Croatia, Japan discuss U.N. reform, Zagreb's future EU membership

Monday April 11, 5:08 PM
(Kyodo) _ Visiting Croatian Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and her Japanese counterpart Nobutaka Machimura discussed United Nations reform Monday, though Croatia has yet to express support for Japan's bid for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat, Grabar-Kitarovic said.
Machimura conveyed Japan's support for Croatia's future membership in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, she added.

On the United Nations, the Croatian minister told Kyodo News in an interview soon after meeting Machimura that the two sides "discussed some of the aspects of the reform" but that Japan's bid for a permanent seat remains an issue for continued discussion and that Zagreb has yet to announce an official stance.

Turning to Croatia's EU accession talks, scheduled for March 17 but shelved by the EU citing Zagreb's failure to hand over a war crimes suspect, Grabar-Kitarovic said, "We are hoping to reopen negotiations as soon as possible. We believe we are doing whatever we can and we hope that the EU will come to this conclusion."

EU foreign ministers have refused to start membership talks with Croatia, citing its failure to help find war crimes fugitive Gen. Ante Gotovina. He is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for the alleged murder of ethnic Serbs at the end of the 1991-1995 Serbo-Croatian war.

Croatia insists it has done all it can to find Gotovina, but U.N. tribunal prosecutor Carla del Ponte accuses it of not having tried seriously to arrest him. "We are very much determined to fulfill all the criteria for (EU) membership, including this criteria of cooperation with the ICTY and we would really like all the countries in the EU to reach this consensus," said Grabar-Kitarovic.

Meanwhile, Croatia is expecting to get an invitation to join NATO in late 2006, together with Macedonia and Albania.

As for bilateral relations with Japan, the Croatian minister said she and Machimura agreed there are no open issues between the two countries and that they both would like to expand cooperation especially in trade and multilateral initiatives.

"We believe we can greatly contribute towards global stability --we both have experience in the past which taught us certain lessons that we can share with others and find more mutual understanding," she said.

Grabar-Kitarovic arrived in Japan Sunday together with Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor. They are scheduled to attend the Croatian National Day at the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi Prefecture on Tuesday before wrapping up their visit the following day.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050411/kyodo/d89d3t2g0.html

Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac and CNN

Jutros dok sam gledala izravni prijenos Papine sahrane iz Rima, pred kraj sam dozivjela poprilican sok kad je CNN-ova novinarka Christine Amanpour izjavila da je jedna od kontraverzi po kojoj ce Ivan pavao II biti zapamcen i proglasenje kardinala Stepinca (po njenim rijecima suradnika nacista) blazenim. Ja sam uptila protest gospodji Ammanpor, a mozete i vi na slijedeci Link.

Dokle cemo mi Hrvati morati braniti svoju istinu......U prilogu saljem materijal koji vam moze biti od koristi za obranu ove istine ubuduce.

Pozdrav,
Danica


http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form4.html?1

Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac and saving the Jews in Croatia during the WW2
© by Darko Zubrinic, Zagreb (1997)

www.croatianhistory.net

I will live a pure life in my house
and will never tolerate evil
(The Bible, Psalm 101)
Whoever saves one life
is as though he had saved the entire world
(The Old Testament; motto of Yad Vashem)

