Home and Nazi Sympathy

In the interest of full disclosure and transparency (a big deal these days) let me preface this post by saying I’m a first generation immigrant from Croatia. I’ve been there almost every summer since my birth. It’s the first language I ever spoke and also the first and only culture I abide by. It’s also the only place I truly consider home, and I despise the day my father decided to leave there.

Here’s a glib article from the NY Times equating Croatia with Naziism because of a concert. As in past articles, the Times gives a heavy-handed report that essentially paints Croatian youth as a gang of Arian drones insensitive to the past wrongs of their ancestry.

Some of the fans were wearing the black caps of Croatia’s infamous Nazi puppet Ustashe government, which was responsible for sending tens of thousands of Serbs, Gypsies and Jews to their deaths in concentration camps.

The exchange with the audience is a routine part of Mr. Perkovic’s act, and the gesture seemed to lack any conscious political overtones. The audience — most of whom appeared to be in their teens and early 20s — just seemed to be having a good time. But Mr. Perkovic’s recent success among a new generation — many of them apparently oblivious to the history of the Holocaust — has prompted concern and condemnation from Jewish groups abroad and minority groups in Croatia.

Seeing as how most of my friends/cousins in Croatia are members of this age group, let me clarify. Not all Croats were members of the Ustasha movement. This is much more detail than I’m willing to supply right now, but it gets to the point.

While the majority of the Croatian people favored an independent Croatian state, many did not support the Ustase regime. ‘When the war broke out there were fewer than twelve thousand members of the movement representing less than one per cent of the Croatian population. At its height in 1942, there were only sixty thousand Ustase.

My grandfather, along with others, was part of the Partisan movement often credited to the Serbs.

None of this of course forgives anything, but to use a nationalist rock star as the poster boy for Croatia’s skin heads is a bit much. But there will always be the dunces out there.

Mr. Perkovic’s patriotic — and sometimes violently nationalistic — songs first became popular here during the Balkan wars, when he fought in the Croatian Army. Most Croats know him better by his stage name, Thompson, given to him during the war, when he carried the British-made submachine gun of the same name. He, too, has recently sought to distance himself from the Ustashe association. In an interview, the soft-spoken singer said he had never raised his own arm to make a fascist salute. Nor, he said, did he encourage people to wear Ustashe uniforms. As for the Ustashe slogan he uses, he claims it is a traditional Croatian salute that predates World War II.

To put it simply, he’s the Croatian version of Toby Keith. (He’s just as bad too). Uber-patriotic to the point of stupidity. Most of my friends detest his nationalistic attitude.

Here’s a concert video give you an idea of what exactly this salute looks like, as well as how shitty the song is, as well has how bad a performer Thompson really is. Count the peace signs too (damn hippies). [Upon sitting through the video, I now suggest you mute your computer.]

Yes, there are a few bad apples in the busshel. But you’d imagine a nation of baby-Jew eating, Nazi-soluting creatures after reading this article.

On the flip side, I enjoy any bad publicity for the country. It will hopefully put a dent in the already overcrowded tourist season. I miss the days when people didn’t know Croatia existed. Now every yuppie, hipster and baby boomer wants to go there. So yes, if it keeps foreigners out, then all Croats are Nazis. Don’t go. They’ll kill you.