A few years before he died, Miodrag Bulatović asked me to tell him as much as possible about the concentration camps, because he intended to write a novel Wedding in Auschwitz about the wedding of an SS guard with a Jewish inmate. He asked me if such a thing was even conceivable. I told him that he didn't and recommended that he simply not stick to the facts, stick to his own style and let his wild imagination run free. Bulatović, almost forgotten today, was once the most translated Yugoslav writer, some of his early novels, above all A hero on a donkey, greatly excited the ideological guards of the authorities in the early sixties. He was not arrested just in order not to increase his circulation even more, but he still took refuge in Paris, just in case. Towards the end of his life, he was a member of parliament of Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia.
I remembered him while reading the novel Tattoo artist from Auschwitz Heather Morris (Laguna, 2019), which was announced as a world bestseller. It really had great reviews all over the world. I do, however, question whether this book is really a "valuable piece of historical evidence" as the Irish Times makes it out to be, or a novelistic fiction. The author herself claims that a certain Lali Sokolov told her the whole story, his post-war photo is also published, his son writes the afterword. It's just that the story doesn't sound authentic to me, I don't believe it could have been told by someone who was actually in Auschwitz. There are too many dubious and even impossible descriptions, for example, that Lali procures penicillin for her lover, who was suffering from tuberculosis in 1943, and thereby cured her. At that time, the camp inmates could not have any idea about that drug, which the Americans had just introduced into medical practice from the other side of the ocean, and it is also not possible to cure typhus in two or three days with penicillin, or any other drug.
Lali also says that he was saved by the fact that his love's friend Gita was the mistress of an SS Obersturmführer, thanks to which she wore long hair. And that is unthinkable. Sexual relations with Jewish women were strictly forbidden, it was called "racial shame" (Racial disgrace). If it were known, the SS man would at best be transferred to the Eastern Front in a penal unit, and the girl would be killed immediately. Aryan female prisoners were forced into prostitution with the SS.
If this book had been published as a novel, that is, as fiction, everything would have been fine, because in "fiction" everything that the author's talent can do is allowed, even what is not possible. Brecht used to say "who knows, knows". But it is presented as a documentary based on historical facts, which seems to me to be a lie.
EVERY EVIL HAS ITS NAME
But what is the truth about Auschwitz? More and more often on social networks, and even on some established media, one can hear that Auschwitz was invented by greedy Jews in order to extract as much money as possible from the Germans; it was, oh my god, a labor camp where people died, but during the war civilians also died. From the story of the Holocaust, the story of that camp turns into a source of anti-Semitism.
I wonder if I can testify with one last strength that the extermination camp, primarily of Jews, Auschwitz existed. I was there. There are fewer and fewer of us who can say that. I feel that we need to confirm that Auschwitz is not a metaphor for any evil, for anything, but a complex of several camps built by Hitler's supporters in Poland. We should testify about Jasenovac as Jasenovac, about Keraterm as Keraterm, about Gakovo as Gakovo, always concretely, documented or based on the statements of those who were there.
Keraterm and Gakovo are less known, especially to younger readers, so I would like to explain. Keraterm was a ceramic tile factory near Prijedor where the military and civil authorities of Republika Srpska established a concentration camp in 1992. According to the judgment of the Tribunal in The Hague, it was established that 3.000 people passed through it, and about 300 were killed. I don't really believe everything that The Hague ruled, but I spoke to one person who was detained there.
Gakovo is a village north of Sombor that was turned into a camp where, from 1946 to 1948, the communist authorities concentrated women and children of German origin. It is estimated that there were about 17.000 of them, 5827 prisoners identified by name died from inhuman conditions, hunger, winter and disease, but it is believed that there were about 8500 victims. I talked to several women who were in Gakovo.
"We" are responsible for those two camps. I would like everyone to talk about "their" crimes. I wrote a series published in NIN and a novel about the suffering of the innocent Swabians of Banat, and thus paid my part of the tribute for the sins of "my" government.
It is not known how many prisoners passed through the camps that belong to the Auschwitz complex (we are most often talking about its part Auschwitz-Birkenau where the gas chambers were located), because some prisoners registered, their numbers were tattooed, but those who after that they were transported to Auschwitz and taken straight to death. Based on previous research, it is assumed that between 1,1 and 1,5 million people were killed, 90 percent of whom were Jews from almost all European countries. I say Auschwitz for that complex of several camps, because it is a German creation, even though it was located in then-occupied Poland, next to the town of Auschwitz near Krakow. Auschwitz is a Nazi camp, Auschwitz is a Polish city.