The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, Jerusalem, or in Hebrew - Yad Vashem, was founded by the Israeli Knesset in 1953. Its main objective is not only to keep memory on the Jewish victims of the atrocities of the WW2, but also to keep memory on those brave people (non Jews) who risked their lives to save the Jews throughout Europe. Yad Vashem therefore established a special honour for The Righteous among the Nations.
There are about hundred persons in Croatia who obtained "The Certificate of Honour" and "The Medal of the Righteous" from Yad Vashem in Jerusalem till now. Their names can be seen in "The Honour Wall in the Garden of the Righteous" in Jerusalem.
We would like to mention only a few of these Croatian Righteous:
rev. Dragutin Jesih, from Scitarjevo near Zagreb, killed during the WW2. The Jews he saved were sent to him by Croatian Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac. Also the local peasants helped to save their lives.
prof.dr Zarko Dolinar, a well known Croatian intellectual (biologist) working in Switzerland, saved (together with his brother) about 300 Jews.
dr Mate Ujevic, Croatian lexicographer and writer, editor in chief of the Croatian encyclopedia (1938-1945), who saved his close collaborator and friend Manko Berman from the infamous Jasenovac concentration camp, together with sisters Stefa and Hermina MĂźller, and took care about their property.
sisters (nuns) Cecilija and Karitas Jurin.
Ljubica Stefan, a well known historian (she also risked her life while staying in Belgrade until 1992, when Croatia was already in flames after the aggression of Serbia and the Yugoslav Army; there she managed to prepare in secret her richly documented books about the history of Fascism and anti-Semitism in Serbia during the WW2).
See the list of Croatian Righteous.
There is no doubt that one day the Croatian Archbishop (later the Cardinal) Alojzije Stepinac (1898-1960) will be included into this list. An official request to the Israeli Yad Vashem for the posthumous inclusion of dr Alojzije Stepinac to the list of Righteous has been sent by dr Amiel Shomrony and dr Igor Primorac, now both citizens of Israel. The request has been sent twice, for the first time in 1970, and then in 1994, and both times refused. Bear in mind that only saved Jews and their descendants have the right to nominate candidates to Yad Vashem. Official Jewish organization in Croatia did not send such a request yet.
According to solidly based data he saved several hundred Jews during the WW2: either by direct action, or by secret rescripts to the clergymen, including mixed marriages, conversion to Catholicism, as did some Righteous in other European countries (in Greece for instance).
Already in 1936 Stepinac began to support materially and by other means Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria in Croatia. In 1937, while only 39 years old, he became Archbishop. In 1938 he founded "Action for help to refugees." Archbishop Stepinac also founded Croatian Caritas. In January 11, 1939 he sent a request to 298 addresses of eminent Croats asking for help:
Dear Sir,
Due to violent and inhuman persecutions, a large number of people had to leave their homeland. They are left without means for normal life, and wander throughout the world...
Every day a large number of emigrants contact us asking for intervention, for help in money and goods. It is our Christian duty to help them... I am free to address to You, as a member of our Church, to ask for support for our fund in favour of emigrants. I ask You to write Your free monthly allotment on the enclosed leaflet.
Signature: Alojzije Stepinac, the Zagreb Archbishop
In a confidential rescript sent to Croatian clergy in 1941, Archbishop Stepinac wrote: "The role and task of Christians is on the first place to save people. When this time of madness and wildness is over, only those will remain in our Church who converted out of their own conviction, while others, when the danger is over, will return to their faith." Archbishop Stepinac also gave another instruction to his clergy to issue the certificate of baptism to endangered Jews and Serbs whenever they asked for. This was done with all procedures maximally simplified, often with false names. To our knowledge, these efforts are unique in the occupied part of Europe.
See also about amazing involvement of Croatian secondary school pupils in saving the Jews and Serbs in Croatia, which is without precedent in the history of WW2.
At the same time the metropolitan bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church Josif Cvijic sent to all of his clergy a public rescript ordering the prohibition of conversion of Jews to Pravoslav (i.e. Orthodox Christian) faith. In this way the destiny of all Jews in Serbia has been sealed up, and after May 1942 there are no more Jews. Also an "Appeal to Serbian people" to support Nazi occupying forces in Serbia has been signed by 545 leading intellectuals in Belgrade in August 1941.
Stepinac most resolutely defended mixed marriages contracted in the Catholic Church. Already in March 1941 he sent a letter to Ante Pavelic where he wrote the following:
...As a representative of Catholic Church, and following my holiest duty, I raise my voice against interference of the state into questions of lawful marriages, that are insolvable, regardless to racial affiliation. There is no state authority having the right to solve these marriages. If it uses physical power, then the state is perpetrating ordinary violence.
On the other hand, it is known that also in the highest circles of our state administration there are similar marriages that are insolvable.
He alluded on Pavelic himself, whose wife seems to have been a Jew (Pavelic's mather-in law was Jewish - Ivana Herzfeld), as well as 12 other highest state officials, whose wifes were either Jewish or Serbian, see [Kristo], p. 141, or [Stefan], p. 15 (the Jewish community in Zagreb has no available data).
Kristian Krekovic, a famous Croatian painter, made several portraits of Pavelic. Krekovic's wife was a Jew (Sina Pevner), educated as pianist and polyglot, born in Paris, daughter of outstanding surgeon in Paris. She lived with Kristian Krekovic in Zagreb during the whole period of WWII (information by mr. Anto Cigeljevic). They both left Zagreb and Croatia in 1946 immediately after the humiliating mock trial (that is, soon after the Yugoslav communist rule started), with the status of displaced persons in their passports.
And here is another letter of protest sent by Archbishop Stepinac to Pavelic in July 1941:
As an Archbishop and representative of the Catholic Church I am free to call your attention to some events that touch me painfully. I am sure there will be hardly anyone having the courage to point to them, so it is my duty to do it. I hear from various sides about inhuman and cruel treatment of non-Arians...
Among the Jews that Stepinac managed to save there were also 60 inmates of the Jewish Old People's Home in Zagreb, that the German authorities in Zagreb ordered in December 6, 1943 to leave within 10 days, otherwise they would be sent to a German concentration camp. Upon the request of the members of the Jewish community in Zagreb, Alojzije Stepinac organized their stay in archbishopric's building in Brezovica near Zagreb, of course with the knowledge of the ustasha officials. Archbishop Stepinac often visited them. It is interesting that the inmates stayed there until 1947, while the Archbishop was already in the communist prison since 1946. Five of the inmates died a natural death during this period. It is regrettable that the total number of saved persons is often unjustly reduced to 55, even by the official Jewish sources in Croatia (as was the case in the ``Voice of the Jewish Community in Zagreb'', in an article written by dr Ivo Goldstein).
In the beginning of 1943 the Zagreb Chief Rabbi dr Miroslav Shalom Freiberger accepted an offer of Archbishop dr Alojzije Stepinac and entrusted him his very valuable private library. The Chief Rabbi had been killed in Auschwitz in 1943. He was arrested in 1943, when Himmler himself arrived to Zagreb, dissatisfied with the way the ustasha regime is "solving the Jewish problem" in Croatia. Stepinac immediately sent a request for his liberation to state officials, but without success. It should be noted that Chief Rabbi Freiberger did not accept an offer by Archbishop Stepinac to take refuge on his court until the end of war, since he wanted to share the destiny of his people. The library was returned to the Jewish community in Zagreb after the end of WW2.
Already in the beginning of NDH in 1941, a group 83 outstanding Croatian physicians of Jewish nationality, mostly with their families, were moved to Bosnia, at that time a part of NDH, to be away from the eyes of German Nazists (see [Jasa Romano, pp. 95-99]). Otherwise they would be liquidated. This has been organized by the NDH minister of health, dr Ivan Petric, with the knowledge and approval of highest NDH officials, including Ante Pavelic (see Ha-Kol, 5960/1999, bulletin of the Jewish community in Zagreb, p. 11; the number of 71 saved Jewish families mentioned in Ha-Kol is wrong: there were 83 families, see the aforementioned monograph of Jasa Romano). An important role in saving these Jewish families had prof.dr Ante Vuletic, 1999 Croatian Righteous (awarded posthumously). The role of these physicians in Bosnia was to struggle against infectious diseases, and against endemic syphilis on the first place.
One of the greatest German speaking actresses of the 20th century was a Jew - Tilla Durieux (1880-1971). In 1933 she escaped in front of the Nazis from Germany to Switzerland, and then to the town of Opatija. In 1941 she happened in Serbia, where chetniks killed her husband. She managed to escape to Crotian capital Zagreb, where (during the NDH period) her life had been saved. It is interesting that she collaborated in Kazaliste lutaka (Theatre of Dolls) in Zagreb. She lived in Zagreb until 1955, that is, for about 20 years, and then returned to West Berlin. Tilla Durieux wrote an interesting autobiographic book, and a little known theatre play "Zagreb 1945", which was performed in Luzern in Switzerland. There is a memorial room devoted to her in the Museum of the City of Zagreb. (Glas Koncila, 2. travnja 2000, p. 21).
Dissatisfied with "solving the Jewish problem" in NDH during WW2, Himmler himself arrived to Zagreb in 1943. In an extensive raid that ensued many Jews were transported to Auschwitz. This has been witnessed by dr Amiel Shomrony, now Israeli citizen, personal secretary of rabbi Miroslav Shalom Freiberger. Even Eugen Dido Kvaternik, chief of the ustasha police (his grandfather was Josip Frank - a Jew), sent a secret message to dr Amiel Shomrony (his name in Zagreb was Emil Schwartz) to save himself as he can.
Dr Juraj Vranesic, a well known Zagreb physician, was hiding two Jews - Milan Sachs (conductor of the Zagreb Opera) and his wife in his sanatorium from 1941 until the end of WW2 (personal information by Ljubica Stefan). Vranesic, who also saved Miroslav Krleza from ustashis, was sentenced to death by YU communists in 1947. There were no Jews to initiate his nomination at Yad Vashem, though he deserved it (and still deserves), like many other anonymous Croatian Righteous. It is also known that there were plenty of Jews in Zagreb wishing to witness in favour of Archbishop Stepinac in the process raised against him in 1946, but were not allowed to (see [Stefan], p 92). Moreover, Dr Amiel Shomrony was adviced not to arrive to Zagreb to witness in favour of Stepinac, under the cynical pretext that nobody could guarantee his return to Israel.
Though it can in no way efface the shame of the ustasha regime, it should be said that the Jewish community in Zagreb was the only one in Europe that acted legally in NDH during the whole WW2 in the period 1941-45 (Tomislavov trg 4).
According to a report of the British Naval Intelligence Division from 1944, the Croatian "Roman Catholic clergy, following the example of monsignor Stepinac, the Zagreb Archbishop, energetically protested against ustasha persecutions of Serbs and Jews, as well as against government's attempts for forced conversion to Roman Catholicism" (written by experts from Oxford and Cambridge in 1944, with note `only for official use'). See Stefan, pp. 127-131.
Only two days after the arrest of Stepinac in 1946 a protest conference was organized by Louis Breier in New York (Bronx), at that time the president of the Jewish community in the USA. He declared:
This great man was tried as a collaborator of Nazism. We protest against this slander. He has always been a sincere friend of Jews, and was not hiding this even in times of cruel persecutions under the regime of Hitler and his followers. Alongside with Pope Pius XII, Archbishop Stepinac was the greatest protector of persecuted Jews in Europe. (my translation from a Croatian source).
