"For the occasions past and present, when sons
and daughters of the Catholic Church have sinned by action or omission
against their Orthodox (Christian) brothers and sisters, may the Lord
grant us the forgiveness we beg of Him."
Auschwitz, Dachau and Jasenovac.
Auschwitz
and Dachau are known as infamous concentration camps from World War II.
But, did you ever hear of the heinous Jasenovac concentration camp in
Croatia that existed during World War II? In the words of Rabbi Jozef
Atijas, who lost 153 family members during the Holocaust: "The word
Jasenovac, which chills the blood and turns one's mouth to stone ... is
the most painful, the most shameful, the saddest and most morbid place
that humankind and history can remember ever."
At
Jasenovac and throughout Croatia the Nazi-allied Ustasha regime waged
horrific genocidal crimes against Serbian Orthodox Christians, Jews and
Roma (Gypsies) to achieve a "pure" Croatian state. What is shocking is
that some Catholic clergy had actively participated in this genocide.
Dr. Pal Kolsto wrote in an academic religious journal in 2011 that: "In
particular among Franciscans ... the Ustasha found willing
executioners." Does the new pope who is honoring the name of St. Francis
of Assisi know this dark history for Franciscans and the Catholic
Church?
Dr. Rory Yeomans in his newly
published book about the Ustasha regime comments that "relatively little
has been written about this subject (the Ustasha) in the English
language."
I would not know about it either
had I not been a naive American tourist who rented a car in Serbia and
traveled to Croatia in 2006. This trip was one of the most frightening
experiences in my life. After crossing the border into Croatia, drivers
of cars blared their horns and flashed their lights at me. Trucks tried
to run me off the road. One man even came out of his car at a red light
screaming in red-faced rage. What prompted such anger? I had a car with
Serbian license plates! The Croats claimed anger over the recent war in
the Balkan region in the 1990s but this hatred is much deeper against
Serbs.
The primary "enemy" of the Ustasha
during World War II were the Serbs living within Croatia. They were
hated for their ethnicity and for their Orthodox Christian faith. The
exact number of victims killed by Ustasha at Jasenovac will never be
known, but historians do agree that hundreds of thousands of people were
brutally killed by the Ustasha regime in Croatia. According to the
Jasenovac Memorial Web site almost a third of the known victims at
Jasenovac were children. The Ustasha also established for the first time
in history concentration camps only for children. These camps were run
mainly by Catholic nuns.
Dr Yeomans states in
his new book: "Ustasha militias and death squads swept through the
countryside, burning down whole villages and indiscriminately killing
thousands of ordinary Serbs in a variety of sadistic ways. Armed with
axes, knives, scythes and mallets, as well as guns, they slaughtered
men, women and children, who were hacked to death, thrown alive into
pits and down ravines, or locked into churches that were then set on
fire." Yeomans further says Ustasha "closed Serb Orthodox churches and
cathedrals en masse and transferred their assets to the Catholic Church
or the state." Some 200,000 Serbian Orthodox Christians were forced to
convert to the Catholic faith. Historical photos show Ustasha also
beheaded Serbian Orthodox priests. According to Yeomans, "Jews were
forced by law to wear a "Z" (Zidov - Jew) insignia on their back and
front ... Serbs to wear a "P" (Pravoslavac - Orthodox)."
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The
Jasenovac Holocaust Memorial site has a large stone flower monument.
Under the Flower Monument is a crypt of human remains of some victims
exhumed from a nearby mass grave. Kolsto wrote in 2011 that "the
leadership of the Croatian (Catholic) Church has so far refused to send
official representatives to the Jasenovac commemorations that take place
on 22 April or the closest Sunday each year."
The commemorations take
place at the Flower Monument. Croatian journalist Jelena Lovric
described Jasenovac as "an open wound" because the church has not
properly commemorated the victims. In 2009, a large contingent of
Catholic clergy did go to Jasenovac, but not on the commemoration day.
Sadly, Cardinal Bozanic failed to go to the Flower Monument and pray at
the crypt of victims. Slavko Goldstein, a Croatian Jew who had been
incarcerated at Jasenovac, sharply criticized the church leadership in
the press for not following the example set by Pope John Paul II and
Pope Benedict XVI who had knelt in prayer at Auschwitz.
Argentina (where Pope Francis is from) is where some 20,000 Ustasha are believed to have fled after the war was over. This included Ante Pavelic, the leader of the Ustasha, who was never tried for war crimes.
Jasenovac
continues to be an open wound between Catholic and Orthodox Christians.
Pope Francis has said he wants to "build bridges" to people. He has
also recently called the patriarch of the Orthodox Church, Bartholomew
I, "his brother."
My hope is that Pope Francis will be the first pope to go and pray at the Jasenovac Holocaust Memorial site.
May the Holocaust cry of "Never again!" be heard at Jasenovac and around the world.
John Meinhold is a resident of Portsmouth.
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