Transcript How to teach Holocaust in Croatia according to MTF Summer

How to teach the Holocaust
in Croatia according to MTF
Summer Institute
Guidelines for teachers
Mirela Balesic
Dijana Dijanic
Define the term ‘’Holocaust’’
Avoid comparisons of pain
Mara Jovicic Popovic
Born Foca, Yugoslavia
July 1901
Mara was one of six children
born into Serbian family. She
was baptized in the Serbian
Orthodox faith.
In 1944 Croatian police
arrested Mara, because she
was prominent Serbian
nationalist. After refusing to
convert to Roman Catholicism,
she was deported to
Jasenovac, a Croatian-run
concentration camp.
Mara died in Jasenovac in the
late 1944. She was 43 years
old.
Avoid simple answers to complex
history
Political cartoon entitled, "Will
the Evian Conference guide
him to freedom?" that was
published in the Sunday, July
3, 1938 edition of The New
York Times.
Just because it happened does
not mean it was inevitable
The Savors and the Survivors
The Savor (file 10169) : Oruzec Djuro & the late Kata
The Survivor: Biserka Glavas and her grandmother
In 1943 most of the Croatian Jews were in the concentration
camps. The Stibilj family (Jews) had lived before the war in
Zagreb. The father had died before the war. The mother joined
the Partisans during the war and daughter Biserka moved to her
grandmother’s, Hermina Weinberger, house in Sesvete.
On July 7 1943 the grandmother got an evacuation order. She had
to leave the house within 24 hours. Oruzec, farmers who lived in
Galisce near Sesvete allowed the grandmother and 3 years old
Biserka to live with them and agreed to hide them until the end of
the war in May 1945. (The Oruzec family had 2 children of their
own, 12 and 18 year old and three more children of a deceased
sister). The grandmother was hidden in the attic and Biserka grew
up as normal child in the village. The children who lived on the
farm always made sure to inform them if the Ustasa patrol was
coming.
Marija Grguljak testifies that she lived near Ozurec family and went to
school with one of their daughters. She said that in the Oruzec family
house there were many children and they were a poor family. In
spring 1943 Hermina Weinberger and her grandchild Biserka joined
the Ozurec family. Mrs. Weinberger was the owner of a restaurant
and a store in Sesvete. In our village there were only 15 houses, so
all of us knew each other. All of us knew that Hermina Weinberger
was Jewish and understood that we had to take care of her. I visited
their house and saw that Hermina’s bad was hidden, and Biserka
played with other children, but only in the backyard. If there were
any danger we informed them and they ran to hide. I know that they
couldn’t pay because all their property was confiscated.
Velimir Skaric, Biserka’s cousin tells: My mother is Biserka’s mother
sister. My mother married a Catholic man, which allowed us to hide in
my father’s family house. I know that in 1943 my grandmother and
Biserka were forced to leave their house without any property, and
they found a place to hide with a poor family (Oruzec) who had many
children.
Both of the testimonies indicate that the survivor’s story is true.
I recommend for Oruzec Djuro and the late Kata to be aknowlidged
as Righteous among the Nations.
Survivors gathered in the First International
Conference about Jasenovac
New York, October 1997
Strive for precision language
Four ceramic miniatures
made by Slavko Bril, a
Croatian inmate who was
killed in the Jasenovac
camp.
MEMORIJALNI MUZEJ
JASENOVAC – Croatia,
(OAN; neg. N08131,
Collections: 2002.537.4)
USHMM Photo Archives
N08131
Adolf Hitler greets Ante Pavelić, leader
of puppet Independent State of
Croatia, Berchtesgaden, Germany, 9. 6.
1941.
Vladko Macek leader of
Croatian peasant party
Corps of killed prisoners of
Jasenovac camp
Female prisoners labor in a
sewing workshop in the Jasenovac
III concentration camp. This
photograph was used for
propagandistic purposes by the
Ustasa (March 1942.).
