Customer Reviews

Serbia's Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of History (Eugenia & Hugh M. Stewart '26 Series on Eastern Europe)

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Croatian and Albanian lobbies are trying to twist and change history for last 60 years. They employed leading US PR agency to spread their propaganda and demonize Serbs. Authors of this book are obviously wrote this book under their influence and, as i can see, first reviews of this book on this site are written by Croats or Albanians (they would like to be called "Kosovars" now, whatever that means). Truth, that can be easily checked, is that Croatia was more brutal than NAzis in exterminating Serbs and Jews during the Second World War and Serbs were saving Jews and often sacrificing their own lives by hiding whole Jewish families from Croatian Ustashe and German Nazis. This is greatly documented by many Jewish survivors from Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Check Simon Wisental's writings or, for that matter, any serious historian....In Serbia, there was a "government" installed by Hitler, after Serbia was occupied. This government did what German general in charge told her to do....But nothing even close to what Albanians and Croatian Ustashe did to Serbs and Jews. On the other hand, Croatia JOINED Hitler's Germany as an independent state, willingfully. Their Fascist leader, Ante Pavelic went to fulfill his famous plan: Of 3 million Serbs that lived in Croatia (in 1941) ONE third must be converted to Catholicism, ONE third must be forced out of the country and ONE third must be exterminated. He almost managed to do this (in JASENOVAC camp close to a million Serbs and dozens of thousands of Jews were murdered)...but what he could not finish, Tudjman and new Croatia did. Most of the Serbs were forced out in beginning of 1990's, some 600.000, of which 300 000 only in two weeks in 1995, in the operation supported by the west and largely unreported in the media.ANd with their PR's and GERMANY they managed to blame it all on Serbs and Milosevic. This book is written to support this cause( demonization of Serbs) and is historically incorrect. Read "Witness to Jasenovac Hell" instead or "The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican: The Croatian Massacre of the Serbs During World War II "

I have only heard of blatant historical revisionism before, but now I can thank Mr. Cohen for giving me a first-hand experience of this praxis. I have done an extensive study of the Balkans and my PhD thesis focused on the transition of the Balkan states from Communism to post-Cold War democracy. While doing research for my thesis, I have encountered a number of conflicting sources on almost any issue. It appears to me that Mr. Cohen has taken ONLY ONE SIDED sources and is selling them as a greater truth to his readers. This is truly unfortunate and quite apauling because now is the time when we need to learn more about the Balkans and not spread propaganda. Any person doing advanced research learns that a good, objective and comprehensive study involves balancing sources, interpreting the level of objectivity on any statistical data, looking for underlying causes, historical misgivings and above all - giving an honest overview free of author's biases to the best extent possible. In this regard, Cohen and Riesman failed. Other than that, this book does not look bad on my book shelf. Too bad it will collect dust from now on!

After reading the review of Serbia's Secret war I must say that it would have to be the biggest single piece of Croatian propaganda I have ever read, especially since the Croatian commander of the Jasenovac concerntration camp was recently apprehended in Argentina. The capture and extradition of this war criminal back to Croatia,so he can face war crimes charges, has just blown Phillip J. Cohen's theory of Serb collaboration with the Nazi's out of the water!!!

He rewrote history and left out the facts. I would suggest to go to the Simon Wiesenthal Center for your factual history of Yugoslavia and the Serbs.

Remember what Hitler's propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels said: "Tell a lie a hundred times and it becomes the truth!"

Had Mr. Cohen not recieved funds from a man who claimed that less than a million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and that it was somehow their fault one might actually believe Cohen there for a second. His story is simply the fact that his father had his licence revoked by the Yugoslav King Aleksandar on corruption charges, therefore he holds a severe grudge for the Serbs. A grudge so sever that he is willing to twist history and assist the cause of the ruling government in Zagreb which is trying to erase its dirty WW II legacy of open collaboration and participation in the Holocaust genocide against its Serbian, Jewish and Gyspy minorities by pointing the finger of blame at others.

Finally, that stamp which Mr. Cohen so relies on was a "semi-postal" stamp printed in Germany for use in German-occupied Serbia. It had an additionnal charge which were to go for the funding of an "anti-Masonic" (Nazi mythology about a Communist-Masonic-Jewish conspiracy) exposition to take part in order to create hate among the Serbs for Jews and communists for which they had sympathy (not all for communists though). Yet, the proceeds were so low from these stamp sales as no Serb wanted to buy these stamps that a postally marked stamp is worth 3 times the value of a mint one.

This is an interesting book on a subject where not a lot is written. The problem, however, is that it feels too much like a propaganda text aiming to discredit serbs realtive to other nationalities in Yugoslavia.

I have no way of knowing whether the facts in this book are correct or selective, but can't get away from the feeling that it has been written to cover up or at least decrease the magnitude of Croatian crimes during WWII.

This book is very misleading--as portrayed even by the jacket of the book. As a stamp collecter, I can tell you that the stamp on the jscket of the book was made in Vienna during the beggining of World War II for propoganda purposes, and in fact was never circulated in Yugoslavia--Moreover, the Croatian government provided the funds for the publishing of this distortion. Many books have been written since the breakup of Yugoslavia by all sides--and many are purely revisionist--hoping that becasue the Serbs are portrayed as the bad guys now, they must have been the bad guys before--and if they were not--at least it is a perfect time to revise history (Fact is close to 600,000 to 1 million Serbs were murdered by Croat Nazis in Jasenovac--source Eli weisel himself). Cohen seems to overlook that little tid bit of information. This propoganda is not worth paying money for.

