Wiesenthal Center: Flowers at Jasenovac Concentration Camp Reminiscent of Symbol of Wartime Genocidal Ustasha Regime are an Insult to Camp's Victims and Croatian Anti-Nazi Partisans

June 8, 2014

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed its deepest indignation in response to reports that flowers have been planted at the site of the Jasenovac Croatian concentration camp in the shape of the symbol of the fascist Ustasha movement that built the camp in which at least 100,000 innocent Serbs, Jews, Roma and anti-fascist Croatians were murdered by the Ustasha regime which ruled the country during World War II.

In a statement issued here today by its chief Nazi hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who played a key role in the apprehension and prosecution of Jasenovac commandant Dinko Sakic, the Center noted the responsibility of the Ustasha regime for the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, primarily Serbs, Jews and Roma, besides those Croatians who fought against their fascist regime.

According to Zuroff:

"Placing a notorious Ustasha symbol in any form whatsoever in the largest concentration camp created by that horrific genocidal regime is a grievous insult to all those victimized by the Ustasha, their families and all those who fought to liberate Croatia from their stranglehold. We urge the Croatian authorities to apprehend those responsible for this symbolic act of incitement as quickly as possible and to punish them for their crime."

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 members. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS and the Latin American Parliament.