Source: MEMORIJALNI MUZEJ
JASENOVAC - Croatia; neg. 10116
(Collections: 2002.537.4)
USHMM Photo Archives 46625
Prisoners labor in the kitchen of
the Jasenovac III concentration
camp. This photograph was used
for propagandistic purposes by the
Ustasa (March 1942.).
Source: MEMORIJALNI MUZEJ
JASENOVAC - Croatia; neg. 10116
(Collections: 2002.537.4)
USHMM Photo Archives
46621
Make careful distinctions about
sources of information
Dinko Sakic was the
commander of the Jasenovac
concentration camp during
World War II.
He was put for a trial in 1998
for his crimes and sentenced
to 2o years of jail.
Confiscation of Jewish property
(izseljavanje iz stanova i kuća)
Other ways of persecution
Try to avoid stereotypical
descriptions
A Jewish prisoner is forced to remove his
ring upon his arrival in the Jasenovac
concentration camp.
data68290.txt
Serbs and Romas that were under ustasa
watch gathered before deportation to
Jasenovac
Do not romanticize history to
engage students’ interest
Estimated number of Jewish victims in
Jasenovac is 8 000 to 20 000, Croatian
victims 5 000 to 12 000, Serbs 45 000 to
52 000, Roma victims 8 000 to 15 000.
Contextualize the history you are
teaching
Happiness for proclamation of
Independent State of Croatia
Minorities in Croatian culture
Roma’s skirt
Members of a Zionist youth group in
Pozega, Croatia.
Famous Croatian scientist Nikola Tesla born into
Serbian family
Translate statistics into people
A young Jewish woman,
Florica Kabilio, playing
her accordion (Zagreb,
circa 1939).
Photo Credit: USHMM,
courtesy of Flory Kabilio
Jagoda
USHMM Photo Archives
42652
Portrait of a young
Jewish girl, Zdenka Apler
wearing a fancy party
dress in Ludbreg, Croatia
(May 5, 1934).
Photo Credit: USHMM,
courtesy of Theodora
Basch Klayman
USHMM Photo Archives
56538
Portrait of a young Jewish
woman, Silva Deutsch wearing
her sash, who just won the
Miss Dance Cotillion contest
(Ludbreg, cca. 1925 – 1935).
Photo Credit: USHMM, courtesy
of Theodora Basch Klayman
USHMM Photo Archives 56520
Be sensitive to appropriate written
and audiovisual content
Announcement issued by the
Croatian Ministry of the
Interior's Office of Public
Obedience and Security. The
text states, in part, that five
Croats were arrested for
distributing Communist
leaflets. Four were executed
and one was sentenced to ten
years imprisonment. The
announcement goes on to
declare that three people, two
Jews and one Serb, were
convicted of counterfeiting and
selling official stamps. The two
Jews were executed. The Serb
middleman was sentenced to
twenty years in prison.
A brochure called “Jews” that
accompanied an antisemitic
exhibition in Zagreb, May–June
1942.
Strive for balance in establishing
whose perspective informs your
study of the Holocaust
Inside of a page of brochure
that maps the location of
Croatian Jews and charts the
number of Jewish-owned
businesses in relation to nonJewish Croatian businesses.
Select appropriate learning
activities
Scheme of Jasenovac
concentration camp
today
Tombs shows mass graves and symbolized
killings of prisoners
Hills shows Ustasha barracks
Railway for prisoners
Remains of Jasenovac
concentration camp
today
Survivors from
Jasenovac and
USHMM lecturer
Yellow cotton Star of David
patch with stamped 'Z' for
Zidov, the Croatian word for
Jew. The patch was glued to a
wooden carved cigarette box.
MEMORIJALNI MUZEJ
JASENOVAC - Croatia; (OAN
neg.N0 8128407;
Collections: 2002.537.4)
USHMM Photo Archives
N08128
Reinforce the objectives of your
lesson plan