Customer Reviews

The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican: The Croatian Massacre of the Serbs During World War II

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I have been told by some that the book is a lie, that the research is a fabrication and that they do not need a sedative when told about it. These people do not read the book. They do not have to; they KNOW.

More informed people read the book and are horrified, as should we all be, as we are when we read about the Inquisition. The difference is that the Inquisition is at a safe chronological distance, while this book is uncomfortably close to us.

Dedijer's research is impeccable, as are his credentials. The events described were widely known before the book was written, but a shame-faced newer generation of ecclesiastics prefers to suppress any Nazi connection. The shame-facedness is good, the suppression is not. The book is necessary.

The book is necessary in order partially to understand the intense hatred between Serbs and Croats and hence some of the events that are shaking that part of the world today. It is necessary to understand history, e.g. the Latin church's desire to keep Croatia catholic as a buffer between Rome and the Orthodox churches. It is necessary to a better understanding of the Latin church.

Heavy and distasteful reading, as bad as a detailed book about Auschwitz. Do not enter it lightly.

The library of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington has four copies of this book on its shelves.

I never wrote an review before but i couldnt stop myself now.After reading some of the 1 star reviews i was bursting with anger! It certanly seems that Croatians (only they could rate this brilliant work with 1 star) are trying to discredit this book and reduce its star rating, thinking that in that way somehow they would be able to hide their dark and evil past from a public spotlight. It is so clear and obvious that most of them have never even read this book, they have nothing to say about substance, but they are rather inventing fairytales about author, reducing numbers of victims by quoting only "Croatian sources" or blaming "everything on Serbian propaganda". So, as a Spanish Catholic, who has served 3 years in UN peacekeeping force in Balkans i will tell you that this book is extraordinary! Author is not a "Serb communist" but rather a Yugoslav Jew, greatly respected all over the world.He was a visiting professor of history at Cornell, Brandeis, Harvard, and the University of Michigan. He was also a member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and president of the Bertrand Russell Tribunal of Human Rights in the Federal German Republic.
Then, this book was not writen recently, but rather couple of decades before Civil War in Yugoslavia broke out, so it has NOTHING TO DO with any kind of propaganda. And numbers are, as somebody already said here, much more reduced than increased. This is a quote from Simon Wiesenthal site:
" JASENOVAC: The largest concentration and extermination camp in Croatia. It was set up in 1941 and functioned until 1945.Some 600,000 people were murdered there. In 1945, the remaining prisoners were killed and the camp was blown up to hide the evidence of mass murder."(http://motlc.learningcenter.wiesenthal.org/pages/t034/t03448.html)
And if you can not belive that Vatican is not so much involved in Croatian affairs even today -please check this: http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/20/wponte20.xml (Vatican accused of shielding Croatian war criminal)
So once you get this book and start reading you will see how indisputable it is. And you will change your view and opinion on present situation in Balkans, as we all did after reading it.This book is truly a very rare and precious work on holocaust in Balkans. And if you want more- check some of the list on amazon that follow this book.

This book is about a secret episode of the 20th century history.
The genocide of serbian populace in the Independant State of Croatia was part of the hidden agenda of the Vatican. The leaders of the horrendous massacres were often members of the croatian clergy and fascit-clericals leaders. very documented with shocking pictures.

Jasenovac was the largest concentration camp and death camp in Croatia and Bosnia, in the Balkans, during World War II and the Holocaust. The camp was run by Croatian ultra-nationalists known as the Ustashi, made up of Croat Roman Catholics and Bosnian Muslims. The extermination camp was set up by the NDH, the Independent State of Croatia, which included Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina. The NDH was a Nazi and fascist regime that was allied to Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini established the NDH, but the Croatian and Bosnian Muslim leaders of the NDH were Nazis and fascists themselves who were allies of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Indeed, in the Ustasha NDH the Croatians and Bosnian Muslims, unlike other New Order states, ran the death and concentration camps themselves, not the Germans or Italians. The leader of the NDH Ustasha state was Croatian Poglavnik Ante Pavelic, who was born in Bosnia-Hercegovina, and the Vice-President was Dzafer-beg Kulenovic, a Bosnian Muslim. In the NDH, the Croatian Roman Catholic and Bosnian Muslim regime committed genocide against the Serbian Orthodox, Jewish, and Roma populations.

