November 9, 2011, 4:29 PM CET
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Disfiguring Jasenovac

The Jasenovac concentration camp, often described as the “Auschwitz of the Balkans” for the raw brutality exhibited by its fascist commanders and guards who ran the camp from 1941 to 1945 in the Independent State of Croatia, continues to stir strong emotions. But, shamefully, often the wrong ones and for the wrong reasons.

Instead of grief and sorrow, a morbid debate about the number and ethnic background of the victims, many of whom died most brutally by having their throats cut with a special knife known as the “Srbosjek” or “Serbcutter,” is still overshadowing the darkest chapter of Croatia’s history.

The latest episode, reflecting the confusion surrounding this unfortunate story, happened in Spain, where a TV documentary about Croatian fascist commander Maks Luburic, known as “Maks the Butcher” who fled to Spain after World Wwar II, failed to mention Serbs as victims of the Jasenovac camp.

Spanish TV reacted by issuing an apology to Serbs. They had vehemently criticized that the documentary mentioned “partisans, political opponents, jews and gypsies” as victims but failed to mention Serbs, who constituted the majority of those killed in the camp.

The Serbs’ reaction can be understood as the failure to mention them as victims is opening old wounds. Since the camp was bulldozed in 1945 by the Communists, Croats and Serbs have failed to close the chapter of this bloody episode of their history. Instead, they have been engaged in a cynical numbers game.

While some Croat historians have put the number of victims killed in Jasenovac as low as 50,000 persons, some Serbian scholars have put the figure close to 1 million or even higher. Unfortunately, there is no official data confirmed by a trustworthy third party, even though there are many serious efforts by both Serb and Croat historians to establish the truth.

“We have never been able to carry out comprehensive research,” said Efraim Zuroff, coordinator of Nazi war crimes research for the Simon Wiesenthal Center and director of its Israel office.

The Holocaust historian, who said that many mass graves at the site have still not been opened, says that Croatian claims that some 50,000 people were killed “is a gross underestimation” and that he understand that such low-balling “angers” Serbs. But, he says, Serb estimates of around 700,000 may “possibly” be exaggerated, too.

Since no one knows for sure, many Croats and Serbs feel invited to throw in their guesses, thereby desecrating the dignity of each individual victim. Worse, a serious debate about the real perpetrators of these heinous crimes is virtually blocked, giving rise to perpetual political manipulation.

Mr. Zuroff noted that the Jasenovac camp museum, which opened in 2007, fails to mention any of the camp’s commanders but instead refers only generically to the Ustashi, the Croat fascists who collaborated with the Nazis during WWII, as the camp’s executioners.

While Mr. Zuroff said that the trial of Dinko Sakic, the camp’s commander, in 1999 was one of the most important moments in the history of modern Croatia, failure to educate students properly was deplorable. He describes the Jasenovac museum as a “squandered opportunity” to face up to the crimes.

Communist rule under former Yugoslav strongman Tito is much to blame for the fact that the history of the Jasenovac concentration camp has never been fully dealt with. But this deficiency, which is also endemic in the Baltics, has proven fatal here.

Two writers, who later gained political prominence, used the intellectual vacuum to publish their own accounts during the 1980s after the death of Tito, who tried to suppress the truth about the camp to foster a Yugoslav identity.

One was Vuk Draskovic, who later would become foreign minister of Serbia, the other, Franjo Tudjman, the first Croatian president after the collapse of Yugoslavia. Both won fame and notoriety by using the atrocities committed during WWII for their own ends: Draskovic to vividly depict the genocide committed against Serbs, Tudjman to support his ideas that Serbs wanted nothing but to deprive Croatia of its independence.

Only a few years after the publication of their respective books, Yugoslavia fell apart in a brutal civil war as old inter-ethnic hatred was revived to rally the population to engage in another round of senseless slaughtering. Serbs blamed Croats of trying to resurrect their fascist fiefdom, while Croats argued Serbs instrumentalize Jasenovac to justify a land grab in Croatia.

While Jasenovac can’t be used to explain the fall of Yugoslavia, it is evident that the unresolved history of this camp has and is stirring unhealthy emotions and is being misused by Croats and Serbs alike to depict the other side in the most cruel terms.

It is paramount that comprehensive and objective research is being undertaken to detoxify the cynical debate about figures that dehumanizes the crimes and serves as an excuse for a perpetual tit-for-tat that continues to this day and creates a troubling and confusing picture of the Balkans. Failing to sober up and face the facts is producing a vicious circle for which the recent wars offer testimony.

“I would personally be very pleased to be part of an effort to determine the scope of the murders. It is a very important step towards reconciliation,” Mr. Zuroff said.

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