Josip Pecaric, Stjepan Razum

The authors of the book, academician Josip Pečarić and historian dr.sc. Stjepan Razum, have gathered, besides their own texts in the book, also the opinions of other respected authors. They uncovered the lies of some pro-communist writers who systematically, successively and speculatively deceive about the truth by spreading lies regarding the number of victims in the Jasenovac camp. This forms the contents of this book, which is a contribution to the public debate based on factual arguments. The Ustasha camp in Jasenovac is a sensitive historical theme, which still provokes strong political conflicts more than 70 years after the closure of the camp. During the time of the second Yugoslavia, the camp was made into a myth and one of the main levers for disciplining the society of the time. The Communist Party imposed the number of 700,000 victims and an exaggerated view of the alleged crimes and methods of killing inmates. The aim was to present itself as sole guarantor of security, because in the case of its „reigning-in“, the fratricidal war would happen again, with Jasenovac as its main symbol. At the same time, that black myth served to suppress the aspirations of independence for the Croatian people. Through media, school and a repressive system, a picture of almost absolute evil was being formed about the Independent State of Croatia, toward which any expression of an aspiration to strengthen Croatian national rights would also lead. Before 1990, an attempt to point out the absurdity of the 700,000 alleged victims of Jasenovac entailed going to prison or compulsory psychiatric treatment. The documents referenced in this book indicate the need to continue with research of the Jasenovac camp and that in a democratic atmosphere, as far as possible, its realistic historical picture may be reached.