ARHIVSKI VJESNIK 39. (ZAGREB, 1996.)

Strana - 174

J. Kolanović, Holocaust in Croatia - Documentation and research perspectives, Arh. vjesn., god. 39 (1996) str. 157-174 should be used more, in both analytical and synthetical research done by the historians. In this respect, we should also take into consideration the other side of the coin when speaking of those horrible times. In addition to the ideology of evil-Fascism and racism we must also mention the generosity and courage of many individuals who risked their lives to help the Jews, sometimes becoming victims themselves as a result. Yad Vashem bestowed the honorary title of "righteous among nations" to 60 Croats who risked their lives to help the Jews. After the capitulation of Italy, Croatian partisans evacuated 3,500 Jews from the island of Rab in the Adriatic to the free territory of ZAVNOH. Jewish children together with Croatian women and children, were taken to the refugees camp El-Shat in Egypt. During the war and the German presence in Zagreb, a young and courageous archbishop in Zagreb, Alojzije Stepinac, condemned and spoke out against racism and anti-Semitism, as the French consul Mr. Georges Gueyraud reported to the Government in Vichy on November 1942 from Zagreb. Finally, I would like to point out that it is necessary for every nation to research the Holocaust in its own country. There should be no attempts to justify the evil and crimes committed by one's own nation by accusing other nations of evil and crimes. An evil committed should be condemned, but one must know to forgive and ask for forgiveness. To place the blame on somebody else is to blame oneself. This is one of the reasons why the HDA accepted an invitation from the U.S. Memorial Holocaust Museum in Washington to sign an Accord on May 22,1995, on cooperation on Holocaust research in Croatia. As a sign of good will, at the beginning of September 1995, we gave to the ten rolls of microfilms to the Museum with data on the mentioned 6,573 Jews executed or killed in World War II in Croatia. This is why we willingly accepted the invitation of Centre de documentation Juive contemporaine in Paris to participate in this conference and to present the documentation stored in the archives of Croatia. The Croatian State Archive will continue to do its best to give support to research aimed at uncovering the truth about the victims of World War II. Unfortunately, archive experts cannot do that alone, because there are not many of them. However, they will continue to support and help the researches, as they have always done. 174