:  In August 1942, a German report had stated that the
"problem" of Jews and gypsies had been solved in Serbia, that Serbia
is the only country where this problem no longer exists, and attributed
this "success" to generous Serbian help.

There ARE books on this, published in Belgrade, as well as Belgrade
magazine articles.  Had more people in Serbia paid attention to these
books, and heeded the implicit warning, perhaps we would not have
to read about Serbian concentration camps today.  But, even in a
cosmopolitan city such as Belgrade, journalists say that only 
about 15% of the people are informed about what's really going on.
The rest -- they just do not want to know.  In rural areas,
the percentage is even worse.

Slobodan Milosevic had played upon Serbian tendencies to see their
history in epic terms.  His "Big Brother" approach to media has
manipulated history, playing upon traumas of the past, in order to
drive his people to war.  His media had, by a leap of imagination,
converted Croatian leaders, confirmed anti-fascists who had fought
against Ustashe, into Ustashe!!!  This kind of doublespeak, unfortunately,
worked.  Croatian people who have rejected Ustashe long time ago,
were all of a sudden portrayed as fascists.  This is (1) deeply wrong because
it is a grave but utterly false charge, and (2) misleading to Serbian
people because it leads them to war against a nonexistent problem.

The truth is that most Croats have NEVER been Ustashe, and would never
accept them as leaders.  Even at the height of their power, in WWII,
Croatian Ustashe membership never exceeded more than 1% of the population.

If Serbs had had a less pliable sense of their history, Milosevic's lie
would never have worked.  Unfortunately, too many believed him, and
too few were aware of what evils lurk in Serbian chauvinism.

Once a reputable news center, Belgrade has become nothing more than
Milosevic's factory of lies, confusing not only Serbians but the world
media as well.  As one of the consequences, the nature of Serbian aggression
was not recognized in the world for a long time.  

By now, Milosevic's credibility is gone, so he brought in Mr. Panic to confuse
the world for another 100 days.  By then, Bosnian non-Serbs will be thrown out
of their country, and the West will have no option but to accept Serbian 
conquest, and the principle of lies+aggression+"ethnic cleansing"=success
will have been established.

I have one question: if the world did not stop Serbia, how can they 
expect bigger nations to refrain from doing something similar?  

In my view, the concept of "collective security" embodied in the U.N. Charter
has failed in a major way.  Not only did the U.N. fail to defend the 
victim state, but even self-defense was prevented: even under attack,
Bosnia is still not allowed to buy defensive weapons; and the U.N.
commander MacKenzie effectively advocates surrender by the Bosnian government.  
I am appaled that the U.N. is working against self-defense of a people 
subjected to a brutal aggression and "ethnic cleansing".  What kind of
world order are we getting here?

All of this is deeply immoral and against all civilized values.

Josip

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