(E) Letter to Ms. Bloomfield (Holocaust Museum) re Jasenovac
Subject: letter to Ms. Bloomfield re: Jasenovac Ms. Sara Bloomfield Museum Director Washington Holocaust Museum Washington, D.C. via fax 12. 28. 2001 Dear Ms. Bloomfield: The reports by the press of the find of Jasenovac items in Banja Luka, Bosnia Herzegovina, (that were stolen from Jasenovac by the Serbs), and their return to Croatia, have repeatedly been distressing to Croatians, as Jasenovac has been mentioned again and again as the only WWII concentration camp of former Yugoslavia, while some even suggest that it was hidden all these years from public knowledge. Nothing could be further from the truth, as I am certain you are aware of it. What most of the media and public are not aware of is the fact that most of the persons responsible for the atrocities committed in Jasenovac during the Croatian Nazi puppet regime of WWII were tried and punished by the communist Yugoslav government after the war and that Jasenovac also continued to serve as a brutal concentration camp under the communist regime for anti-communist Croatians who had nothing to do with fascism. After Croatia became independent in 1991, it kept up Jasenovac as a commemorative site for all the victims that were held there. The Croatian government and people never denied Jasenovac's existence and the crimes committed there by the Ustasha regime horrified them. The only denial was the grossly exaggerated number of victims that the Serbs consistently portrayed in spite of available accurate statistics by Serb and Croatian scholars. During 1999 the Jasenovac commander Sakic was extradited from Argentina as requested by the Croatian government and was tried and sentenced to twenty years in prison - meaning lifetime at his age. So as Croatians we truly have to ask the Jewish community why Jasenovac has to be continuously resurrected while Germany that killed millions of Jews and even France and Italy, that delivered Jews to the Nazis, are not being endlessly hounded to this day by a bad press and worse assumptions? There is also a very important question to be asked: Why is the Holocaust Museum and the Jewish community at large totally ignoring Serbia's WWII Nazi puppet regime under general Nedic that rounded up all Serbian Jews in large concentration camps of Serbia's Sajmiste, Banjica and others, where they either killed them or delivered them to the Germans? Serbs proudly declared to Hitler that Belgrade is "Judenfrei" - "Jew free". Serbia has a long history of antisemitism, long before WWII, especially fostered by its Serb Orthodox Church, while Croatia does not. Sincerely, Hilda Foley Media Relations National Federation of Croatian Americans 13272 Orange Knoll Santa Ana, Ca. 92705 distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.com Notice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments.
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