His sermons were not allowed to be printed publicly during the NDH period (1941-1945), so that people multiplied and spread them in secret. Glaise von Herstenau, a German Nazi general in Zagreb, declared: "If any bishop in Germany were speaking this way, he would not descend alive from his pulpit!" And when Stepinac visited the Holy See in 1943, he was warned that his life is in danger from the Nazis. There he met Ivan Mestrovic, a famous Croatian sculptor, to whom he said: "With God (=farewell), we are about not to see each other any more. Either Nazists will kill me now, or Communists will kill me later." Here are some characteristic extracts from his public sermons held in Croatian churches during the NDH period (1941-1945):
All people of all colors are God's children. All of them, without any discrimination whatsoever, be they Gypsies, black people, civilized Europeans, Jews or proud Aryans are equally entitled to say" `Our Father who art in heaven...' That is why the Catholic Church has always condemned and it still condemns any injustice committed in the name of class, racial or nationalistic theories. Gypsies and Jews must not be exterminated in the name of a theory which claim that they belong to an inferior race. (A part of the sermon delivered in the Zagreb Cathedral on October 24, 1942.)
There is a diversity of peoples and nations on the Earth. Mankind represents a unique whole. All of them have their roots in God. And all of them, be they of Aryan or non-Aryan race, have the same human nature.
We were always accentuating in our public life the principles of eternal life of God, regardless to whether Croats, Serbs, Jews, Gypses, Catholics, Pravoslavs were in question, or anybody else. Catholic Church knows for races and peoples as creations of God, and its respect goes more to those with noble heart, than to those having powerful fist.
Archbishop Stepinac publicly condemned ruining of the Zagreb synagogue in Praska ulica in 1941 with the following words: "The House of God of any faith is a sacred place..." (witnessed in written by Dr. Amiel Shomrony, citizen of Israel). This sermon, as other, could not have been published in press. But it was copied in secret among ordinary people, and one copy had been sent by Archbishop Stepinac himself to Chief Rabbi Freiberger (see [Stefan], p. 54).
In an unpublished letter sent to editor in chief of the Jerusalem Post in July 29, 1995, reacting on the statement of Reuven Dafni, vicepresident of Yad Vashem, that "Stepinac did not do anything to save the Zagreb synagogue" (Jerusalem Post, July 26, 1995), Dr Amiel Shomrony wrote the following ([Stefan], p. 55-56):
Sir
please allow me through your column to inform your readers truthfully about "Croatia's past stalks relations with Jews", written by Mr. Jan Immanuel. In doing so I hope there is no need to stress that I have no personal interest whatsoever above stating what really happened during W.W.II in Croatia.
As former secretary of the Chief Rabbi of Zagreb Dr. Shalom Freiberger and his personal contact with Cardinal Stepinac I am in the position to point out various misinterpretations if not untruths in the above mentioned article of July 26th.
...The allegation that Archbishop Stepinac welcomed the Nazis is absolutely false; on the contrary, he publicly condemned the Nazis' racial theories as antireligious even before the state of Croatia became "independent" in 1941.
...There are in Israel and the U.S. people who were hidden in 1941 by Stepinac in monasteries during the war. More than 50 elderly Jews were allowed to hide and live until the end of the war on his estate when they were brutally evicted from the old people's home Lavoslav Schwarz. Also the Jewish community received money as well as sacs of flour on a monthly basis from the Archbishop for the inmates of the concentration camp Jasenovac.
...it is a fact that he condemned all laws against Jews, Pravoslavs, Moslems and Gypsis in his Sunday sermons in the cathedral house, "all of them are children of God". Also in his sermons he specifically denounced the destruction of our Synagogue as "being a house of God"; "the perpetrators will be dully punished by almighty God"...
As to the danger to his life - we submitted relevant proofs to Yad Vashem, but the matters being sub judice, I shall refrain from mentioning them here...
Allow me only one more pertinent point: I am today one of the very few survivors from the Jewish community of Zagreb of W.W.II and being honorary member of "The cultural society Dr. Shalom Freiberger" I surely am a more reliable witness than people who base their opinions and "facts" one hearsay.
As for the Jasenovac camp, Stepinac declared in his sermon to be disgrace and shame for the entire Croatian people. He never payed a visit to the Jasenovac camp. There are documents proving that German Gestapo planned assassination of Stepinac, as a result of his brave sermons.
Hans Helm, the public atachĂŠ at the German embassy in Zagreb, wrote in March 25, 1943 that Stepinac was a great friend of Jews (see Kristo, p 141).
In his monograph [Les forces armĂŠes croates 1941-1945, p. 18] Cristophe Dolbeau mentions organizing and protecting the escape of three boats in the Black Sea to Turkey in 1944, overcrowded with Roumanian Jews:
Peu expĂŠrimentĂŠ (au dĂŠbout tout au moins) et plutot mal ĂŠquipĂŠ, la LĂŠgion Maritime Croate s'est parfaitement bien comportĂŠe tout au long de ses trois ans de prĂŠsence en Mer Noire où l'amirautĂŠ allemande n'a eu qu'à se fĂŠliciter de son action. Bon soldats, les marins croates ont combattu dans l'honneur et sans haine : ainsi, le 24 mars et le 21 avril 1944, ont-ils organisĂŠ et protĂŠgĂŠ la fuite en Turquie de trois navires (le Milka, le Marcia et le Bella Citta) remplis de Juifs roumains... De retour à Zagreb le 21 mai 1944, ces matelots auront droit à un bref repos avant de reprendre la mer, dans l'Adriatique cette fois, et pour dĂŠfendre les rivages de leur patrie.
And here is an example of brave behaviour of ordinary Croatian citizens. When professor Petar Grgec, at that time director of the Archbishopric's classical gymnasium in Zagreb, met a humiliated group of Jews on a street, with yellow armbonds on the sleeves, he took of his hat - expressing thus his deep respect, and silent protest against their suffering. This brave example, given by the old professor, must have left a deep imprint on souls of his pupils. Equally well, antifascist (and later anticommunist) example of Archbishop Stepinac left a deep imprint on the entire Croatian nation.
Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac was beatified in 1998 by Pope John Paul II in Marija Bistrica near Zagreb.
Ivan Mestrovic: ON RELIGIOUS ART (1954), excerpt: "...The head of that suffering Church is Cardinal Stepinac, my compatriot, my dear friend, of whom I and all Croats are proud. I am sure that our feelings are shared not only by all the Catholics throughout the world but also by all men of goodwill everywhere who cherish freedom of spirit..."
Saving the famous Sarajevo Haggadah (Jewish Bible) in 1941
I dare ask You taking the trouble (especially if You are a Jew) to read the following:
Let me repeat again, the ustasha regime in Croatia and the Jasenovac camp are the greatest shame in the history of Croatia. According to Vladimir Zerjavic, an upper bound of the number of victims is
85,000 killed in Jasenovac, out of which
48-52 thousand Serbian victims,
13,000 Jews killed in Jasenovac (also 6,000 killed Jews in other camps and ditches in Croatia, and 7,000 outside of Croatia),
12,000 Croatians,
10,000 Romanys (Gypses).
There are views among Croatian scholars that Zerjavic's number of 85,000 killed in Jasenovac is exaggerated, see for example books of Jurcevic and Ivezic. It should be taken into account that altogether 62 Yugoslav concentration camps are known to have existed in the period from 1945-1951 (including the Jasenovac camp from 1945-1947), with unknown number of victims of communist terror, see here.
The Serbian propaganda claims 700,000 victims in Jasenovac (and even 1.5 million, claimed by Serbian politician Vuk Draskovic in Paris in the 1990s), i.e. almost 10 to 20 times more than estimated by Zerjavic. It would be important to revisit uncritical statements and numbers written by Menachem Shelach in The Encyclopedia of Holocaust, IV, pp 1716-1722, New York (see Yugoslavia). Who was professor Menachem Shelach? Born in Zagreb (as Raul Spicer), he died as a university professor in Haifa in 1995. He said in an interview published in an Israeli weekly Hotam (December 30, 1994), that he "deathly hates the Croats" (in Hebrew: sin 'at mavet)!! Croats as such, the entire nation. We all know what is anti-Semitism, but what is this and how to name it? Due to Shelach's inventions and lies, even the University of Haifa published a letter (signed by a secretary of the University) stating that the rules of professional ethics cannot be applied to everything that Shelach published as a history lecturer at this University. Dr Milan Bulajic, Belgrade, was his close collaborator. And the article in The encyclopedia of Holocaust, written by Shelach, has been read and is still read by millions of Jews and others throughout the world. The last days of his life, dying of cancer, Shelach was able to speak only - in Croatian.
The brilliant figure of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac is shining on, despite double refusal of Yad Vashem to acknowledge his courage and perseverance in saving the Jews in Croatia. Explaining the refusal, the spokesperson of Yad Vashem (Iris Rosenberg) wrote in an official letter to a Croatian weekly that "persons who assisted Jews but simultaneously collaborated or were closely linked with a Fascist regime which took part in the Nazi orchestrated persecution of Jews [compare with Shomrony's letter], may be disqualified for the Righteous title." We know of plenty of examples showing that this is not true. See some of them in the book "Stepinac i Zidovi" by Ljubica Stefan, p. 133-137: Giorgio Perlesca (Italy), Oskar Schindler (Poland), patriarch Papandreu Damaskinos (Greece), Georg Duckwitz (Denmark), Max Schmeling (well known boxer, Germany, member of Wermacht during the whole WW2). It is impossible to efface the truth about Cardinal Stepinac.
We know that Belgrade was the only European capital with two concentration camps - Sajmiste (exclusively for Jews) and Banjica, and with the number of victims comparable to those in Jasenovac. But there are no memorial tablets as in the similar places elsewhere in Europe. No mention of Belgrade concentration camps is made in the Encyclopedia of Holocaust. To our knowledge, also the existing Museums of Holocaust in Israel and in the USA do not have Belgrade on their maps of concentration camps in Europe. Thus it turns out as if the ustasha regime in Croatia was the only one responsible for holocaust on the territory of former Yugoslavia.
Probably the most outstanding falsfier of the history of the Jewish Old People's Home in Zagreb, that Archbishop Stepinac saved from German Nazis in 1943, was Dr Lavoslav Kadelburg, Croatian Jew born in Vinkovci (1910-1994). He was the president of the Union of Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia during many years, from 1965 to 1994, representative in many Jewish organizations in the world, vicepresident of the European Jewish Congress until his death. Also the judge of the Supreme law-court of the Socialist Republic of Serbia.
Kadelburg himself sent a signed statement against Archbishop Stepinac to Yad Vashem.
An unknown number of documents containing signed Jewish statements in favour of Stepinac during the process raised against him in 1946 was in the possession of the Jewish community in Zagreb and then sent to Belgrade. When Dr Amiel Shomrony asked Kadelburg (president of the Union of Jewish Communities in YU, Belgrade) to send him copies, he answered: "These documents have no importance, and I destroyed them." See [Stefan].
I kindly ask Jewish authorities to contact Igor Primoratz, Amiel Shomrony (both citizens of Israel), Ljubica Stefan, and Frano Glavina (Zagreb), who are without any doubt among the greatest connaisseurs of the subject covered by this web page.
Memorial book of the Old People's Home in Zagreb published by the Jewsih community in Zagreb in 1960, does not even mention Alojzije Stepinac and his decisive role in saving the Jewish inmates during WW2, see [Kristo].
An appeal of my mother, related to a Jewish school-teacher that taught her to read, write, calculate, and draw in a small town of Sveti Kriz - Zacretje (near Zagreb) from 1941 to 1943. It was a very young person - Stefica Rubin, that all pupils adored (photo, 370 K). She was teaching there despite the existing ustasha regime. When she was killed by a partisan bomb in a train, all her classes were crying. Any information about her and her family would be most welcome. Another Jew of which all citizens of Sveti Kriz - Zacretje keep best memories was Mr Lemberger, a physician. And a nearby village bears the name Zidovinjak (roughly - Jewish village!), situated in Hrvatsko Zagorje, less than 40 km north of Zagreb. The name of the village, which bears witness about presence of Jews in this region so explicitly, was left unchanged also during the NDH period in Croatia (1941-1945).
I express my gratitude to Ljubica Stefan for valuable information that enabled the creation of this web-page. For more details see:
Related references and links
Back to Croatia - an overview of its History, Culture and Science