The historiography on Jasenovac is consistent and unanimous in acknowledging that Croats and Bosnian Muslims committed genocide against Serbs, Jews, and Roma. The only issue of dispute is the exact number of victims. Ustasha apologists and Croatian nationalists minimize the numbers while Serbian, Jewish, and Roma victims cite the maximalist figures. No one knows the exact numbers. But everyone knows that a genocide was committed against Serbs, Jews, and Roma. The genocide committed at Jasenovac was one of the most horrific and horrendous crimes of inhumanity during World War II and the Holocaust.

The Croatian regime initiated and instituted a systematic and planned policy of genocide and ethnic cleansing (ciscenje) against the over 3 million Orthodox Serbs living in the NDH. The policy of genocide came to be known as ethnic cleansing or cleansing, ciscenje. On June 23, 1941, this policy of ethnic cleansing was officially announced by Victor Gutic, Ustasha Governor of Western Bosnia, which was a majority Serbian region. In a speech at Banja Luka, Gutic announced that Ante Pavelic intended to make Banja Luka the capital of the NDH but before the city had to be "thoroughly cleansed of Serbian dirt." He announced that he was going to use an "iron broom" to sweep until Banja Luka and Bosanska Krajina (Western Bosnia) "had been cleansed of the last Serb."

Ante Pavelic (1889-1959), the President or Poglavnik of the NDH, enunciated the policy of ethnic cleansing when he gave a speech on August 14, 1941, in Vukovar in Srem:

"This is now the Ustashi and Independent State of Croatia, it must be cleansed of Serbs and Jews. There is no room for any of them here. Not a stone upon a stone will remain of what once belonged to them."

The Roman Catholic Croats, allied with and supported by the Vatican, established an alliance with Bosnian Muslims in the NDH to ethnically cleanse and to exterminate the Orthodox Serbs. The Vatican sent an emissary or Papal Legate to the NDH government, G. Ramiro Marcone, and the Pope, Pius XII, met with Pavelic and Ustasha leaders. Croatian Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac of Zagreb supported the genocidal Ustasha regime and its policies. From April to November, 1941, the Vice-President of the NDH was Bosnian Muslim Osman Kulenovic from Bihac. From November, 1941 to April, 1945, the Vice-President of the NDH was his brother Dzafer Kulenovic. Dzafer Kulenovic ordered that the Serbian Orthodox Church at Brcko be destroyed, the cemetery dug up, and the bones of the Orthodox Serbs be dispersed. In the Croat-Muslim NDH, not even the dead were spared.

The exact number of persons who were murdered in Jasenovac and the other concentration camps is not known.

In Bespuca povjesne zbiljnosti (The Wasteland of Historical Reality), Croatian ultra-nationalist and Jasenovac genocide denier Franjo Tudjman stated that "about 60,000 perished in all the camps and prisons." According to Tudjman, 30,000 victims died at the Jasenovac camp. In 1952, the Union of Jewish Councils of Yugoslavia, relying on the reports of Jewish survivors, concluded that, in the Jasenovac camp alone, "500,000-600,000 people were slaughtered, among whom were about 20,000 Jews." Menachem Shelah in The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (1990) gives the following figure: "Some six hundred thousand people were murdered at Jasenovac, mostly Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and opponents of the Ustasha regime. The number of Jewish victims was between twenty thousand and twenty-five thousand." The Ustasha commander at Jasenovac, Frater Miroslav Filipovic-Majstorovic, during questioning after the war, stated that "according to reports of Maks Luburic... about a half million Serbs were killed in the NDH during these four years." On October 20, 1994, Brussels Archbishop Cardinal Godfried Danneels in an interview to Vatican Radio, stated that "even today it is impossible to say how many Serbs were assassinated in Croatian concentration camps in World War II, but for certain the number must have been over half a million persons."

Franjo Tudjman, a Holocaust denier and revisionist, has also stated that 900,000 Jews perished in the Holocaust, and that the figure of 6 million is inaccurate and exaggerated. He further accused Israel of perpetrating a genocide against the Palestinians, and called the Jews of Israel "Judeo-Nazis". Although a Holocaust denier and a rabid anti-Semite, Tudjman was invited to the opening of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC in 1993 by the US State Department. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel would neither meet with him nor speak with him: "I never spoke to Franjo Tudjman. In fact, I refused to meet him."