I repeat and insist that we call every evil by its name, and not simply call everything and anything Auschwitz or say that somewhere it was "like in Auschwitz", because it was not.
FACTS AND FICTION
I was trying to check how many books were printed about Auschwitz and other concentration camps, about the Holocaust. There are countless thousands of them published in the world's most important languages. Analyzes of those powerful books divided into "TV series","nonfiction" and hybrid works are waiting for young scientists who want to deal with that topic.
In my opinion, two books written shortly after the events themselves are indispensable, without which one should not even begin studying the Nazi concentration camps. It is the most important SS state (The SS State) of Eugene Kogon. Sociologist Kogon was a prisoner in the Buchenwald concentration camp for six years. Immediately after the liberation, at the request of the American Psychological Warfield Division he wrote a report in which he summarized the specific statements of 125 inmates of different categories. He continued his research and already in 1946 published a twice as long thorough sociological analysis not only of that concentration camp, but of the entire system of the SS state. It is a first-hand work.
Another very important book is Auschwitz testimonies and reports (Certificates and reports Auschwitz). Compiled by three authors: Hermann Langbein, Ella Lingens-Reiner and HG Adler, it was printed only in 1962, but it contains 55 thematically arranged texts created since February 11, 1941, mostly from the pens of SS and prisoners. They were carefully processed, commented, and a large number of facsimiles of the originals and photographs were published with them.
However, authentic and hitherto unknown testimonies surface continuously, and even to this day. Last year, in 2019, a book by a department member was published Special group in Auschwitz, groups of inmates who examined the corpses of persons killed in the gas chamber, searched for hidden valuables in pockets and seams of clothes, in body cavities, pulled out their gold teeth. While they were doing this, they were allowed to eat and drink as much as they wanted, but they knew that in a month or two, they too would be killed. The diary of the Polish Jew Zalman Gradewski was published under the title The separation (Separation). He put his notes in a can, added a note asking that it be published if ever found, and sealed it with wax. That can was indeed found after the liberation, but since it was written in Yiddish, it was put aside, forgotten, until someone, after more than seventy years, looked at what it was about and finally had it translated into German and published.
VICTIMS AND HEROES
The biggest problem for the SS in leadership positions in Auschwitz was not killing, but how to dispose of the corpses. The gas chamber could liquidate up to 10.000 victims per day, but in all four crematoriums together "only" up to 3000 could be burned per day. Adolf Eichmann claims in his memoirs written in South America that one of his closest comrades was the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hess (Hoss ne Hess), harshly reproached him for sending him more transports of Hungarian Jews than he could "handle" during the summer of 1944. I was also in one of them, because the occupied Vojvodina was an integral part of Hungary. It probably saved my life that so many of us arrived at the same time, because they didn't know what to do with us, so they sent a number to Buchenwald.
It seems to me that for decades now, "mainstream" novels about concentration camps have been expected to be laments. In the beginning, in Yugoslavia, and especially in the USSR and its satellites, the official line was to describe the heroes and not to cry over the victims. There were indeed heroes and all honor to them. However, most of us were innocent victims.
Even in Israel in the first decade after the founding of the state, the question arose: why did the Jews not fight, why did they not resist? The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was celebrated, the innocent victims were not popular even though Israel was founded on their deaths. Later, victims became "in". The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Elie Wiesel and Imre Kertesz, the winners of the competition who complains better about their own fate, as opposed to the winners, "heroes", among whom there were great writers, for example the Spanish-French author Jorge Sempern (Jorge Semprún) or the French writer and diplomat Stefan Essel (Stephane Hessel). At the age of ninety-four, Essel wrote a booklet Rebel! (outrage you!), which sold millions of copies in several languages, but some critics did not like it. How could they like it when in it he called on young people to rebel against the order in their countries at the end of the 20th century, just as he and his comrades rebelled against fascism.
Essel was also harshly critical of Israel even though he was Jewish. Part of the public in Israel was confused because Jews were asked to be heroes, and Essel undoubtedly was, because from London, to which he managed to escape, in the middle of the war, as a Jew and a leftist wanted, he parachuted over occupied France in order to fought. He was caught, tortured, sentenced to death, he was in the most notorious camps, as well as in "Mittelbau Dora", where Hitler's rockets were made under the supervision of Wernher von Braun. Essel managed to escape from the camp and continued to fight. As a delegate of France, after the war he co-authored the Charter of the United Nations.