www.croatianhistory.net

Letter to the CNN editor

To:feedback@cnn.com
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005
Subject: Christiane Amanpour statement about Cardinal Stepinac

Director
CNN International News

Dear Sir:

Watching the funeral of Pope John Paul II we were shocked to hear your
reporter Ms. Christiane Amanpour making a remark about "the Pope's
controversial decision of beatifying Croatia's Nazi-collaborator Cardinal
Stepinac". It is appalling to hear such a false statement from a CNN
reporter, made at the funeral of a beloved and respected Pope and heard
by millions of people.

Where does Ms. Amanpour come off to insult not only Cardinal Stepinac and
by it the whole Croatian nation, but also the very integrity of the Holy
Father, who never would have considered for a moment declaring a man
worthy of sainthood, if there were even a grain of doubt in his mind
about the saintliness and martyrdom of Cardinal Stepinac.

Even while some in the Catholic Church might not have done enough to help
stop Hitler's "Final solution"
of the "Jewish question", Cardinal Stepinac courageously opposed the
German Nazis and Croatia's puppet regime at his own peril, personally
saving many Jews by hiding them on the Church's estate and publicly
speaking from the pulpit of the Zagreb cathedral against racism of any
kind. He believed in the dignity of the human person, regardless of race,
religion or nationality. Here are just a few excerpts from his statements
in letters to Croatia's WWII puppet state leader Pavelic:

"I implore you in the name of humanity, which our people have always
valued so highly, that you do not permit any of the remaining citizens of
our state to suffer unjustly. In the collection camps there are many who
are innocent or who do not deserve so severe a punishment... do not
permit irresponsible and uninvited elements to sin against the true good
of our nation". - March 6, 1943.

"This is a shameful stain and a crime which cries out for revenge, just
as the whole camp of Jasenovac is a shameful stain upon the NDH. As a
priest and bishop I say together with Christ on the cross: Father forgive
them, for they know not what they do!... Be assured that it is not
hatred, but love of truth and of the Croatian nation which compels me to
write this letter." - Feb. 24. 1943

In spite of the Cardinal's open opposition to the actions of the Germans
and the Pavelic regime, he was tried on false charges and imprisoned by
Tito's communist Yugoslavia, but, interestingly, only after he refused to
make Croatia's Catholic Church independent of the Papacy in Rome. After
release from prison he died under house arrest several years later,
evidently having been slowly poisoned.

We expect an apology from Ms. Amanpour and CNN for her irresponsible and
damaging statements. This is not the first time Ms. Amanpour has tried to
defame Croatia, as several years ago she seemed to be looking for a
needle in a haystack by reporting a "Nazi graffiti" somewhere in Zagreb.
Of course the fact that such Neo-Nazi graffiti can be found all over
Europe and even here in America, does not seem to hinder her for singling
out Croatia - again! One has to wonder - just what is her agenda?
Listening to too much Serb propaganda?

Sincerely,

Hilda M. Foley
National Federation of Croatian Americans
13272 Orange Knoll
Santa Ana, CA 92705
714 832-0289

Journalism was once an intellectual curiosity profession

What I heard today from the mouth of Christiane Amanpour, is simply unacceptable. Where does that hate comes from? First, it is the biggest funeral ever... In the history of the human kind. Controversial Saints? If anything is controversial, that is Ms. Amanpour, actually not controversial, but BIASED to the fullest extend of the word. We remember when she stood in Glina, Croatia talking about WW2 when GENOCIDE against Croatian civilians was present time. My father fought Fascism and everybody that I know and I know a lot of people. We Croatians defeated Fascism. Not just fought, but defeated. You didn't do your homework, not just today but for the last 15 years. You are courageous to go to the war zones and I give you credit for that, but your lack of knowledge is incredible. The only reason, why you can sustain that position is because the rest of the people that surround you are equally ignorant. Journalism was once an intellectual curiosity. Today it is a "fast food" mentality of "me too" journalism. I myself am musician and if I may say so, oriented towards humanitarian causes and activism www.nenadbach.com  And if I say so as a rock musician, ( most of us are as tolerant as you can be ) - Shame on you - that means that , girl, you've got it wrong. Not just that sentence about Stepinac (man whom one nation can only be proud of) but the your whole life, you've missed many things that you are not even aware of. Hate comes from within. And you have it.