The total numbers of those murdered at the Jasenovac camp are not known and will continue to be distorted, manipulated, and denied. But what is not in dispute is the fact that a genocide was committed at Jasenovac, one of the most horrific acts of genocide in the 20th century.

The historical and scholarly historical accounts of the genocide committed at Jasenovac have been censored, suppressed, and covered-up in the U.S. and the West. There are two mainstream accounts of the genocide committed at Jasenovac: Genocide in Satellite Croatia, 1941-1945: A Record of Racial and religious Persecutions and Massacres by French historian Edmond Paris, published in 1961 by the American Institute for Balkan Affairs, and Vladimir Dedijer's The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican: The Croatian Massacre of the Serbs during World War II, published in 1992 by Prometheus Books in New York. Dedijer was a Communist Partisan who edited the newspaper of the Yugoslav Communist Party, Borba, War. He also wrote Tito Speaks, War Diaries, The Road to Sarajevo, and Tito. He was Josip Broz Tito's confidant and wrote his biography. These two accounts are, however, marginal and fringe accounts, translations of French and Yugoslav historians.

The historical accounts of the Jasenovac camp and the genocide committed there remain largely untold, suppressed, covered-up, and censored. This is why Jasenovac and the Holocaust in Yugoslavia is an essential and important collection and contribution in our understanding and knowledge of what happened at Jasenovac and why. This is a vital and indispensable starting point for anyone who seeks to comprehend and understand the Yugoslav conflicts and civil wars of the 1990s.

