by Viktor IVANCIC
This is probably the best definition ever provided of the ambitions and methods of the creators of the "new history" - true facts need to be replaced by more appropriate facts, so that the overall "historical saga" could be pulled out of the merciless jaws of reality and presented in "a nice and appropriate manner". These appropriate facts are modeled based on the needs of the ideologically determined happy ending. In that sense, it is instructive to (yet again) quote the final paragraph of the mentioned Kristo's book ("Croatian Twentieth Century"), as a brilliant example of that type of scientific literature.
"Thus ends the story of a nation small in numbers, but great in heart, intellect and will, the story of Croats. This story includes all turnarounds characteristic if a drama, but it has a happy ending. Is it possible not to recall the bird phoenix at the end of this story? Just like phoenix, Croatia rises yet again from the ashes. It should be noted that the geographic shape of Croatia reminds one of a flying bird. That fiery bird this time seems much stronger and much more powerful, which makes us believe that through many centuries to come it will proudly carry on the wings of the northern plains and display to the world the unbelievably beautiful seashore with incredibly clean, blue Adriatic Sea and its islands. Have a good flight, bird Croatia!"
From this bird's eye view, where our historian puts his heart, intellect and will in service of fiery Croatia Airlines, one thing that cannot be tolerated are troublemakers intent on disturbing the ideologically imposed idyll - "the unbelievably beautiful seashore with incredibly clean, blue Adriatic Sea and its islands". Consequently those troublemakers are permanently in danger of being swooped upon and having their eyes plucked out by the mythical "bird Croatia" and its pilot on duty. This time, that flight maneuver was carried out to eliminate Ivo and Slavko Goldstein.
Last week, Jure Kristo published in Glas Koncila a rabid anti-Semitic pamphlet, disguised as a review of the book "Holocaust in Zagreb". Kristo demonstrated that his "bird Croatia", permanently dissatisfied with the "situation in the field", belongs to the species of avian vultures that can survive only by unmistakably hallucinating about white mice and then furiously hunting their hallucinations. Kristo accuses the Goldsteins (in the good old tradition of the anti-Semitic scum, he "jokingly" refers to them as "Goldsteens") of portraying archbishop Alojzije Stepinac "in the typical tradition of the Communist historiography"; of portraying him "not only inaccurately but also irresponsibly and actually in an evil manner, obviously with evil intentions; Kristo claims that their assertions were "ideologically and politically formulated in the purges that took place immediately after the war", which is why they "again condemn Stepinac" and thereby "support and justify Communist show trials". An even stronger accusation follows: Ivo and Slavko Goldstein abuse Holocaust, trying to make profit from it, which is comparable to "criminal blackmail"!
Several authors were shocked by the fact that Kristo's pamphlet was published in the official publication of the Catholic Church in Croatia and called on archbishop Josip Bozanic [head of the Catholic Church in Croatia] to condemn the article and even expressed hope that "he is concerned" about the whole thing; however, we are afraid that this outrage includes a doze of naïve posturing. In the last decade Glas Koncila has published tons of similar articles and the most recent angry outburst of the pilot of "bird Croatia" on duty - otherwise a defrocked Dominican priest - is more of a rule than an exception. The Church, trough its competent authorities, never approved the discussion of its role during the fascist Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in WWII - also characterized by the actions of archbishop Stepinac - but has, on the contrary, all this time forcefully tried to prevent such discussion, trying to package that whole somber complex in "a nice and appropriate manner". The fact that such plans of the Catholic Church coincided with the "official historiography" from Tudman's period, comes from the bird's eye view that allows the enjoyment of a state in the clouds.
The complete horror of that flight above reality is condensed in the first half of first sentence o Kristo's article. It goes like this: "Recently, a book with a strange title, Holocaust in Zagreb, was published in Zagreb..." Namely, the title "Holocaust in Zagreb" could be found strange only by those who believe that there was no Holocaust here at all; what is surprising is that the evil white mice are making it up and disseminating this fabrication because of their inborn greed, which is the old obsessive theory of the local historical revisionists. One of the ideologues of the Croatian revolutionary patriotism [Zeljko Olujic] even at one time claimed that the Jews are responsible for the Holocaust because they literally forced others to exterminate them, by driving Hitler and [Ante] Pavelic [leader of Croatian fascists, Ustashe, during WWII] crazy with their greed and exploitation of others, so that concentration camps and crematoria were the only efficient way to establish the society of social justice and equality.
Jure Kristo also introduces business and trade, as the environment for Jewish dastardly deeds. He refers to "Jew" Norman G. Finkelstein who, look, "criticizes the industrialization of Holocaust" and "clearly condemns attempts to profit from Holocaust as criminal blackmail"; consequently, Goldsteins' book is another example of that unscrupulous milking of victimhood, and "criminal blackmail", and that accusation has nothing to do with zealous Croat illusionism, since, please, a Jew has already condemned similar Zionist forgeries. Our historian thus adds "an honest Jew" to the gallery of obligatory characters in the virtual courtroom, as the best proof of inborn dishonesty of most Jews, in the same manner the creators of the modern dream of Greater Serbia, at the time they were warming up their nationalist machinery and preparing the bloodletting of impressive dimensions, were discovering "honest Albanians", and they in turn legitimized the honest regime and allowed it to finish off the dishonest majority in the celebrated southern province.
Alojzije Stepinac, the chosen "historical figure", serves in such frustrating construction merely as a model for a story that has much wider implications than his controversial role, the model that is used to condemn his contemporary interpreters as followers of Communist persecutors. The book "Holocaust in Zagreb", on pages 577-578, says literally: "In 1946, Archbishop Stepinac was tried on fabricated charges for war crimes, and spiritual incitement of genocidal persecution of Serb population in the NDH. Later, Yugoslav publicists extended those charges so that Archbishop Stepinac was stigmatized as the chief ideologue of Ustashe movement and genocide against Serbs, which is obviously a lie fabricated by propagandists."
The fact that Goldsteins write that Stepinac was tried on "fabricated charges" and that his stigmatization as an "Ustashe ideologue" was a lie fabricated by propagandists, while on the other hand Kristo criticizes them for "repeatedly condemning Stepinac", specifically with assertions that "were ideologically and politically formulated in the persecution that took place immediately after the war", however, is not only perfectly stupid, but actually perfectly typical and expected. Namely, lies are the basic methodology of creators of the "new history". In this process, they are not anymore researchers or interpreters, but true creators, the source of appropriate historical facts that will be ideally aligned with current myths about high-flying Croatdom. "That whole story about the Croatian twentieth century needed a nice and appropriate ending".
The fact that "bird Croatia" belongs to a species of greedy vultures, that it swoops down upon and picks eyes of maladjusted persons of different sorts, with special affinity for Jews, Serbs, women, dogs and "ideological opponents", the fact that that low flying phoenix will spread hatred and blood wherever it can - oh God, that is actually the idea behind the whole endeavor - enjoyment of the state from bird's eye view. If it weren't like that, if the loved vulture was not with so much care and love adorned by tar and feathers, the material it was created from could only be self incriminating.