Croats' history of resistance

Ms MacDonald correctly notes that many young British students know little about fascism in continental Europe. Alas this memory loss, and the failure in right educational approach, is not just visible in the UK, but in other parts of Europe - both East and West.

In her otherwise informative piece, Ms MacDonald seems to be rehashing the old cliche of "concentration camps run by Croatians who backed Hitler".

This stigma had much success in ex-communist Yugoslavia, and was slickly used to discredit Croats in their search for their own democratic statehood.

While it is true that the Croats of the puppet regime installed during the Second World War in Croatia collaborated with Nazi Germany, it is equally true that Croats made up, percentage-wise, the largest number of anti-fascist combatants in occupied Europe.

Also Croats were proportionally the largest anti-fascist force within Tito’s (another Croat) partisan resistance movement.

The most intensive resistance activities were taking place almost exclusively on the territory of the so-called Independent State of Croatia, which was comprised territorially of what is today Croatia and neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Therefore Croats were part of Allied Forces fighting also for the freedom of their fellow Serbs oppressed by the pro-Nazi collaborating regime.

Ms MacDonald is rightly warning us against the danger of using cliches. All abominable crimes against humanity have been cliche-driven crimes, and have often been used and abused as a pretext for a crime. This is to alert Ms MacDonald and your readers against those cliches.

Tomislav Sunic, Minister counselor, Embassy of the Republic of Croatia, Conway Street, London