‘Ustasa’ Letter Threatens Croatian Historian with Death

Croatian historian Hrvoje Klasic, who has criticised the rehabilitation of the WWII fascist Ustasa movement in the country, was sent an anonymous death threat signed in the name of the Ustasa.

Historian Hrvoje Klasic received the death threat letter at his office at Zagreb University’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences on Wednesday after making public statements critical of the rehabilitation of the WWII fascist Ustasa movement in Croatian society.

The anonymous sender or senders, who signed the letter ‘Ustasa’, said they regretted that Klasic had not been “liquidated” yet but hoped he would be.

“We will be glad to attend your funeral in HOS [Croatian Defence Forces, a 1990s wartime paramilitary unit] uniforms on which Za dom spremni [“Ready for the Homeland”, a Ustasa slogan] is nicely highlighted,” the letter said.

It concluded with the words: “Death to traitors – freedom to the people.”

Attached to the letter was a newspaper excerpt in which Klasic said he would welcome a decision by the Austrian authorities to ban and sanction the public display of the WWII Ustasa movement’s symbols.

Earlier this year, the Austrian Interior Ministry banned the display of two Ustasa symbols – the letter ‘U’ with a grenade, and the checkerboard coat of arms of the Nazi-backed WWII-era Independent State of Croatia.

These symbols are often seen at the annual Bleiburg commemoration in Austria, which commemorates the killings of Croatian Nazi collaboration troops and civilians at the end of WWII.

Klasic told BIRN that this was not the first such letter he has received, but that it was the most explicit death threat, and that he will report it to the police.

He said that the fact that he received the letter showed there was a real problem in Croatian society.

“This [letter] is perhaps the best answer to the political elite in power about their thesis that the atmosphere [in society] is normal,” Klasic said. Speaking after a spate of recent attacks on Serbs in Croatia, he said that here had been “too many incidents” in which “those who are different” have been targeted.

“If someone who is named Hrvoje, who is from a 100 per cent Croatian family, who was a volunteer in the ‘Homeland War’ in 1991 and who, as a doctor of historical sciences, speaks publicly about the things that he deals with scientifically [and is threatened for it]… then really, how it is for the people who belong to the ‘wrong groups’?” he asked.

{Submitter’s note: a photo of the letter can be seen in the article linked above. EDIT: A translation of the letter by Vman follows, relaying the approximate style and poor grammar of the original text. Translator’s notes and in-line explanations are given in italics and brackets.}

You [Hrvoje Klasić] participated in [the Croatian daily paper] Večernji List’s poll (on 17.8.19) on the topic of good news this year. For us Ustashe who follow events the best thing that happened was your getting snuffed which meant one traitor less. Unfortunately, our cheer didn’t last long because it turned out that the news was fake. We hope that next time it won’t be. We will gladly come to your funeral in HOS uniforms on which ZA DOM SPREMNI [“Ready for the Homeland”] is nicely highlighted.

For the traitor Klasić, Austria’s decision and especially the award given at the Pula film festival to [film director] Dana Budisavljević for the forgery about [her relative, Holocaust-era hero] Diana Budisavljević are “good news”. Well, you traitorous/Chetnik* piece of shit, facts mean nothing to you. Didn’t [Holocaust revisionist] journalist Igor Vukić and historian Nikica Barić independently reach the same conclusion based on historical facts - that the one who deserves the most credit for the saving of the Kozara children** was [Ustasha dictator and Croatia’s equivalent of Hitler] Ante Pavelić. Had he not allowed and organized aid Diana Budisavljević couldve done fuck all. As both authors concluded, the main culprits for the suffering of those children were the Chetnik and Partisan brigands who rebelled against the state. Once they got their asses kicked, they abandoned the children leaving them in the care of the Croatian state, you motherfucker.

* {the Chetniks were a Serb and Montenegrin ultranationalist militia during WW2 which ended up collaborating with the Axis forces and committing a lot of atrocities.}

** {’Kozara children’ refers to the children of Serb civilians captured during the Axis’s Kozara offensive against the pro-communist Partisans. Many of them were selected for forced labor in Nazi Germany, and once the parents were shipped off, the Ustashe basically left their children to slowly die in horrid and unsanitary conditions. A woman named Diana Budisavljević, together with some sympathetic officials and Catholic Church people, launched an operation to pressure the Ustashe authorities and save the children through adoption into ‘proper Catholic Croat’ families, which was largely successful.}

And regarding ZA DOM SPREMNI itll remain and outlive you, and the Chetniks and the fucking antifascists. You bite your own balls out of frustration when you see how many people, especially young ones, come to the concerts of [neo-Ustashe singer] Marko Perković Thompson and greet him with ZA DOM. We would recommend you read the “Ustashe” media and news portals and not just [Croatian Serb politician Milorad] Pupovac’s Chetnik [newspaper] Novosti. On the “Ustashe” portals, the famous lawyer Zvonimir Hodak writes opinion pieces in which he often mentions you alongside other fifth-columners like [Croatian historians] Goldstein, Jakovina, Markovina… and you refuse to react.

You are a “respectable” historian in your dear Chetnik Serbia, you are always welcome there. Here in Croatia you are a mere activist as excelently noted by historian Mario Jareb.

The USTASHE greet you with ZA DOM SPREMNI

DEATH TO TRAITORS - FREEDOM TO THE PEOPLE***

*** {This is a corruption of the Partisan slogan “Death to fascism - freedom to the people!”}