Everything will be forgiven Von Braun, he helped the Americans get their hands on space.
HOW MUCH DOES A PIETER COST?
In Auschwitz, Yugoslavia had its national exhibition on display in Block 17. Professor of history at the University of Belgrade, Dr. Milan Koljanin, is engaged in Holocaust research, including Nazi concentration camps. I thank him for the information on today's attitude of Serbia towards the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
The permanent exhibition of Yugoslavia was opened in 1963, innovated and significantly supplemented in 1989 on 700 square meters, and removed at the request of Croatia in 2005. The countries created after the breakup of Yugoslavia agreed to jointly create a new exhibition based on modern museological principles with the help of UNESCO. Thanks to Dr. Koljanin, in mid-May 2015, Serbia opened an exhibition called "Last Destination Auschwitz", with the intention of it being part of a joint exhibition of the former Yugoslav republics, and on that occasion, Koljanin organized a conversation with the surviving prisoners, which I also attended. None of us had any objections.
Block 17 – actually barrack number 17 where the inmates were housed – meanwhile was falling into disrepair. It was decided to repair the collapsed roof and arrange the interior, introduce new installations, lighting and heating, with the fact that Austria will arrange the ground floor of the barracks for its national exhibition, and the countries of the former Yugoslavia the first floor that was allocated to them. Of course, the question arose as to who will bear the costs and how much. As far as Professor Koljanin knows, there are contacts between the competent ministries of the countries concerned, even at the end of last year a joint meeting of expert teams was held, but the public in Serbia was not informed about it. I have written to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia, specifically the Minister's Cabinet, with a request to provide me with information regarding the new installation for the Auschwitz Museum for this text. By the time this issue of "Vremena" was sent to press, I had not received a reply.
Austria regularly supports the Auschwitz Museum with six million euros a year. The National Fund of the Republic of Austria concluded a contract with the Museum Administration on the renovation of the entire block 17, and with an experienced company on the project of their installation on the ground floor.
At a joint meeting of experts in Ljubljana four years ago, it was estimated that 1,5 to 2 million euros should be provided for the renovation of the building itself and the installation of an exhibition about the victims who arrived from Yugoslavia. How should it be distributed among the post-Yugoslav states? In my opinion: an almost impossible undertaking.
Serbia is rightly strongly committed to maintaining the memory of the horrors in Jasenovac, where my uncle Aleksandar Šomlo and his wife and two small children were also killed. It is understandable that Serbia's interest is primarily focused on what is being done or not being done in the Jasenovac memorial center, but we should not allow the first floor of block 17 in Auschwitz to remain empty. It would be a shame for all of us. If finances are the problem, I suggest that Serbia offer to take over the costs in proportion to its size and, if it cannot come to an agreement with others, start negotiations with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on its own initiative about taking over a spatially appropriate part, and inform the other interested parties about it. that is, if it turns out to be so, disinterested. If none of them wants to do anything, let Serbia occupy the entire area.
I would like to mention that in Auschwitz prisoners from Slovenia were treated as Slovenes, not as Yugoslavs (the same is true in Buchenwald). Therefore, it would be logical for Slovenia to take over its share of the costs. I assume that there were few prisoners from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in Auschwitz, because persecuted Serbs, Jews and Roma were killed in Jasenovac, unfortunates from Montenegro were taken to Italian camps, and Macedonians were treated like Bulgarians. It would be sad if the politics of the new nation states overcame the reverence for the Auschwitz prisoners brought from Yugoslavia.
UNIT OF MEASUREMENT FOR HORROR
It is also not unimportant that in the neighboring 18th block, the national exhibition of Hungary, a country in which the Jews were so zealously persecuted and destroyed, was set up with great care, which also spread to the territories it occupied. That country skillfully portrays itself today as a community that deeply respects its victims. More than Serbia? Should we allow that?
I am afraid that it will never be possible to determine exactly how many prisoners from Yugoslavia were in Auschwitz, how many of them were killed. There are several reasons for this. The first is that the persons who were taken from the entrance ramp straight to the gas chambers were not registered at all. Others, the majority of which are certainly Jews from Bačka, which was under Hungarian occupation since April 1944. Namely, the Jews of Banat were brought to Belgrade by barges and killed here at the Old Fairground and in the Cannon sheds with the dedicated assistance of the Nedić gendarmes, while the Jews of Srem were taken to Jasenovac.
