JERUSALEM―The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called for the immediate dismissal of Dr. Stjepan Razum, director of the Episcopal Archives of the Croatian State Archives in the wake of his August 10 interview to www.hrsvijet.net in which he claimed that the figures of victims in the notorious Croatian concentration camp Jasenovac were exaggerated and a product of Serb propaganda.

In a statement issued here by its Israel director, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that such attempts to rewrite the history of World War II in Croatia by whitewashing the horrific crimes committed by the Ustasha cannot be tolerated and are inexcusable when asserted by prominent Church officials.

According to Zuroff:

“We call upon the leaders of the Catholic Church in Croatia to immediately dismiss Stjepan Razum from his important post in the Church archives and unequivocally repudiate his outrageous and reprehensible comments, which are not only an unforgiveable insult to the victims of Jasenovac and their relatives and all Croatians of integrity, but also seek to present a totally false narrative of the horrific crimes committed by the Ustasha against Serbs, anti-fascist Croatians, Jews, and Roma during their bloody rule of the NDH (Independent State of Croatia). The crimes committed by the Ustasha can never be erased and apologists for the likes of Pavelic and his cronies are an embarrassment to democratic Croatia which is about to enter the European Union.”

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