I hope you lose your job and position very soon.

Nenad Bach

New York April 8th, 2005

NFCA Protests Jasenovac Monument in NYC

Set forth below is the text of a letter on behalf of the National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) to the New York City Commissioner of Parks and Recreation. We had recently learned that a monument to the victims of Jasenovac is to be erected in Holocaust Park in Brooklyn. As you can see from the text of the letter, the monument will claim that "hundred of thousands" of people died in Jasenovac. The people behind this effort, the Jasenovac Research Institute, are rabid supporters of Greater Serbianism (see their web site at www.jasenovac.org).

I urge all who can, especially those resident in New York City, to write to their local representatives and to the Parks Commissioner to protest against this calumny against Croats. The Parks Commissioner's fax number is 212-36-1362. Shorter notes can be sent to him by email at http://www.nycgovparks.org/.

I note that the Council of Croatian Organizations in New York is working separately to try to meet directly with the Commissioner on this issue.

John P. Kraljic
*******************************

April 8, 2005

Mr. Adrian Benepe
Commissioner
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
Central Park
830 5th Avenue
New York, New York 10021

Re: Holocaust Memorial Park - Brooklyn
Jasenovac Memorial
Sir:

I am an officer of the National Federation of Croatian Americans, a national organization representing 120,000 Croatian Americans. I am also a resident of New York City.

We were outraged to read that the City of New York has approved the erection of a monument in Holocaust Park in Brooklyn for the victims of the Jasenovac Concentration Camp which will reportedly include an inscription that "hundreds of thousands" of victims perished there. We understand that the monument is scheduled to be erected on or about April 15, 2005.

We certainly have no issue with commemorating the victims of the Jasenovac, who included tens of thousands of Croat victims as well as Serbs, Jews and Roma.

However, Greater Serbian interests have purposely inflated the number of victims of Jasenovac over the last 60 years in a pernicious campaign to denigrate the Croatian nation as being "genocidal in nature," to obscure the collaborationist work of Serbian Chetnik units in World War II, to deny the participation of hundreds of thousands of Croats in the Allied cause, and to further their campaign to deny the right of Croatia to exist as an independent and democratic state.

In this regard, the inflation of Jasenovac's victims played an integral role in the media campaign orchestrated by Slobodan Milosevic in preparation for his war on Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

No reputable historian has ever stated that the number of victims at Jasenovac was over 100,000 people. Indeed, the web site of the United States Holocaust Museum (www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/jasenovac) states that "[a]lthough further research may yield more exact figures, current estimates place the number of victims murdered by the [Ustasha] in Jasenovac during World War II between 56,000 and 97,000."

To allow a monument to be placed on New York City parkland with any inscription which exaggerates the number of victims of Jasenovac is both a smear on the Croatian-American community and an affront to the victims of that camp whose death is being used as a political tool to advocate questionable agendas.

We urge you to immediately put a stop to allowing the monument to be erected unless it accurately portrays the facts concerning Jasenovac.

