Belgrade, September 15, 2023
The Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church absolutely rejects any attempts to downplay the number of Serbian victims at the Jasenovac death camp in Croatia during WWII.
The hierarchs express their “regret and indignation” about a recent media campaign that began in Sarajevo and spread to Croatia and Montenegro and was picked up by CNN in Belgrade, proclaiming that the Serbian Church itself is “debunking the myth of 700,000 Serbs killed in Jasenovac.”
However, as the Synod explains in its new statement, the reports rely not on any statement from the Church, but on the belief of one hierarch, Bishop Jovan of Slavonia, that the number of victims was lower. When the bishop expressed his view to the Synod, finding it to be “arbitrary and historically unfounded,” they called on him not to publicize his opinion, knowing that it would draw the enemies of the Church and the Serbian people. The Synod notes that Bp. Jovan has abided by this Synodal decision over the years.
Thus, the media’s triumphalism is “mere self-deception,” the new statement reads. “The historical truth that a genocide was committed against the Serbian Orthodox people in the Independent State of Croatia, as well as against our Jewish and Romani brothers, cannot be denied by any lie, no matter who utters it.”
“Our Church has for centuries been the vigilant guardian of the authentic historical national memory, especially of the eternal memory of holy martyrs, confessors, and sufferers; for the honorable Cross and golden freedom.’ Additionally, it has always been the first and greatest victim of every persecution and pogrom,” the Synod states.
Such historical revisionism “is only part of a projected comprehensive, global process whose creators are revising and intend to destroy all values of human civilization—the nation, the family, faith in God, parenthood, genders, and even the notion of Christian holy martyrs.”
The general movement is that “the perpetrators of genocide, are first exonerated, then hailed as heroes, only to finally be exchanged with the victims. Thus, in media campaigns like the current one, black becomes white, good and evil effortlessly exchange places, and lies are imposed as the ultimate truth,” the hierarchs warn.
In conclusion, the Synod calls all to offer kneeling prayers to the Jasenovac holy martyrs.
Read about the martyrs in the article, “Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Jasenovac.”
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