ZAGREB, 28 April 2022 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković issued a message on the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah, on Thursday.

"On the occasion of Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day we show our respect for the victims of the Holocaust and the Ustasha regime. We are not forgetting, we must not forget," Plenković said in a Twitter post.

"By promoting a culture of remembrance we are building a future in which tolerance and respect will be the foundation of peace," the PM said.

For more, check out our politics section.

ZAGREB, 12 April 2022 - The fight against distortion of facts about the Holocaust is more important than ever at the time when Russia is attacking Ukraine under the pretext of "denazification", Sara Lustig said on Tuesday at a ceremony marking the opening of a media production studio dedicated to her father, film producer Branko Lustig.

The ceremony took place at the US Embassy, which decided to name its new media production studio after Branko Lustig and dedicated a permanent exhibition to him.

Sara Lustig, a special adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Holocaust issues, said that her father, who had been interned in concentration camps during the Second World War, had decided to build "an intimate monument" to the Holocaust victims through his films.

"His most important message throughout his life was forgive, but don't forget," she said.

Lustig said that the fight against distortion of facts about the Holocaust was more important than ever at the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, based on the false pretext of denazification. She warned against indifference towards this conflict and the Russian war crimes, stressing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shows what it means to be Jewish - to fight for a larger than life cause instead of spreading hatred, seek justice instead of revenge, be modest and show how to be a leader rather than just talk about it.

Ellen Germain, US Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, stressed the need for staying vigilant against the abuse and distortion of the Holocaust for other ends, as shown by Russian President Vladimir Putin's false claims that Ukraine needs denazification.

Branko Lustig was born in Osijek in 1932 and died in Zagreb in 2019. As a boy, he was interned in the Auschwitz concentration camp and later in the Mittelbau-Dora and Bergen-Belsen camps.

He won US Academy Awards for the production of the films Schindler's List and Gladiator. All his life he was active in spreading the truth and promoting education about the Holocaust.

ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - Memorials honoring Holocaust victims were put up in the northern Croatian towns of Čakovec and Prelog on Wednesday, with Israeli Ambassador Ilan Mor expressing hope that the memorials, called Stolpersteine (stumbling blocks), would prompt young people to ask themselves who those victims were. 

The Stolpersteine placed in the pavement in six locations in Čakovec and two in Prelog commemorate 28 members of the Jewish community and the event was organized by the Jewish community of Čakovec, Čakovec town authorities, the town authorities of Prelog and Međimurje County.

This is an exceptional idea that pays tribute to all families and innocent victims of the Holocaust, Ambassador Mor said, adding that the memory of the victims continued to live in the cities where their names were inscribed in public areas.

The head of the Jewish community in Čakovec, Andrej Pal, said that "certain historical facts falling into oblivion or even being denied contributes to the disappearance of the community that lived and worked in this area and helped develop it."

Pal noted that before World War II 1,200 Jews lived in Međimurje, of whom 700 were killed or went missing during the war.

Međimurje County head Matija Posavec said that with Holocaust remembrance Međimurje was being promoted as a tolerant, open and humane region.

"We have organized The Week of Jewish Culture, the local museum has organized numerous exhibitions, Eva Panich Nahir is an honorary citizen of Čakovec, and the State Archive has restored the Jewish register of births, marriages, and deaths, simply because Jews have left an important mark on Međimurje's economy, culture and overall development," said Posavec.

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

August 19, 2020 – The 11-metre high steel Zagreb Holocaust Monument will stand between the central Post Office and Glavni Kolodvor (main train station)

The new Zagreb Holocaust Monument has been completed and is ready to be installed. The 11-metre high structure will sit atop a concrete pedestal on which six million tiny Stars of David will be imprinted. The stars signify the total number of Jews killed in the Holocaust

The Zagreb Holocaust Monument itself is made of steel and is an irregular-shaped wall comprised of three hundred suitcases, representing the essentials Jews were told only to pack prior to deportation. It was designed by Rijeka-born architect Krešimir Rogina and sculptor Dalibor Stošić. The monument will be illuminated at night and will sit next to the old locomotive train which already stands between the Post Office and train station.