Very truly yours,

John Peter Kraljic 
 

Archbishop Stepinac's Reply at the Trial

To all charges brought against me here, I answer that “my conscience is in every way clear (even though the public here present ridicule this statement), and I seek neither to defend myself nor appeal against the verdict.
For my convictions I am able to bear not only ridicule, hatred, and humiliation, but - because my conscience is clear - I am ready at any moment to die.
Hundreds of times during the trial I have been called "the defendant Stepinac." There is no one so naive as not to know that with the "defendant Stepinac" here on the bench sits the Archbishop of Zagreb, the Metropolitan, and the head of the Catholic Church in Yugoslavia.
You yourselves have many times appealed to the accused priests present to acknowledge that only Stepinac is guilty for their, the people's, and the clergy's attitude. Stepinac, the man, cannot wield such influence, only Stepinac, the Archbishop.
For seventeen months a campaign has been waged against me, publicly and in the press; and for twelve months I suffered actual house arrest in the Archbishop's palace.
The guilt for the rebaptism of Serbs is ascribed to me. That is a misleading expression, for he who is once baptized, need not be re-baptized. The question concerns change of religions, and of this I shall not speak in detail, except to state that my conscience is clear and that history shall one day render its judgment in this matter.
It is a fact that I was obliged to remove pastors, for they stood in danger of death from the Orthodox. The Serbs wanted to kill these priests because they refused them admission into the Church. It is a fact that during the war the Church had to find its way through countless difficulties. There was a desire to aid, as much as it was at all possible, the Serbian people.
The honorable judge has produced evidence showing that I sought an abandoned Orthodox monastery (once belonging to our own Pauline Fathers) in Orehovica to lodge Trappists whom the Germans had driven away from Reichburg. It was my duty to aid my brother Slovenes, whom the Hitlerites had banished, to find temporary shelter.
Because I was the Military Ordinary, grave criminality is imputed to me. The honorable judge asked me if I did not consider myself a traitor to Yugoslavia because in this matter I sought an understanding with the Independent State of Croatia.
I was the Military Ordinary in the former Yugoslavia. I labored during those eight to nine years to bring about a definite solution of the religious problem. This question was finally solved through the Yugoslav Concordat, which was agreed upon after great difficulties, solemnly ratified in parliament, but then shelved.
When the war between Yugoslavia and Germany neared its end, I extended spiritual aid to the Catholic soldiers of the former Yugoslav army and of the newly created Independent State of Croatia. If, therefore, the state had fallen, but the soldiers still remained, I felt obliged to concern myself with this situation.
I was persona non grata to either the Germans or the Ustashe; I was not an Ustasha, nor did I take their oath as did some of the officials of this court whom I see here. The Croatian nation unanimously declared itself for the Croatian State and I would have been remiss had I not recognized and acknowledged this desire of the Croatian people enslaved by the former Yugoslavia.
I have said that Croats were not allowed to advance in the army or to enter the diplomatic corps unless they changed their religion or married a nonbeliever. That is the factual basis and background of my pastorals and sermons.
Whatever I have said of the right of the Croatian nation to its freedom and independence is in complete accord with the basic principles enunciated by the Allies at Yalta and in the Atlantic Charter.
If, according to these principles, every nation has the right to independence, then why should it be denied to the Croats? The Holy See has declared that both small nations and national minorities have a right to freedom. Must, then, a Catholic Bishop and Metropolitan maintain total silence on this issue? If fall we must, then we fall because we have done our duty.
Do not think that the Croatian nation is pleased with this trial, or that if given an opportunity to express themselves I would suffer as a result. I have honored and respected the will of my people, and I shall continue to do so.
You accuse me as an enemy of the State and the people's authority. I acknowledge your authority. What was my authority? I repeat again: you have been my authority since May 8, I 945, but not before that. Where is it possible in the world to obey two authorities: you in the woods; they in Zagreb?
Should I have given allegiance to the authority of the illegal Simovic, or - as you call it - the "exiled" government in London, to the one in Cairo, yours in the woods or theirs in Zagreb? Is it possible to serve two masters? This is impossible, according to Catholic morals, the law of nations, and common sense. We could not ignore the authority here, even if it were Ustasha. It was here. You have a right to call me to account for action since May 8, 1945.
As to my so-called acts of terrorism, you have no proof, nor can anyone believe you. If Lisak, Lela Sofijanec, and others came to me under assumed names, if I received a letter which I never read, and if it be a crime for men to come to me, I shall accept the verdict with equanimity.
It does not trouble my conscience to have issued a certificate of free movement to the Rev. Maric, for I did not do so with the purpose of creating difficulties, and if this be guilt I would leave this world with my soul at peace.
Whether you believe me or not, does not matter. The accused Archbishop of Zagreb knows not only how to suffer but also to die for his convictions.
President Bakaric (of Croatia) himself acknowledged to the Rev. Milanovic: "We are convinced that the Archbishop stands behind these acts, but we have no proof" That, for me, is sufficient acknowledgement.
And now, what is the essence of our controversy and our vicissitudes, and why has not a peaceful solution been reached? The state prosecutor has many times affirmed that nowhere else is there such freedom of conscience as in this state. I am free to demonstrate the contrary.
Before all, I repeat: 260 to 270 priests have been killed by the National Liberation Movement. In no civilized state in the world would so many priests be punished for such crimes as have been imputed to them. For example, the pastor of Slatina, the Rev. Burger, as a member of the Kultur bund, should have been sentenced to, say, eight years imprisonment; but no, you killed him because he, in fulfillment of his duty as dean, had saved the sacred vessels of a national shrine.
The Rev. Povoljnjak was, without benefit of trial, murdered like a dog in the streets. And the same has been the fate of accused Sisters. In no other civilized state would death have been meted out: only, at the most, a prison sentence.
You have made a fatal mistake in murdering priests. The people will not forgive you for that. Such is your "freedom."
Our Catholic schools, built at the cost of great sacrifices, have been taken away from us. If I had not received seven carloads of foodstuff from America, we could not have done anything for the children of our poor peasant folk.
With force you took away all the seminary property. You have done nothing less than what the Gestapo did in seizing the seminary at Mokrice. We are not against agrarian reforms - the Holy See has issued many encyclicals on the social question - but they should have been carried out in agreement with the Holy See.
Our orphanages have been rendered useless. Our printing presses have been silenced, and I am not sure if one still exists. We have no publications today, although they have been violently attacked here.
Is it not manifestly scandalous to insist that nowhere does the Church enjoy such "freedom" as here?
The Dominicans were unable to publish a spiritual book, translated by me from French, to be printed at a cost of 75,000 dinars. Is this freedom of the press?
The St. Jerome Society has ceased to exist. It is a grave offense against the people to treat their greatest and oldest cultural institution in this manner. You have reproached me for the work of my Caritas. But I say to you: Caritas has performed untold services for our people and your children.
There is the question of religious instruction in the schools. You have laid down the rule: In the higher grades of the secondary schools religious instruction is forbidden, and in the lower grades it is discretionary.
How can you give to children the right to determine for themselves when they have not grown up, while those in the higher grades who have the right to vote are not allowed freedom of choice in this regard?
Our nursing Sisters in the Catholic hospitals must bear untold miseries and hardships.
Against the overwhelming opposition of the people you have introduced civil marriage. Why did you not interpret this freedom in accordance with the spirit of society in America, for example, where one is free to choose either civil or religious marriage?
We do not deny to you some degree of control over marriage. But it grievously pains our people when they must first enter a civil before a religious marriage. If you had turned to us, we would have given you suggestions on this matter.
The buildings of some of the religious in Backa have been confiscated. Some churches in Split (I do not know whether it still holds true) have been converted into warehouses. Church lands have been seized without any agreement with the Holy See. You have witnessed how the people, in the face of your agrarian reform, refuse to take these lands.
No, the material question is the least of our concerns. The tragic thing is this: not one priest or bishop is today certain of his life, day or night. Bishop Srebrnic was attacked in SuĹĄak by youths at the instigation of responsible persons. For three hours they tormented him and invaded his quarters while your police and militia looked on.
I myself suffered a similar experience in ZapreĹĄic when I was attacked with rocks and revolvers. Bishop Lach, when he was on a Confirmation tour across the Drave, and even though his mission was known, was turned back and held the whole night in the prison at Koprivnica. In fact, your own men who were in the woods came to me and declared: "This is unbecoming conduct. We shall protest to the authorities."
Rocks were hurled through the window of the house where Bishop Buric was staying while on a Confirmation tour. Bishop PuĹĄic, as I heard, was recently the target of rotten apples and eggs.
Such "freedom" we hold to be an illusion. We do not wish to exist like outlawed bandits. We shall fight, by all just means, for our rights - and here in this state.
I would add - so that you may understand why we fight - three or four more examples of your "freedom." In the classrooms it is officially taught - in defiance of all historical proofs - that Jesus Christ never existed. Know you then: Jesus Christ is God. For Him we are ready to die. And today, you teach that He never actually lived. If a teacher dared to teach the contrary, he would certainly be expelled.
I tell you, Mr. Prosecutor, that under such conditions the Church is not free, but will be slowly annihilated.
Christ is the foundation of Christianity. You express concern for the Orthodox Serbs. I ask you: how can you conceive of Orthodoxy without Christ? How can you conceive of the Catholic Church without Christ? It is an utter absurdity.
In the school books it is stated that the Mother of God was an adulteress. Are you unaware that for both Catholics and Orthodox the Mother of God is holy?
You have proclaimed, as official doctrine, that man descends from the apes. That perhaps may satisfy the ambition of some. But why decree that as an official theory when no scholar of reputation holds it to be valid?
According to your reviews, materialism is the only acceptable system and that implies the elimination of God and Christianity. If there is nothing but matter - then thank you for your "freedom."
One of your men of influence once boasted: There is no one in this State whom we could not bring to court and sentence.
To these outrageous charges whereby you place us among murderers and associates of terrorists, I say to you that not all the evil committed in the former Independent State of Croatia was the work of the Domobrani or the Ustashe.
Let no one think I want conflict. Let the present authorities come to an understanding with the Holy See. The Church does not recognize dictatorship, but she is not against honest understandings. If that could be achieved, then the Bishops will know what is their duty and there will be no need to seek out priests to point out their (the Bishops') guilt, as was done here.
Finally, I want to say a few words to the Communist Party, which, in reality is my accuser. If you think I have taken the present stand because of material things, you are wrong, for we have remained firm, even after you have made us poor.
We are not against workers obtaining greater rights in the factories, for this is in line with the Papal Encyclicals. Nor are we against reforms. But let us make it plain to the leaders of communism: if there shall be freedom to diffuse materialism, then let us have the right to confess and propagate our principles. Catholics have died and will die for that right.
I conclude: With good will, an understanding can come about. The initiative lies with the present authorities. Neither I nor the hierarchy are the ones to enter into this basic agreement. That is a matter between the State and the Holy See. As to myself and as to the verdict, I seek no mercy. My conscience is clear!
 

The same NYT published on October 15, 1946 quite different story:" When the Nazis occupied Croatian Archbishop Stepinac risked his life to aid the Jews.

From:hmfgsf@juno.com
To: letters@nytimes.com
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005
Subject: Cardinal Stepinac, New York Times. 4.3.2005.

Dear Editor:

As Croatians, we are outraged that the New York Times would print a statement regarding Croatia's Cardinal Stepinac's beatification by Pope John Paul as incensing his critics - because Stepinac was the archbishop of Zagreb, Croatia, during WWII, - while you fail to mention that he saved many Jews at his own peril during the Nazi puppet state and opposed racism of any kind. Please compare your article with the article of the NYT of Oct 15, 1946 where you wrote the truth about Cardinal Stepinac with this statement:

"When the Nazis occupied Croatia, Archbishop Stepinac risked his life to aid the Jews. With his aid, hundreds of Jews were smuggled out of the country. He denounced the race laws. He worked with the International Red Cross to rescue Jews in other countries, concealed these victims of racism under his own roof and many of his priests did likewise." You might be interested in the quote by Louis Breiner, President of the American Jewish Society
after the show trial conviction of Cardinal Stepinac in Tito's Yugoslavia: "He was one of the few people in Europe who spoke out against Nazi tyranny, at all hours, when it was dangerous..."