Croatian and Albanian lobbies are trying to twist and change history for last 60 years. They employed leading US PR agency to spread their propaganda and blame Serbs. Authors of this book obviously wrote it under their influence and, as i can see, first reviews of this book on this site are written by Croats or Albanians (they would like to be called "Kosovars" now, whatever that means). Truth, that can be easily checked, is that Croatia was more brutal than Nazis in exterminating Serbs and Jews during the Second World War and Serbs were saving Jews and often sacrificing their own lives by hiding whole Jewish families from Croatian Ustashe and German Nazis. This is greatly documented by many Jewish survivors from Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Check Simon Wisental's writings or, for that matter, any serious historian....In Serbia, there was a "government" installed by Hitler, after Serbia was occupied. This government did what German general in charge told her to do....But nothing even close to what Albanians and Croatian Ustashe did to Serbs and Jews. On the other hand, Croatia JOINED Hitler's Germany as an independent state, willingfully. Their Fascist leader, Ante Pavelic went to fulfill his famous plan: Of 3 million Serbs that lived in Croatia (in 1941) ONE third must be converted to Catholicism, ONE third must be forced out of the country and ONE third must be exterminated. He almost managed to do this (in JASENOVAC camp close to a million Serbs and dozens of thousands of Jews were murdered)...but what he could not finish, Tudjman and new Croatia did. Most of the Serbs were forced out in beginning of 1990's, some 600.000, of which 300 000 only in two weeks in 1995, in the operation supported by the west and largely unreported in the media.ANd with their PR's and GERMANY they managed to blame it all on Serbs and Milosevic. This book is written to support this cause and is historically incorrect. Read "Witness to Jasenovac Hell" instead or "The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican: The Croatian Massacre of the Serbs During World War II "

Cohen opens an important but vastly ignored issue in the current Serbo-Croatian relations: use of Jews and even Israel in the current Serbian propagandistic and diplomatic attempts to delegitimize Croatia and eventually expand on Croatian territory again. It is a very, very bizarre enterprise indeed. Here is why: Some Serbs participated in the Holocaust. Some Serbs fought against the Nazis. Some Croats participated in the Holocaust. Much more Croats fought the Nazis, and actually organized the anti-Fascist movement in Yugoslavia (long before the Serbs). Today, after half century of Serbian/Yugoslavian/Communist propaganda, the world remembers only Croatian fascists and Serbian anti-fascists. An what is the reason? So the Serbs could claim that modern Croatia is an anti-Semitic state (which it is not) and that Serbs should be given custody over it as historic protectors of the Jews and other minorities (which they are not).
For those who point that Philip Cohen is a physician and not historian, I would like to point that one of the best and most honest researchers and authors on the Middle East, Islamic anti-Jewish primary sources, and the concept of Jihad, is not an Orientalist, but also a physician, Andrew Bostom. Dr. Bostom dared to write what Orientalists knew but of some reasons usually ignored. Dr. Cohen did just the same. Both Cohen and Bostom focused on primary sources and not on the current prejudices dominant in the field of research they were "invading." Warmly recommended.

It took time to review the reviews on Dr. Philip Cohen's book "Serbia's Secret War." One can immediately notice that nothing has changed in that part of the world and the issues that had plagued the region since the creation of the first Yugoslavia in 1918 are still in existence. Those who wrote favorably about the book and had positive opinions were predominantly Croats or their supporters and those who consider the book as revisionism were without doubt Serbs and their supporters.
I consider myself an objective and informed reader holding a Ph.D. in the history of the region during WWII. I was lucky to conduct my research in the beginning of the twenty first century when all the archives were open to me. It is no secret that during the entire period of the communist regime in Yugoslavia the access to the national archives was limited to the privileged historians who had supported the party line and its propaganda while all others were barred from researching the 1941-1945 documents. Thus there is no doubt that many revisionist works were produced during the years Tito and Milosevic were in power.
It is clear to me that Cohen has uncovered many of these revisionist practices and has demonstrated that not only among the Croats there were collaborationists but they also existed among the Serbs and the Muslims. He was a pioneer who dared to write about the Serbian collaborationist government and how Milan Nediæ and his supporters played a crucial and a decisive role in the persecution of Serbia's Jews. By August 1942 the "Jewish Question" had been resolved and Serbia had become the first country in Europe free of Jews (judenrein). The efficient extermination of Jews was not solely the work of the Nazi occupiers. In every country in Europe they engaged the locals to conduct their dirty work and Serbia was no different.
Although Cohen's book is based primarily on secondary sources he brings a wealth of support to his conclusion that from the very first day of the occupation of Yugoslavia by the Axis Powers the Jews were targeted by their Serbian fellow countrymen and by the Serbian Archbishops Synod, Metropolitan Josif, the acting head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who had promised Nediæ the church's full support. In November, 1941, Serbian Orthodox priest Dusan Popoviæ condemned the Jews from his Belgrade pulpit: "We have been betrayed and sold out. The worm of betrayal and corruption as embodied by Judaism has penetrated the core of Yugoslavia. During the same period, an article published in the newspaper Obnova stressed that "no matter how much a Jew feigns having integrated with the people in whose midst he lives, even if he has changed faith, he remains first of all and above all a Jew! In January 30, 1942, Metropolitan Josif officially prohibited conversions of Jews to Serbian Orthodoxy and, by so doing, destroyed for Jews a potential means of survival. Another official, the Serbian economic minister Mihailo Olæan proclaimed that "the Jews have met the fate they deserved."
In light of the above I would like to suggest that those who wish to challenge Philip Cohen's thesis to provide documents to the contrary rather than to proclaim without any justification that the book is an empty revisionism.