Croats' history of resistance
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/letters.cfm?id=155742005
Letters, Edinburgh Evening News 10 February
Croats' history of resistance
I ENJOYED very much Margo MacDonald’s piece
"Dismissing History is more or less bunk" (News,
February 3), which warned us against historical
oblivion regarding the victims of the Second World
War.
Ms MacDonald correctly notes that many young British
students know little about fascism in continental
Europe. Alas this memory loss, and the failure in
right educational approach, is not just visible in the
UK, but in other parts of Europe - both East and West.
In her otherwise informative piece, Ms MacDonald seems
to be rehashing the old cliché of "concentration camps
run by Croatians who backed Hitler".
This stigma had much success in ex-communist
Yugoslavia, and was slickly used to discredit Croats
in their search for their own democratic statehood.
While it is true that the Croats of the puppet regime
installed during the Second World War in Croatia
collaborated with Nazi Germany, it is equally true
that Croats made up, percentage-wise, the largest
number of anti-fascist combatants in occupied Europe.
Also Croats were proportionally the largest
anti-fascist force within Tito’s (another Croat)
partisan resistance movement.
The most intensive resistance activities were taking
place almost exclusively on the territory of the
so-called Independent State of Croatia, which was
comprised territorially of what is today Croatia and
neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Therefore Croats were part of Allied Forces fighting
also for the freedom of their fellow Serbs oppressed
by the pro-Nazi collaborating regime.
Ms MacDonald is rightly warning us against the danger
of using clichés. All abominable crimes against
humanity have been cliché-driven crimes, and have
often been used and abused as a pretext for a crime.
This is to alert Ms MacDonald and your readers against
those clichés.
Tomislav Sunic, Minister counselor, Embassy of the
Republic of Croatia, Conway Street, London
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/letters.cfm?id=155742005
Croats' history of resistance
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/letters.cfm?id=155742005
Letters, Edinburgh Evening News 10 February
Croats' history of resistance
I ENJOYED very much Margo MacDonald’s piece
"Dismissing History is more or less bunk" (News,
February 3), which warned us against historical
oblivion regarding the victims of the Second World
War.
Ms MacDonald correctly notes that many young British
students know little about fascism in continental
Europe. Alas this memory loss, and the failure in
right educational approach, is not just visible in the
UK, but in other parts of Europe - both East and West.
In her otherwise informative piece, Ms MacDonald seems
to be rehashing the old cliché of "concentration camps
run by Croatians who backed Hitler".
This stigma had much success in ex-communist
Yugoslavia, and was slickly used to discredit Croats
in their search for their own democratic statehood.
While it is true that the Croats of the puppet regime
installed during the Second World War in Croatia
collaborated with Nazi Germany, it is equally true
that Croats made up, percentage-wise, the largest
number of anti-fascist combatants in occupied Europe.
Also Croats were proportionally the largest
anti-fascist force within Tito’s (another Croat)
partisan resistance movement.
The most intensive resistance activities were taking
place almost exclusively on the territory of the
so-called Independent State of Croatia, which was
comprised territorially of what is today Croatia and
neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Therefore Croats were part of Allied Forces fighting
also for the freedom of their fellow Serbs oppressed
by the pro-Nazi collaborating regime.
Ms MacDonald is rightly warning us against the danger
of using clichés. All abominable crimes against
humanity have been cliché-driven crimes, and have
often been used and abused as a pretext for a crime.
This is to alert Ms MacDonald and your readers against
those clichés.
Tomislav Sunic, Minister counselor, Embassy of the
Republic of Croatia, Conway Street, London
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/letters.cfm?id=155742005