Against the background of the disappointing decisions of recognizing Palestinian statehood for Israel and the false accusations of genocide against it, several important events took place in the Balkans, which shed important light on the accurate history of the Shoah, which had been consistently distorted by the communist authorities in the past.
The series of tributes to the last Nazi hunter, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, for forty years of relentless life mission at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, especially after the event organized in his honor at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, was perfectly supplemented by the awarding of an honorary doctorate by the University of Banja Luka in the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As part of the ceremony, the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republic of Srpska organized an international symposium entitled Jasenovac Concentration Camp - Serbian Suffering in World War II, 80 Years Later, during which Zuroff was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Banja Luka.
One of the initiators of the event, Bishop Jovan of Pakrac and Slavonia, emphasized that the symposium on Jasenovac has been placed on the world map of the study of World War II, the Holocaust, and the suffering of Serbs, to which the Israeli historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff made an important contribution. "Dr. Zuroff is an important historian, dedicated his entire life to researching the Nazis, basing his work on accurate sources.
This gathering is organized in the spirit of his work." Dr. Kiril Feferman from Ariel University participated in the symposium, which was held at the Banski Dvor cultural center in Banja Luka.
A legacy of justice: Tracing Zuroff’s pursuit of Nazi war criminals in the Balkans
In the Western Balkans region Dr. Zuroff is particularly known for his contribution in locating, extraditing and prosecuting of Dinko Šakić, one of the commanders of the Jasenovac concentration and death camp, as well as his efforts to bring Sándor Képíró, Hungarian gendarmerie captain, who played important role in the massacre of Serbs, Jews and Roma in the city of Novi Sad in January 1942.
In recent years, Zuroff has been internationally recognized as a fighter against both the revision of history and, in particular, against the distortion of the Holocaust.
This symposium was preceded by two other exceptional events. First, on September 7, the Cathedral of the Serbian Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity in Pakrac, Croatia, previously built in the mid-18th century, was consecrated.
This church was severely damaged in 1991 during the war. Of particular note is the opening of a nearby library within the bishop's palace, which, in addition to manuscripts, contains the world's second-largest collection of early Serbian and South Slavic printed books.
The library there will be also a center for the research of Hebrew manuscripts. Then, the now traditional two-day symposium "New Martyrs: Poly perspective XI", organized by the Serbian National Council in Croatia in cooperation with the Genocide Victims’ Museum from Belgrade and the Jasenovac Committee of the Serbian Orthodox Church, was held at the "Jasenovac" research library and the Serbian Orthodox General Gymnasium "Kantakuzina Katarina Branković" in Zagreb.
Two participants from Israel delivered lectures, Dr. Feferman from on the topic of Setting the Nazi Yugoslav Policies during the War in the Global Nazi Imperial Context and the signatory of these lines on the horrific story of Daniel Rahamim from the Aegean Island of Leros (a single solitary Jew living on the island whom the Nazis took the trouble to send all the way to Auschwitz).
Among the renowned participants, experts from the region and Europe, a notable presentation was also given by a historian known to the Israeli public, Prof. Ivo Goldstein from the University of Zagreb.
In these unprecedentedly difficult times for Israel, Israelis and Jewish communities around the world, this was another act of respect and solidarity from the broad and diverse circles of the Serbian public, deeply rooted in the common suffering during World War II, which authenticity must be preserved, an era that was described by Dr. Efraim Zuroff, that is, the unique crime in the history of humanity – the Holocaust.
The author is the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Serbia to Israel.