This book is simply GREAT! It has what any serious research and study must have-lot of original material, such as letters, photos, documents, statements, testimonies......so if you looking for some cheap propaganda, this book is definitely not for you. It is the ULTIMATE research on Jasenovac, a Croatian Nazi concentration camp in which close to a million Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and other non-catholics were massacred. You will be forgiven if you do not know anything about Jasenovac or you even never heard of it. Vatican made sure that you don't, as Catholic clergy was deeply involved in running of this camp, as it was in ruling whole of Independent State of Croatia. But if you dig deeper, go further than just learning your history from today's media and check the work of historians, academics, survivors, nazi hunters, or even visit the memorial centre in Jasenovac (which was recently vandalised by Croatian mob),you will discover that this is the most terrifying crime of W.W.II.
And what is so sad is that some of the Croats are trying to deny their own history and their reviews on this site are easy to recognise. Instead of talking about this masterpiece, they try to talk about everything else:they are trying to discredit the author (who is himself half Croat), Serbian resistance to Nazis in W.W.II, numbers of victims (which are widely available and are being much more reduced than increased)and they almost always try to glorify their own (dark) history and past.
So they will tell you that first resistance to Nazis was given by partisans in Croatia, which is a shameless lie......First resistance to Nazis was given by CHETNICS of General Draza Mihajlovic, some few months BEFORE PARTISANS WERE EVEN FOUNDED (check any serious history book and you will find that Mihajlovic was for this decorated with LEGION OF MERIT from president Truman and with CROIX DE GUERE from Charles De Gaule).And even these partisans in Croatia, who did a bit later rise against Nazis, were mostly formed from Croatian Serbs from Krajina (around 85%, check leading historians, encyclopedias...). Those were same Serbs that were ruthlessly massacred in Jasenovac, although Serbs from all over Yugoslavia died there too....They lived in Krajina from 16th century and were given this land by Austro-Hungarian Emperor, in order to protect western borders of the Empire (and Western world) against Turks. Indeed, full name of Krajina is VOJNA KRAJINA, which means something like 'MILITARY REGION'. So these Serbs were known warriors, who for centuries protected the very same Croatia and Austria and were always having their own autonomy, independent from Croatian Parlament....Furthermore, they never had to pay any taxes, as Austrian Emperor considered them to be the most important asset and barrier in stopping the penetration of Turks into the Europe....This caused a centuries old jealousy in Croatia (towards these people-Serbs), which starts with Serbia's 14th century Empire (this empire was spread from today's Istanbul to Venice and included most of Croatia) and Serbia's glorious history (unlike Croats, Serbs didn't peacefully accept foreign occupation and they were fighting hard throughout centuries for their independence, which they got in mid 19th century, while Croats remained under Austro-Hungary until its collapse). This jealousy turned into hate during the W.W.I when Serbs were fighting the most powerful Empire in Europe (Austro-Hungary) and Croatians were forming the largest part of the Austrian army that attacked Serbia in 1914...Although heavily superior in numbers and military equipment, Croats and Austrians were defeated and Austrian general who led the invasion (who was Sloveno-Croat Austrian himself) committed suicide. Serbs were on the wining side in W.W.I (as they were in W.W.II, unlike Croats) and they lost by far the most of all nations in that war (officially around 30% of their POPULATION, but in real the number was even higher, as many were born in those times without ever being registered). This is important to know, in order to understand Croatian obssesion and jelousy towards Serbs, as this will lead to the genocide, during W.W.II. There is one more thing to know, in order to easily comprehend everything: Croats (and Slovenians) are Catholics and Serbs, Montenegrins and Macedonians are Orthodox Christians. This division goes back to Roman times, when Roman Empire split into Western and Eastern, Western being Catholic and Eastern Ortodox....The line of division is just about today's border od Serbia and Croatia....And for Centuries Catholic church was trying (as everywhere else in the world in those times) to CONVERT peoples of Balkans into Catholic religion (of course, often forcibly as it did most recently during Nazi Independent State of Croatia, in the W.W.II)
So, when Croatia became for the first time independent (Nazi state of Croatia from 1941-1945), the very same Serbs were massively exterminated, most of them in this concentration camp- JASENOVAC. The Cardinal Stepinac and Croatian Furher Pavelic, made an infamous plan where ' one third of Serbs in Croatia had to be CONVERTED TO CATHOLICISM, one third had to be FORCIBLY EXPELLED and one third had to be EXTERMINATED'!
However, in this book you can find plenty of original letters between Cardinal Stepinac and Vatican (including Pope) from which you can see that this plan actually originated in Vatican itself. But not only letters are there...Speeches of Cardinal Stepinac and Ante Pavelic, as well as many other members of Croatian clergy who were widely involved in all crimes against Serbs, their photos and many other ORIGINAL and indisputable documents.... This book even quotes German generals who were 'astonished by Croatian barbarism' in dealing with Serbs (Jews were massively killed in German Concentration camps, but where never exposed to the level of TORTURE as Serbs were in Jasenovac!). It also quotes infamous Max Luburic, the commander of Jasenovac camp, who openly boasted that they 'killed more Serbs in this camp for 4 years, than Turks did for 500 in whole of Serbia'. But it is not just how many were killed, but rather HOW they were killed! It is just very hard to get an idea, until you read one of the books on this subject or do some research on it!
Author remains objective at all times and to be fare, there are very few of his own conclusions as he states mostly facts and presents vast amount of material, which has been already established and available (as i mentioned before).
So all you have to do is READ THIS BOOK (while it is still available, as many others on this subject are going "out of print", like the most famous one from BBC's and W.W.II RADIO FREE EUROPE's Avro Manhattan, " THE VATICAN HOLOCAUST"- last printed in 1988). And do not pay attention to those who will rate this encyclopaedia of Croatian holocaust against Serbs with only one star! They are almost always some brainwashed young Croats...Or they are some radical Catholics, who have a problem in accepting the deeds of Catholic Church in the past (well or even now, as Pope beatified Cardinal Stepinac in 1998!!!)