Although the monument is completely finished, it is currently being kept in parts across three different factories in Zagreb. After the concrete plinth is in place, it will take approximately one month to assemble the monument on the site. Weathering steel (cor-ten steel) was specifically chosen as the construction material. Unlike some other types of steel, this metal ages over time. Different shades of rust begin to appear in patches after just six months and slowly progress to encompass the whole surface.

Some members of the Zagreb City Assembly along with the Jewish Community of Zagreb (ZOZ), the World Jewish Congress (WJC), and the Israeli Ambassador to Croatia have previously criticised the move to dedicate the Zagreb Holocaust Monument solely to the victims of the Nazi-helmed Holocaust in Europe. They say it fails to properly recognise the abhorrent crimes of ethnic cleansing committed in Croatia by the German-allied NDH. The City of Zagreb is said to be addressing the criticism by looking at the wording of the dedication that will appear on the Zagreb Holocaust Monument. It is hoped the new monument will be fully in place in time for Holocaust Memorial Day, 27 January 2021.

ZAGREB, February 6, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Wednesday opened an exhibition on the suffering of Jews in WWII in the French Pavilion of the Zagreb Student Centre (SC), the building in front of which Jews were rounded up to be deported in railway wagons to death camps during the Second World War. Addressing the opening ceremony of the exhibition, entitled "If I forget you... The Holocaust in Croatia 1941-1945/Final destination Auschwitz", which has been prepared by the Croatian History Museum, the premier recalled that during the recent commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, all international leaders attending the ceremony and surviving witnesses sent messages of respect for the victims of that death factory where more than a million people had been killed.

Plenković added that remembering those crimes also served as a warning to mankind about the atrocities that had been committed there.

Our generation that despite everything experienced war atrocities and reappearance of ethnic cleansing on European soil three decades ago, has an additional responsibility, apart from the condemnation of such insane acts in which the negation of humanity culminated, he added.

The venue where the exhibition is staged was, at the time of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a site of particular suffering of Jews from Zagreb and other Croatian regions, who were rounded up here to be deported in railway wagons to concentration camps, not only to Auschwitz but also to other camps and execution sites in the NDH, particularly Jasenovac, the premier recalled.

He stressed that one cannot allow such things to sink into oblivion and that forgetting the crimes means the negation of human beings and humanness.

Plenković went on to say that an act of forgetting happened every time when "we as individuals or the community fail to stand up against any form of discrimination and speak up loud and clear to protect human dignity, equality and dialogue loud and clear."

Plenković says that "we forget every time when we fail to clearly speak about the Holocaust, notably about the consequences of the undemocratic, totalitarian and racist Ustasha regime in Croatia from 1941 to 1945."

He underscored that the exhibition unequivocally pointed to the system of terror established in areas under the control of the Ustasha regime against the Jewish, Roma and Serb people as well as against Croat antifascists and democrats who stood up against that regime.

"The exhibition is in line with the government's endeavours, policy and attitude," he said.

"The free and democratic Croatia has been and is always ready to present the painful and tragic topics from its past and express clear legal, political and civilizational condemnation of the NDH," the premier said.

"This is one more opportunity for us to remember all brave individuals who risked their lives to save their neighbours," Plenković said, pointing to 117 Croatians included among the Righteous Among the Nations of whom Croatians are proud.

"I am referring here also to the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac who demonstrated uncommon courage in the then Europe and helped save many Jews," Plenković said.

The museum's director, Matea Brstilo Rešetar, said that it was the duty of "this museum, as a national and specialised institution, to highlight topics such as the Holocaust."

"It was especially challenging to state the exhibition at the authentic venue," Brstilo Rešetar said, referring to the fact that Jews were first taken in groups to the site of the pavilion from where they were transported by rail to Auschwitz.

One of the speakers at the ceremony was Oleg Mandić who survived deportation from Zagreb to concentration camps.

The museum says on its website that for the purpose of the exhibition "destinies of the killed, testimonies of the survivors, and the few preserved original objects from the camp, photographs and documents from various Croatian and international museums and archives, as well as those borrowed from the families of the victims and the Righteous Among the Nations, have been divided into four thematic units: Excommunication; Concentration and Liquidation; Auschwitz (Oswiecim) – Death Factory; and, A Sparkle in the Darkness."