In addition, you are coming up with the utterly false number of 700,000 Serbs, Jews and others sent to death in camps in Croatia. Even one innocent victim is one too many, but the number long established as correct is between 60,000 to 80,000 in camps, while one million perished in WWII in Yugoslavia, most of them as combatants, Croats, Serbs and Bosnian Muslims. So let's not bandy about ad nauseam with numbers instilled by communist Yugoslavia ruled by the Serbs. It is obvious that Serb propaganda against Croatia still flourishes today, even in a respected newspaper as the NYT.
Sincerely,
Hilda M. Foley
National Federation of Croatian Americans
Santa Ana, CA 92705
714 832-0289
All-Embracing Man of Action for a New Era of Papacy

Published: April 3, 2005 (from page 9) NYT

The pope acknowledged as much, but failed to mollify critics, who were also incensed by his beatification of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, the archbishop of Zagreb during World War II, when a Nazi puppet regime ruled Croatia and 700,000 Serbs, Jews and others were sent to death camps.
HOWEVER this was published in NYT on 10/15/1946.
The same NYT published on October 15, 1946 quite different story:" When the Nazis occupied Croatian Archbishop Stepinac risked his life to aid the Jews. With his aid hundreds of Jews were smuggled out of the country and obtained the repeal of an order that all Jews must wear a yellow tag. He denounced the Nazi race laws. He worked with the International red Cross to rescue Jews in other countries, concealed these victims of racism under his own roof, and many of his priests did likewise. 
 

A Man Called Zeljko
Actor Zeljko Ivanek co-stars with Billy Crudup and Jeff Goldblum in The Pillowman.
By: Michael Portantiere
 

Zeljko Ivanek
(Photo © Michael Portantiere)

Even if you don't know and/or can't pronounce Zeljko Ivanek's name, chances are that you're familiar with his face. Aside from his stage appearances on Broadway in such shows as Two Shakespearean Actors, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and the 1994 revival of The Glass Menagerie, Off-Broadway in A Map of the World, Cloud 9, and the Peter Brook production of The Cherry Orchard, and in London in Neil LaBute's bash, Ivanek has a long list of regional theater credits. On top of all that, he's had recurring roles in the TV series OZ and Homicide: Life on the Street, while his films include Mass Appeal, Donnie Brasco, Dogville, and the recent remake of The Manchurian Candidate.
Now, Ivanek is co-starring in The Pillowman, Martin McDonagh's comedy-drama about a fiction writer in a totalitarian state who is interrogated about the gruesome content of his stories and their similarities to strange incidents occurring in his town. The play had its world premiere at the National Theatre in London last year, and Ivanek saw it there "on one of my semi-annual theater binges when I go to London for about a week and see 12 shows in seven days." I spoke with the New York-based actor shortly after he began rehearsals for the Broadway production, which is set to open on April 10 at the Booth Theatre.

********************

THEATERMANIA: You've just begun working on The Pillowman. How's it going?

ZELJKO IVANEK: I've known that I was going to be doing this since last June, so it's been a long process getting to the first day of rehearsal. The nicest thing about reading through the play with the other actors was that it reminded me how entertaining it is.

TM: John Crowley, who directed the play in London, is also directing the Broadway production. Would you say that he's reconceiving it?

ZI: No. Martin's here, too, and they work very much in tandem. It doesn't feel like we're remounting something that's been finished; it feels like we're figuring out what exactly is going on from moment to moment in the play. Martin writes very clearly and with very specific intentions, but there are shifts that are constantly happening in the play, so the first job is figuring all that out. I can't remember the last time I saw a play that shifted gears so many times; whenever you think it's going off in one direction, it upends your expectations and turns into something else. The ending really kicks your legs out from under you.

TM: Most of McDonagh's other plays are notable for shocking moments of onstage violence. Is that the case with this one?

ZI: I don't know if I want to answer that! I think there are shocking moments in it, but they're shocking for various reasons. The play certainly has a lot of surprises.

TM: Billy Crudup plays the writer, and you and Jeff Goldlbum play the interrogators. Is it a good cop/bad cop situation?

ZI: That's part of the dynamic, but there's also a lot going on between the cops that complicates things. The setting of the play isn't specified, so we're not doing accents or anything. It's just some vaguely Eastern European-feeling, totalitarian world. I'm not even sure if the time is very clear. Is it this decade or 10 years ago? But I love the play. It gives you the kind of experience that you don't quite get from movies or books; there's something so theatrical about it.

TM: You did bash in London. I was wondering if you see any similarities between the work of Neil LaBute and Martin McDonagh.

ZI: Well, they've both written a lot of plays, so it's very tricky to generalize, but I do think they have two things in common. One is a sense of language; they both write dialogue that's incredibly actable and very juicy. It's fun to have those words to play with in both cases. Also, I think they both enjoy playing with the audience in certain ways, but they don't just try to wind you up. There's much more than that going on.

TM: Tell me about The Glass Menagerie. The play is back on Broadway right now with Jessica Lange and Christian Slater, but you played Tom in the 1994 Roundabout production with Julie Harris and Calista Flockhart. What was that experience like?

ZI: I've known the play for a long time and I love it. It's one of those plays where, the older you get, the more you understand what's going on among the people in this family, how much they love each other even though they're driving each other crazy. That's what Julie brought to it -- the sense of loving her children to the point of smothering them. But the warmth of that was amazing.

TM: I've always wanted to talk to you about the 1986 TV production of All My Sons that you were in. It was the best performance of that piece that I've ever seen, live or on screen.

ZI: That was an American Playhouse production with a great cast: James Whitmore, Aidan Quinn, Joan Allen, and Michael Learned. Jack O'Brien directed it and we had a good amount of rehearsal time; it felt close to rehearsing a stage play. Since it was a TV production, we stressed the intimacy of the piece, which is one of the greatest things about it. The production design was kind of theatrical, not completely realistic, but it still somehow put you in a very specific world. It's really hard to watch TV versions of plays that are just shot in a theater with an audience, because there's almost no way to balance how close the camera gets with the fact that you're still delivering a performance for 1,000 people.

TM: Do you feel that you have a good mix of theater, TV, and film projects to your credit?

ZI: Yes. I go to L.A. in the spring for pilot season or if I've got a specific job, but I've somehow managed to keep that up without having to be there full-time. L.A. is fine but I don't want to live there; it's too much of a company town, whereas when you're in New York, you're part of a larger world and not a self-enclosed environment.

TM: Were you ever under a lot of pressure to change your name?

