June 27, 2008

Croats Mythologize Ustasha Cutthroats

Croat students opt for fascist insignia for their high school graduation album

Ustashe Über Alles

All the [1] protestations against allowing world tours and concerts of Croat neo-Nazi singer Marko Perkovic Thompson, notorious for glorifying the most macabre cutthroats world has had a misfortune to know — Croat WWII fascists (Ustashas), have fell on deaf ears in Croatia.

Croat officials even complained that certain Serbian and Jewish organizations are infringing on their “freedoms” by seeking a ban on the morbid Ustasha-glorifying spectacles by the famously untalented “musician”, gathering crowds of young Croats dressed for the occasion — wearing swastikas, Ustasha symbols and other fascist insignia, and thunderously chanting Nazi salutes, Sieg Heil and the Croat fascist version, Za Dom Spremni.

A handful of those who kept pressing, pointing to the poisonous influence Perkovic has on the Croat youth, were met with feeble claims that all the fascist fervor Thompson inspires is merely a good old fun where, in fact, everyone dresses and behaves impeccably, and the fascist salutes and insignia are, at worst, only “isolated incidents”.

Glorifying Fascism Just Another “Kids Game”

Serbian media reported yesterday that Croat high school graduates in the town of Makarska decided to have their annual graduation album pictures taken next to swastikas. They had ordered the black t-shirts for the whole class printed with Über Alles over the chests, and wore them in Makarska downtown few days before. They also thought of adopting Thompson’s song “[2] Jasenovac and Gradiska Stara” [names of two among the most horrific WWII concentration camps, run by Ustashas in Croatia, where 750,000 Serbs, 60,000 Jews and 30,000 Gypsies were [3] tortured and hacked to pieces] as an anthem of their generation of graduates.

The city mayor Marko Ozic Bebek, who helped fund the graduation schoolbook project, blamed those “who are attacking singer Thompson” and “who see such symbols everywhere” for the scandal. Perhaps those swastikas on the photos of the high school graduates from his town are also a figment of our imagination.

School director Slavko Gudelj said he was not aware of the kind of album graduates have made until it was printed and that the annual schoolbook was created by the best students from the school’s graduation board.

“The kids do not deserve to be nailed to a pillar of shame now! This is a new generation, unburdened by the old ideologies — someone draws this, someone draws that,” the principal was adamant.

Thompson’s Biggest Fans: Croat Roman Catholic Clergy

Croat Roman Catholic clergy glorifies Ustasha ideology… again

But it is not just the “kids” in Croatia who are idolizing the bone-chilling Ustasha pathology, which was in fact a clero-fascism of the most lurid sort. Sadly, these kinds of “incidents” are also far from being either isolated or as innocent as some would want to portray them.

The newspaper clip on the right shows Croat Roman Catholic army priest Juraj Jezerinac, who used the opportunity to advertise Thompson’s bloodcurdling “poetry” to his flock on the occasion of Croatia’s state holiday.

Titled “Ustasha poem in church”, the article in a Serbian daily said:

“On the occasion of Croatia’s State holiday, a ‘Gratitude Mass’ led by the state army priest Juraj Jezerinac was held in Vukovar. Speaking about the Croat victims of the civil war, Jezerinac quoted the poem ‘White doves’, written and performed by Marko Perkovic Thompson, a musician known for advocating the Ustasha ideology and by the songs which glorify Ustasha World War Two crimes.

“In the song ‘White doves’, Thompson uses over and over, as a leitmotiv, Ustasha salute ‘Za dom spremni’ [For the fatherland ready] and, among else, says:

“‘Say a prayer not a step further/ on this very spot the white doves fell/ with the hell’s fire here they met/ the broken wings were left/ and they were for the fatherland ready.’

“The Roman Catholic church in Croatia almost in entirety supports Thompson and only few days ago a group of Croat intellectuals, including several Roman Catholic bishops, addressed the public in a letter, seeking protection for Thompson and his work.”

In WWII, Vatican and the Roman Catholic church in Croatia [4] openly supported fascists, and especially the specific Croat brand of clero-fascism. Ustashas were swearing a loyalty oath in front of a Roman Catholic crucifix, butcher’s knife and the hand grenade. Croat concentration camps were always equipped with the Roman Catholic chapel, where a clergyman would absolve the Ustasha sins each day after the mass slaughters. Some of the most horrific crimes in fascist Croatia were committed by the clergymen, like notorious friar Tomislav Filipovic, who was referred to by his Ustasha comrades as [5] Father Satan. Alojzije Stepinac, Croat archbishop during the Second World War, [6] blessed and praised both the German and Croat fuhrers, Adolf Hitler and Ante Pavelic, for “fulfilling the long-dreamed of and desired ideal” of Croat people. Vatican has been actively helping the Ustasha war criminals escape justice after the WWII, by shuffling them to South and North America through the infamous [7] Vatican ratlines.

Despite the monstrous history, neither the Croat Roman Catholic church, nor Vatican have ever distanced themselves from, or expressed regret for the atrocious WWII genocide Croat state and church have committed. To the contrary, Vatican continued its tacit approval of Ustasha horrors, by [8] beatifying Alojzije Stepinac — “[9] a patron saint of genocide,” in 1998.

So, it is no wonder that Croat clergy and Roman Catholic church approves, supports and promotes the exact same ideology and the same unholy zeal today, as it did decades earlier. Nevertheless, it is absolutely terrifying