According to the data of the working group in whose work Professor Koljanin participated, 11.886 people were deported to Auschwitz from the territory of Serbia - 9128 Jews, 436 Serbs, 81 people who declared themselves as Yugoslavs and 31 Roma. Koljanin adds: "These numbers are certainly higher, but here we are talking about those who have been identified at least by name."
Jews from Bačka, however, are recorded twice, because together with Jews from Slovakia, they were included in the number of "Hungarian Jews". Hungary was among the first to set up the aforementioned national exhibition in Auschwitz in block 18 on 1500 square meters. Hungarian official estimates are that there were about 430.000 prisoners from that country with the occupied territories in Auschwitz. If, according to various estimates, between 1,1 and 1,6 million people were killed in Auschwitz, it turns out that Hungarians are among the most tragic victims of Nazism and fascism. However, this is a skillful distortion of history, because it was almost exclusively about Jews, and they were arrested and handed over to the SS by Horti's police officers and gendarmes and members of the fascist organization "Nilashi". Certainly, 12.000 names and surnames of people who were taken from Hungary to Auschwitz were listed. By studying that list, it would be possible to find out which of them is from Bačka, that is, from Yugoslavia, that is, Serbia. I'm certainly one of them, although I don't know if I'm on their list.
Whichever figures we start from, they say nothing about the fates, fears, sufferings and identity of the victims from Yugoslavia, which the exhibition on the first floor of Block 17 in Auschwitz should remind us of. There is no unit of measurement for horror.
TOURIST DESTINATION STRATIŠTE: Visitors in the camp
MISUSE OF THE TERM AUSCHWITZ
Until about fifteen years ago, the Union of Jewish Municipalities of Yugoslavia organized group trips to Auschwitz. That stopped a long time ago, and I accidentally found out that some educational institutions in the meantime organize visits to the Museum of the Auschwitz camp on their own initiative, for example "Vladislav Rybnikar" Elementary School. The general public was not informed about it, I did not find any trace in the media.
Google is known to use the interest of its visitors to advertise various products and services. Since I sometimes checked the quality of some wines, I am constantly bombarded with offers of wines from Germany, and as I also checked what was mentioned about Auschwitz on that search engine, now I get daily commercial offers to visit Auschwitz with or without a tour of the sights of Krakow, with a discount for groups or individuals . The price of the offered tours ranges from 20,50 to 40,15 euros per person. Auschwitz as a tourist offer? I don't know whether to consider it sacrilegious or to rejoice that something is being done in this way so that the horror is not forgotten.
The wrong use of some words, too broad understanding of a concept, leads to misunderstanding not only of a certain area, but also changes the entire view of the world. Barack Obama was already the president of the USA when he said that his grandfather-uncle liberated Auschwitz as an American soldier. It's not. Obama's uncle participated in the liberation of Buchenwald, and Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army. In the "Elephant" hotel in Weimar, on the occasion of the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald, I met this nice, cheerful Obama's cousin. Barack Obama certainly did not consciously want to deceive the world and deny the merits of Soviet soldiers, but he practically did it. For him, Auschwitz was simply a synonym for all concentration camps, a synonym for the evil from which his country saves humanity. He redeemed himself by visiting the Buchenwald memorial center during his official visit to Germany, although German state protocol neither wanted nor planned to do so.
Former German Foreign Minister Joška Fischer, in order to win the support of the German public for the bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, shouted: "Never again Auschwitz!" He lied that there was a Serbian concentration camp at the football stadium in Pristina.
And one sworn vegetarian and priest declared that "every day is Auschwitz for animals." The comment is redundant.
Since it was necessary to determine a specific date in the year when the whole world would remember the Holocaust, the United Nations, as we said, determined the day when Auschwitz was liberated. Although I think it is a good solution, the name of that camp should not be a metaphor, it should not be a synonym for other camps, it should be spoken of as what it was. The State Museum of Remembrance near the Polish town of Oswiecim reminds of the crimes committed there. I think that we, the last living witnesses of the time when Auschwitz was an active house of death, should insist that the name of that place of horror is not used for other crimes and phenomena.
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