ZI: No. Part of the reason was that I came to New York with my Equity card already in hand; I'd gotten it at Williamstown, and some agents had seen me there, too. When I arrived here, they immediately started sending me out on appointments and I signed with them about a week later, so I kind of skipped the part where I had to sell myself a lot to people. I do remember meeting some casting person who suggested that maybe Ivan Cole would be a better name for me, but it seemed weird to suddenly have a different name at the age of twenty-whatever. I couldn't quite fathom that, or my parents saying, "That's our son with the unrecognizable name!"

http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/5845

Bosnian Laureate The mystical poetry of Nikola Sop

Miracle, miracle.
We are leaning over and looking
At the night overturned.
What used to be above us, high up,
A soaring vault,
Is now flying, moving, swaying,
Deep below us.
Already we have forgotten clouds and winds and rains.
Here at the summit of overturned space,
Are we not ourselves--
Our own breath?

translated by W.H. Auden.
 

by Stephen Schwartz
04/18/2005, Volume 010, Issue 29


THIRTY-SIX YEARS AGO, Melvin J. Lasky, editor of Encounter, wrote to a Croatian literary translator living in Canada, B.S. Brusar. The subject was a Bosnian poet of Croat origin, Nikola Sop (1904-1982), whose name is pronounced shop.
Encounter published several poems by Sop, in versions first rendered into English by Brusar and then recast by no less a figure than W.H. Auden. They were curious works. Sop was a Christian mystic, a schoolteacher, and a translator of the Latin classics, as well as of Renaissance Croatian poets who also wrote in Latin. But at the end of the 1950s, he began composing uniquely inspired verse about space and the human awareness of the cosmos. He titled a collection of these writings Astralia.
Among the best of Sop's poems in this distinctive genre is one titled "Space Visits," published in Encounter's May 1965 issue. Its first section opens, in the Audenized version:
Miracle, miracle.
We are leaning over and looking
At the night overturned.
What used to be above us, high up,
A soaring vault,
Is now flying, moving, swaying,
Deep below us.
Already we have forgotten clouds and winds and rains.
Here at the summit of overturned space,
Are we not ourselves--
Our own breath?
The original poem contains an extra line, between the third and fourth stanzas: "Nothing more above us." The work continues, with 16 further sections, none of them bearing the flavor of science fiction or astronautical adventures. Nonetheless, they engage effectively with the concept of living away from the earth. "Here space comes to an end," Sop writes. Further on, he conjures up alien beings, whom he describes as "Faces unseen until now, though once well known. . . . They come walking, flying, walking, walking."
The poem "Space Visits" concludes with an evocation of the sole common item between earthly creatures and these beings: bread. "Bread they know, bread they break and share: But your face is strange to them."
Sop's publications in Encounter comprise two more long poems, "Cottages in Space" (November 1969) and "Space Scene With Rooster" (June 1971), all redone by Auden and co-signed with his name as translator. Unsurprisingly, they do not figure in Auden's 1991 Collected Poems, edited by Edward Mendelson. For Auden, they doubtless represented a trivial affair, tossed off at the behest of Lasky. But the English poet wrote generously of Sop as "considered by many of his compatriots to be the best living Croatian poet." This is an exaggeration, for Croatian poetry, like Polish, Czech, and Hungarian verse, produced many great talents throughout the 20th century.
Auden also noted that Sop was "crippled for life during Hitler's bombardment of Belgrade in 1941." Sop returned Auden's admiration, commenting in an interview with the co-translator Brusar, "When 40 years ago in my poetry Jesus appeared as I saw and felt him, he was exactly such as W.H. Auden imagines him in his eminent essay on Christianity and art: Jesus a child, and Jesus crucified . . . Auden is the first to, in a way, object [to] modern technology eager to subjugate poetry, subordinate it, make it celebrate discoveries."
Thus Sop insisted that his "space poetry" had nothing to do with commemorating or extolling the space explorations of either the Soviets or the Americans. "I have been sneaking through space since long ago," he said. One might presume that Sop, as a Croat Catholic, had turned to the furthest skies as a metaphorical place to escape the cult of mechanistic progress under Yugoslav socialism. But he also evoked his childhood in Bosnia in a way that makes his propensity for speculation about the heavens obvious.
Describing the road between his birthplace in the old city of Jajce, the seat of Croat rulers in Bosnia, and Banja Luka, a larger town today controlled exclusively by Serbs, he recalls, "Sometimes, when as a student I walked on the magic way, a dense night caught up with me, billowing blackly behind me while in front it was only beginning to get dark. And now imagine that distance between me and the night incessantly behind my heels. And how should I not be inspired in such a country. I should not exchange for anything that loneliness."
Melvin Lasky commissioned three more poems by Sop for Encounter, but did not publish them. Yet in 1969 Lasky wrote to Brusar with characteristic enthusiasm, promising "we will try to popularize Sop the same way we did [Jorge Luis] Borges." Anybody who met Lasky will immediately recognize him in this remark, for he ran to excess. In reality, although Encounter published some stories by Borges in the early 1960s, it could hardly be said to have "popularized" him. Borges remained unknown in Britain for quite a long time, according to a new biography by Edward Williamson. When he came there to lecture in 1963, after three of his stories had appeared in Encounter, the sharp-tongued Philip Larkin inquired contemptuously, "Who is Jorge Luis Borges?"
Lasky's effusions notwithstanding, Sop, unlike the Argentine Borges, remains unfamiliar except to readers of his native tongue. He appears in none of the standard, prolific dictionaries and handbooks of world literature, which fill a whole alcove of the Library of Congress--except in the indispensable and always-surprising Cassell's Encyclopedia of World Literature, issued in three volumes in 1973. There it is mentioned that Sop depicted "Jesus as a simple man in everyday life." Sop's sensitive face now appears on the currency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, along with that of the country's many other distinguished writers--most of them equally unrecognized outside the South Slav lands.
The very existence of these Auden-edited "space epics" would be forgotten had the Croatian Writers' Association not produced a pocket edition of them, supplemented by other poems, under the title Auden's Sop, in 1997. It is still in print, but like other excellent volumes produced in English in Croatia (typically in faultless translations), it does not circulate in the United States.
Bosnia is a country mostly covered, even now, with dense, virgin forest. The deep mysticism of Nikola Sop, his engagement with solitude, night, and transcendence, is familiar to anybody who has spent time in that environment. His vision of the sky overturned, and a platform from which to look down into the void and the stars, has an immediate resonance for those who walk through Balkan nights, when the nearness of the astral bodies and the thickness of the dark seem palpable to all, not just to sensitive children. In "Cottages in Space," again in lines redone by Auden, Sop summons up
Cottages in space, and windows
With a breath-taking view into fathomless abysses.
Open your door, and from your threshold,
Descend to the next cottage,
Swinging through space.
You'll leave no footprints, you'll find no traces.
This fantasy universe returns the author not only to bread, but to other mundane delights, which the son of the Bosnian soil can never leave behind. In "Space Scene With Rooster," which includes an image of Noah's Ark, Sop writes,
. . . already bewitched by transfiguration
I could hardly tear myself away
From the memory
Of strawberries,
Of peaches,
And other tasty
Terrestrial fruits.
It is doubtless of little interest to Anglo-American readers that W.H. Auden should be associated with an obscure Croatian versifier. But there is something more to this tale, something that deserves to be noted and remembered. When he died last year, at the age of 84, the irrepressible Mel Lasky, with his Lenin beard and anti-Stalinist pedigree, was memorialized in most of the Western media only because Encounter had been partly financed by the Central Intelligence Agency. Daily obituary writers referred to the magazine as if it had been merely an ideological newsletter for knuckle-dragging commie-bashers.
Thus, Adam Bernstein wrote in the Washington Post, "Once called England's 'leading highbrow magazine,' Encounter derived its influence not from its circulation--which peaked at about 40,000 in the 1960s--but from its high-profile readership." In reality, no periodical earns its authority by dint of its readers. Encounter's prestige was based on its contributors, its spirit of controversy, and its commitment to excellence. Ian Hamilton was said to have described Encounter as "the only literary journal whose publication day he had genuinely longed for during his lifetime." The literary history the Croatian Writers' Association chose to dig out of their memory and preserve is not only that of Auden's Sop, but of Melvin Lasky in London, casting his glance in all directions, seeking new intellectual energies wherever they were to be found.
Those who had no chance to read Encounter in its heyday will never know what they missed, and we may never be able to communicate to our children the passion which we brought to such experiences. The Croats, at least, have something tangible to remind them. We owe them a debt of gratitude for reminding us.
Stephen Schwartz is a frequent contributor to The Weekly Standard. Auden citations by permission of Edward Mendelson.


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