BELGRADE – Efraim Zuroff, a
Nazi-hunter and director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), announced
on Tuesday that the operation dubbed “Last Chance” aimed at bringing Nazi war criminals to justice will also be carried out in Serbia soon.
Zuroff warned about the growth of neo-fascism everywhere in the
European Union, especially in certain eastern countries such as Croatia,
when the situation has deteriorated since Stjepan Mesic left the
president’s office.
There are three reasons for my visit to
Belgrade: the first one is to lay the groundwork for launching the
operation “Last Chance”, the project aimed at finding Nazi war criminals
as part of which a reward will be offered for useful pieces of
information, which can help find those criminals in Serbia in the next
three months, Zuroff said in an interview to Tanjug.
“Last Chance”
is probably the last major effort to bring Nazi criminals to justice,
so far it has been carried out in Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia,
Poland, Romania, Austria, Croatia and Hungary.
The operation is a joint project of the SWC and Targum Shlishi Foundation.
Zuroff
explained that he came to Belgrade to promote his book “Operation Last
Chance”, which came out in Serbian, and visit the former death camp
Staro Sajmiste, an important site in the history of World War II,
Holocaust and terrible crimes that took place in Serbia.
Zuroff noted that neo-fascism is on the rise, adding that this should be dealt with.
There
are many reasons for that: the economic recession, globalization, fear
of losing the national identity, but part of the problem also lies in
the fact that Brussels is asleep, he said, adding that one would expect
that new member states should have espoused the European values before
joining the bloc.
However, we are witnessing attempts in all
states of the EU, especially in the countries such as Slovenia, Latvia,
Estonia, Croatia and others, at historical revisionism concerning the
Holocaust in World War II, the growth of neo-fascism, election of
right-wing officials with the ultra-nationalist agenda, Zuroff said.
Zuroff
qualified as shameful the incident at the Maksimir stadium in Zagreb,
when Croatia’s football player Josip Simunic took the microphone after
the match and shouted the infamous Ustasha salute, and noted that the
reaction of several thousand sports fans who responded to it gave even
more cause for concern.
Zuroff said that Serbia is probably one of
the few countries in eastern Europe that appreciate the SWC work,
noting that the Serbian Orthodox Church and local groups also back the
efforts of this center.
inserbia.info
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