The
Jasenovac Concentration Camp of WWII Croatia has been nicknamed by
historians as the "Auschwitz of the Balkans." The reader
needs to be reminded that hundreds of thousands of Serbs were slaughtered
in their fields, on the thresholds of their houses and burned to death
inside their churches. Most Serbs were murdered by their own neighbors
who were encouraged to kill by Roman Catholic priests who led the genocide
of over one million victims.
After Hitler brought Ante Pavelic to power in 1941, Pavelic created
34 "summary" courts throughout Croatia. He empowered every
Croatian to arrest and kill Serbians without being charged with a crime.
Any Croat could sit on these "courts," including former convicts
who issued arrest warrants and passed out death sentences. Mobile courts
roamed the countryside in which Serbs were arrested, tried, convicted
and hanged-within hours of their capture. Numerous photographs of this
period show thousands of victims hanging from trees and lamp posts throughout
Croatia and Bosnia. Not a single person was brought to justice for these
crimes against humanity. While the crimes of Jasenovac have finally,
after 55 years, become the subject of discussion at an American college,
it is paramount that we do not over-emphasize Jasenovac, as the vast
majority of Serbian victims in the Holocaust were eliminated without
being prisoners of any death camp, and were spared the grotesque deaths
at camps like Jasenovac where victims were bludgeoned to death to save
bullets, or worse, slowly dismembered to the pleasure of their tormentors.
This book is the presentation of William Dorich at the
First International Conference and Exhibition on the Jasenovac Concentration
Camp sponsored
by the Holocaust Resource Center at Kingsborough Community College, C.U.N.Y.,
New York. Its 60 pages reveal first person testimonies of some of the worse crimes
of the 20th century including a partial list of 1,070 Roman Catholic
priests who participated in the slaughters of tens of thousands of Serbs,
then fled to Argentina with false passports created inside the "Vatican
Ratline."
About the Author:
William Dorich is the author/compiler of the 1991 book, The Serbian
Genocide-1941-45, with contributors, the late David Martin, author of
The Web of Disinformation (1989) and the late Michael Lees, author of
The Rape of Serbia (1989), Dr. Michael Mennard and Dr. Milan Bulajic,
international attorney and considered a genocide expert by the United
Nations. Mr. Dorich's 1992 book, Kosovo, was written by 6 Balkan historians
including: Dr. Dimitrije Djordjevic, Prof. Thomas Emmert, V. Rev. Mateja
Matejic, Slavko Todorovich and Dr. Alex Dragnich, recipient of the Thomas
Jefferson Award for Distinguished Service to Vanderbilt University. The
book was published by the Kosovo Charity Fund in association with I.O.C.C.-International
Orthodox Christian Charities. Proceeds from the sale of the book were
used to aid the more than 30,000 Serbian orphans of the Bosnian Civil
War.
In 1994, with such contributors as Peter Brock, Yossef Bodansky, Major
Richard Felman USAF (Ret.), Dr. Peter Maher, Dr. Michael Mennard, Dr.
Raju G. Thomas, Mr. Dorich compiled the book, The Suppressed Serbian
Voice and the Free Press in America, published by the Serbian American
Voters Alliance. Mr. Dorich's current books include, A Brief History
of Serbian Music in its second edition and Hilandar's Octocentenary which
commemorates the 800th anniversary of the Hilandar Monastery on Mt. Athos.
On Easter Sunday, 1997, the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox
Church bestowed The Order of St. Sava on Mr. Dorich, the highest recognition
given to a lay person by the Serbian Orthodox Church. He is also the
1997 recipient of an Award of Merit by the Serbian Bar Association of
America. His views have published in the American Srbobran, Washington
Times, Washington Post, Arizona Republic, Wall Street Journal, International
Herald Tribune, Chicago Tribune, American Bar Association Journal, and
Heritage Southwest Jewish Press.