This book is a masterpiece! It is a history that you cannot learn in your classrooms....Written in a serious manner, but using simple yet very precise language, this book will keep you on the edge of your seat. If you like history, you will love this one..... It deals only with genuine documents, and already established facts. It is rich with authentic photographs and it uncovers all the "hidden" letters from Vatican to Pavelic. As catholic church was deeply involved in policy making in the INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA (Croatian FASICT state, ally of Hitler from 1941 to 1945), this book shows to which extent did it influence massacres of more than a million Serbs. As a Croat, who lives abroad, i am ashamed of the attempts to rewrite the history and hide past, on the part of the new Croatian government and some powerfull western lobbies. My grand father was, as most Croats during II World War, an ustasha (Croatian Fasict) and he DID terrible things in the name of Independent State of Croatia. He lived enough long to tell me what has been done to Serbs and Jews by us.He told me how brainwashed was whole country and that everybody had to follow the orders....And so did he... What was worrying for me was seeing history almost repeat itself! During 1990's my uncle and two aunts were expelled from Croatia, just because they were married to Serbs....Most of my friends in Croatia, of Serbian roots, were ethnically cleansed and today my motherland Croatia is almost ethnically pure country....Serbain villages were raised to the ground, and Croatian Serbs were not allowed to enter Croatia until recently....And they lived in Croatia since 16th century!
So, what Ante Pavelic and Nazi Croatia couldn't do and manage in 4 years (from 1941 to 1945), new state of Croatia (1991- ) finished it! This book tells you about infamous plan of Ante Pavelic (our Nazi leader during II W W) to exterminate Serbs and orthodox christianity from Croatia: of almost 2.5 million Serbs that lived in Croatia, one third was to be exterminated, one third expelled and one third had to be converted into Catholicism. This plan was actually made in Vatican and Pavelic himself was Vatican' man. Croatian clergy and Archbishop took active part in slaughter of close to 1 million Serbs and Jews, in Jasenovac (The Yugoslav Auschwitz ). Their crimes were never fully acknowledge in Yugoslavia, since Yugoslav leader-dictator Tito was a Croat and most of the ustashe and clergy were allowed to get away unpunished. We, Croats, never had to apologies to Serbs and Jews, we never had to pay anything towards damages and War Crimes (Germany, Japan and other satellite countries which sided with Hitler and lost the war are paying still today the war damages!) and this is why many of my fellow Croats are now trying to dispute the history itself! And with a help of Germany, Vatican and many other powerful western lobbies, they might manage to rewrite the history on the way that it suits them...I am so ashamed of my country, but even more of some of its sons......Read this book and you will see why.....

This is an important book for everyone to read, but especially for Catholics. After all, this is not something you will learn in CCD. Truth always has the ability to shine in the light, and expose the darkness of lies, hatred, and murder. As a baptized Byzantine Catholic, graduate student, and lover of truth, history, and philosophy this book receives my highest recommendation. Read the book, check out the references, follow the research, and by all means prove the facts for yourself. Heed this warning, "By their fruit you will recognize them. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit." Matt. 7:18. As a follow-up to this book, I would also recommend Avro Manhattan's "The Vatican's Holocaust". The evidence is strong and history records the truth. Do you really think God cares if it was 1,000,000, 700,000 or 350,000 that were murdered in the name of religion? Every single victim was loved by God. A Roman Catholic attempted cover-up will not work. Judgement Day is coming. Don't be left in the dark, "The Yugoslave Aushcwitz and the Vatican" deserves five big stars!

This is by far the best historical book that i have ever bought! Not only that it is very accurate and detailed, but it presents a horrific account of Vatican's "rule" in Balkans and its support and leadership in Croatia's holocaust against Serbs...I wonder why there is no film,even documentary, ever made about this?! Why children in UK and elsewhere in Western Europe do not know about this genocide of Serbs, which is even more terrifying than German Genocide of Jews! Get this book immediately......

For any History lover and for all others, interested in Balkan history, holocaust and Vatican's relation to nazi programs, this book is obligatory reading. Written as a serious study, this book is full of original documents, letters and photos....YOU WILL BE TERRIFIED!
Recent survey in Italy showed that 12% of people belive that holocaust of Jews never happened. About same percentage in Germany belives the same...yet in Croatia number of people who belive that genocide against Serbs is exegerated or it did not happened at all is around 70%. And that is because Croats were never made to apologies or publicly acknowledge their terrible crimes and Catholic Church protected them, as it still does today....So when faced with books like this one, they go a long way to discredit it and often they haven't even read it! This book- and several others- should be part of elementary education in Croatia, like it is the case in Germany, Italy,Japan.....But, instead, subject of genocide against Serbs is never presented in its real nature.
Get this book, you will be delighted that you did.......

First-hand testimony of survivors and eyewitnesses is compiled in this shocking and graphic account of the crimes committed during World War II at the largest death camp in Yugoslavia.

Vladimir Dedijer, a close associate of Tito, has collected irrefutable documentary and photographic evidence, attesting to thousands of atrocities and the complicity of the Catholic Church in these crimes.

Needless to say that Dedijer was a visiting professor on many world-renown universities (Yale, Harward, Sorbonne, for example) and the Chairman and President of Sessions at the 1966 Russell Tribunal.