The exhibition, organised by the Croatian History Museum at the proposal of the Croatian Ministry of Culture, runs until 21 April.

More news about Holocaust in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 4, 2020 - An exhibition entitled "If I forget you... The Holocaust in Croatia 1941-1945/Final destination Auschwitz" will be staged on Wednesday in the French Pavilion of the Zagreb Student Centre, the building in front of which Jews were rounded up to be deported in railway wagons to the Auschwitz death camp.

The exhibition, running until 21 April, has been organised by the Croatian History Museum on the initiative of the Croatian Ministry of Culture. The exhibition focuses on the sufferings of Jews from Croatia during World War II, with a special emphasis on the fate of Jews deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

The museum's director, Matea Brstilo Rešetar, said at a news conference in Zagreb on Tuesday that it was the duty of "this museum, as a national and specialised institution to highlight topics" such as the Holocaust.

"It has been especially challenging to state the exhibition at the authentic venue," Brstilo Rešetar said, referring to the fact that Jews were first taken in groups to the site of the pavilion to be transported in railway wagons to the Auschwitz camp.

The museum says on its website that for the purpose of the exhibition "destinies of the killed, testimonies of the survivors, and the few preserved original objects from the camp, photographs and documents from various Croatian and international museums and archives, as well as those borrowed from the families of the victims and the Righteous among the Nations, have been divided into four thematic units: Excommunication; Concentration and Liquidation; Auschwitz (Oswiecim) – Death Factory; and, A Sparkle in the Darkness."

Brstilo Rešetar said that the museum was the right place to address those issues factually and neutrally, free of daily political discourse. She said they had been given support by many, including the co-organiser, the Croatian State Archive.

"We would like to show that the Holocaust did not happen somewhere else, somewhere far away in Europe, but here, in front of our eyes," said Nataša Mataušić, a Croatian History Museum expert who participated in the organisation of the exhibition.

The director of the Student Centre, Mirko Bošnjak, said that the Centre, which cares for 65,000 students at the University of Zagreb, was the right place at which young people could be reminded of the Holocaust and victims.

More news about Jews in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, January 27, 2020 - The liberation of the Auschwitz death camp marked the end of the darkest chapter in history, and educating young people about the Holocaust is key to building a society in which something like that will never happen again, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday.

"The liberation of the camp in which over a million people were killed marked the end of the darkest chapter in European and world history," Plenković told Hina on arriving in Poland to participate, along with over 20 heads of state and government, in the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

"Awareness and education of young people about historical atrocities, particularly about the Holocaust, is key so that present and future generations can build a society in which there is no room for exclusion, intolerance and violence," Plenković said.

"The unspeakable pain of Auschwitz and many other Nazi camps commits us to strongly resist any such attempts and all forms of discrimination and hatred, and to advocate the values of peace, tolerance and dialogue," he added.

The main memorial ceremony is taking place near the entrance to the Birkenau camp, known as the Gate of Death. It will be addressed by Polish President Andrzej Duda and some of the camp survivors. The head of delegations, including Plenković, will light candles at the monument there.

More news about the Holocaust can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, January 27, 2020 - On International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January, Croatia's government joins in commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in which 1.1 million people were killed with the aim of extermination of the Jews in that darkest episode of the history of the humankind.

Millions of victims of the Holocaust are the permanent admonishment to the humankind about the disastrous fallout of criminal ideologies of racism and anti-Semitism, the government says in a press release it issued on Monday.

All that also serves as the obligation of the current and future generations that are supposed to build a society free of exclusivity, intolerance and violence.

We pay due respect to the victims of the Holocaust, that horrendous genocide in which some six million Jews were killed, every time when we as individuals and as the society stand up against any form of discrimination and when we cherish the values of equality and dialogue, says the government.

We are taught about that by the glorious example of 117 Croatians who deserved the title of the Righteous Among the Nations after they risked their lives during the Holocaust to save their Jewish compatriots from extermination by the Nazis, the government says.

The awareness and education of the youth about the atrocities from the past and particularly about the Holocaust is crucial for understanding the causes and consequences of the most painful events in the European and global history, says the cabinet of the Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.

