Croats hold Catholic Mass for their WWII Nazi leader

Once again, Croatia’s Catholic clergy has gathered in the church of Saint Joseph in Metrojak in Split (photo below) to mark the death of Croatia’s son, Ante Pavelic, who was a leader of the WWII Croatian Nazi state that massacred over a million Serbs, Jews and Roma in concentration camps and otherwise.

The Mass was also held in memory of Jure Francetic, another Croatian Nazi responsible for the actual killing of these folks.

Catholic Mass this year was led by don Vjeceslav Kujundzic and Split’s Catholic Bishopric said that a Mass can be held for anyone including Nazi murderers.

The Mass was attended by local civic dignitaries like Marko Skejo of HCSP, and delegates for HSS and HDZ, political parties.

“He was not a saint, but he did not fight for the Germans, nor Italians, but he did the best given circumstances. He fought for Croatia and an independent state and for that we give him an eternal thanks. Sadly, history is skewed, written by winners… And for us Croats it is always some others who wrote our history,” said Skejo.

Pavelic’s independent Croatia ran several death camps – Jasenovac and Gradiska being the most notorious. The Gradiska death camp became a topic of a very popular song by a Croatian rocker Thompson who glorifies murders of Serbs.

Thompson owns a bar in Split and after the Mass, these Croats went to his bar to continue the memorial.

Skejo, however, denies existence of WWII death camps in Croatia.

“What camps?” Skejo replied to a reporter from the Croatian daily Index.hr.

Index also notes that many Croats who find themselves in Spain make sure they visit the grave site of Pavelic who is buried at the Cementerio Sacramental de San Isidro in 1959 (photo above).

“Many Croatians that find themselves in Spain jump over to the Pavelic’s grave and memorialize that moment, but that has no weight unless it is done by the globally best known Croatian,” explains Index in reference to photographs shot of Croatia’s soccer superstar Davor Shuker who played in the Spanish league.

Last year, a Pavelic Catholic Mass was held in Zagreb where the Bishop referred to Pavelic as “notable who was a martyr for us all”.

Croatia, Germany’s WWII staunch ally, recently joined the European Union with Germany viewing Croatia’s membership with sympathy while vetoing Serbia’s candidate status citing Serbia’s opposition to dismemberment of its country by ethnic Albanian separatists in the Kosovo province whom Germany supports.