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This book gathers up broken pieces which testify to multitudes of Serbian lives lost to hate in a place called Jasenovac. Dorich assembles evidence in the form of letters, public addresses, court outcomes for war criminals, and lists of the dead—names and places that speak loudly of evil run rampant against Serbians.
Hate has always smoldered within the heart of human beings. In this case, embers during World War II and again during the Bosnian War were fanned by writings of Ante Starcevic, called the “father of hate.” In the late 1800s, he propounded the idea that some men were made less intelligent to serve a master. Jews, and especially the Serbs, were in this category. Differing religious practices of Roman versus Orthodox Catholicism also ignited flames, resulting in the literal burning of Serbian churches with congregants inside—including the author’s family.
In the 1940s Croatian dictator Ante Pavelic easily used Starcevic’s arguments to establish his Ustashi regime that condemned Serbian men, women, and children to death in the Jasenovac camp. But why, in the 1990s, did the press side with Croatians against the Serbs? The author suggests that reporters and researchers, who did not understand the language, depended on prejudiced Croatian translators for information passed along to the west.
Silenced Serbian lives cry out to be heard in this dramatic work. Compelling evidence must be carefully read. To avoid overwhelming the reader, Dorich has interspersed photographs and longer letters between lists and testimonies. He even includes a photo of Serbian engineers who participated in the Apollo 11 success. The author purposefully documents this work with end notes referencing sources. It is left to readers to evaluate the evidence, but he expects them to arrive at the same conclusion – genocide. Mercifully, most readers have never experienced the loss of seventeen family members, as Dorich has.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review