First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic received Prof. Dr. Gideon Greif, an Auschwitz expert and author of the book “Jasenovac: Auschwitz of the Balkans – the Ustasha Empire of Cruelty”. The meeting was also attended by President of an Auschwitz survivors association Moshe Ha-Elion, President of the Association of Jasenovac Survivors Milenko Cekic as well as Auschwitz and Jasenovac survivors.
Minister Dacic thanked Professor Greif and Auschwitz and Jasenovac survivors for their efforts in combating attempts made at revisionism and justification of crimes. Every victim, and particularly those crimes based on race and ethnicity, is worthy of utmost respect and remembrance, and such crimes are reprehensible.
Professor Greif launched his 700-page multidisciplinary study today at the 63rd International Belgrade Book Fair in attendance of Auschwitz survivors, editorial board honorary members who visited Belgrade on this occasion for the first time since the World War II to show their support to the Jasenovac survivors.
Also present at the book launch were Ambassador of Israel in Belgrade Dr. Alona Fisher-Kamm, honorary member of the editorial board and President of an Auschwitz survivors association Moshe Ha-Elion (96), a special guest B. Greif (92) – head of Israeli police at the time of Golda Meir and an associate of Simon Wiesenthal, as well as Israeli professors and experts on the Holocaust, anthropology and forensics and Judaic studies.
A globally recognized Auschwitz expert, Prof. Dr. Gideon Greif has researched death factories for 41 years offering for the first time in his new book a comparative analysis of Jasenovac and Auschwitz, as two notorious examples of World War II death camps. The book presents the results of his research based on survivor testimonies. Professor Greif has documented 57 methods of killing and torture used on Jasenovac inmates, while also analyzing controversies on the death toll and the phenomenon of WWII crimes denial, including the problem of the resurgence of neo-Nazism in Europe and beyond, focusing on neo-Ustashism, and pointed in particular to the research of the World Jewish Congress analysts on the rehabilitation of Ustashism.
Professor Greif reiterated his concerns with the publishing of books on infamous commanders of the Jasenovac death camp and expressed hope that progressive forces in Croatia would prevail with support from Jewish and anti-fascist organizations.
Particularly for this occasion, the publishers including the U.S. Holocaust Foundation, Israel’s Shem Olam Holocaust Institute, National Forensic Institute and Academic College of Judaic Studies visited our country and attended the book event.