This is our human and moral obligation to bring to life the message "Never Again" on which the post-war democratic Europe was built, the government says calling for building the modern society free of any form of hatred or intolerance.

Denial of crimes is an act of denying the human being and this represents the negation of all European values and fundamental human rights. The huge pain and suffering caused by Auschwitz and many other Nazi camps bind us to resist any attempt of denying such crimes, the government says.

In this context, the government calls for remembering the notorious Ustasha-led camp in Jasenovac in which thousands of Jews and members of other ethnic group as well as Croatian anti-Fascists and democrats were killed.

The government underlines that the Jasenovac camp is the painful and tragic part of the Croatian history, and therefore remembering victims of that camp and strongly condemning that atrocity "are part of our culture of remembrance" and also a pledge for our European future.

More info about the Holocaust can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, January 26, 2020 - The Anti-Fascist League of Croatia organised a rally in Zagreb's Victims of Fascism Square on Sunday to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, observed on 27 January, and on that occasion activists laid 75 carnations on the wall of building in the square in which Ustasha police and Gestapo used to operate during WW2.

The 75 flowers were laid to mark 75 years since Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp, was liberated on 27 January 1945.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a memorial day on 27 January commemorating the tragedy of the Holocaust that occurred during the Second World War, was designated by the United Nations General Assembly resolution in 2005. It commemorates the genocide that resulted in the deaths of 6 million Jews and 11 million others, by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

During today's rally, activists recalled that the Holocaust had been also performed in Croatia during the Ustasha regime in the so-called Independent State of Croatia from 1941 to 1945.

The lessons about the Holocaust teach us that in the societies hit by the evil of anti-Semitism, also the doors are open for the persecution of other minorities, said the Anti-Fascist League's leader, Zoran Pusić, adding that anti-Semitism lurks in "some obscure part of the society and is potentially always present."

He said that in Croatia, some 3,000 monuments, which had been erected during the Socialist Yugoslavia in memory of the Tito-led Partisans had been destroyed in the meantime. Pusić said that the national resistance movement (NOB) in the country had been the biggest resistance against Nazi forces and local Nazi collaborators in Europe.

He also warned of the rising anti-Semitic mood in the present-day Europe recently.

More news about Croatia and Holocaust can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, January 24, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and other state officials laid wreaths in the Jewish section of the Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb on Friday on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is observed on January 27, saying that Croatia needs to work on a culture of remembrance, protecting human rights and promoting tolerance in society.

"We want the reminder of this great atrocity to be carved into everyone's memory so that such crimes are never repeated. Today we have to work not only on a culture of remembrance but also on protecting human rights and promoting tolerance in society," Plenković said after the wreath-laying ceremony.

The government delegation came to pay their respects to the victims of the greatest atrocity in the history of humankind, he said, but also to remember the 117 Croatian Righteous Among the Nations who helped save Jews in those most difficult times.

Asked about complaints by minority organisations about the revival of Ustasha ideology, he said that manifestations of that kind must always be prevented.

"We are working on that because they are not the values we share. Our programme contains the highest standards of respect for human and minority rights and we will persist in that because they are the values of the free and modern Croatia," he underscored.

Rabbi Kotel Da-Don of the Jewish Bet Israel community in Zagreb said that antisemitism was on the rise in the world as never before while the sentence "let it never be repeated" was constantly being repeated.

"That shows that we have a serious problem in society and that words can no longer help. In Croatia too we have a problem if people are still convinced that 'For the Homeland Ready' means something good for Croatia," Da-Don underscored.

Asked how he thought the government was handling this, Da-Don said that he believes it has good intentions however some issues have still not been resolved.

About 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, or nearly two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe. Five million people of other ethnic groups were also killed.

In the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), which was ruled by the Nazi-allied Ustasha regime during the Second World War, of 39,000 Jews more than 30,000 were killed. Most of them perished in Ustasha-run concentration camps and about 7,000 were dispatched to Nazi death camps, most of them to Auschwitz. Fewer than 9,000 Jews survived, including about 5,000 in Croatia and 4,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to the Croatian Encyclopaedia.

More news about the Holocaust in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.