Holy New-Martyrs of Jasenovac

Holy New-Martyrs of Jasenovac

Source: Fresco Iconography of St. Nicholas Serbian Orthodox Church in Hamilton, Ontario: Nikoljnik Press, 2005. Icon by Fr. Theodore Jurewicz.

The Holy New-Martyrs of Jasenovac

The martyrs are commemorated together on September 13, although a number of them are also commemorated separately, as the dates of their martyrdom are known. This is a particularly poignant icon, because we have still among us survivors of the Ustasha terror of World War II, and many whose loved ones found martyrdom. Moreover, it is an important icon inasmuch as it will witness not only to the faith of these martyrs, but also to the genocide of Serbs itself, which many ignore, forget or deny having occurred. A vast sea of haloed martyrs stands before a background showing the Jasenovac concentration camp in the upper left corner, with ominous grey walls, barbed wire and watchtowers. The Churches of Jasenovac (destroyed, sadly, twice now by Croats) and Glina (burnt to the ground with 500 Serbs in it) are shown centrally, while the upper right corner shows one of the many caves of Lika, Dalmatia, Bosnia or Hercegovina that became the graves of numerous innocents. In the lower foreground is a river perhaps the Sava, the Una, the Vrbas, or the Drina, all of which carried the tortured bodies. They bear crosses and appear peaceful, as they have accepted their martyrdom. The standing figures in the foreground are identified individually with an inscription in their halo…

What touches many of us when we contemplate this fresco is that these Holy New-Martyrs are every man: a peasant, a student, a teacher with her pupils, a nun, an old woman, a priest, a bishop, a child. All of them were killed for the simple fact that they were baptized in and lived by the Orthodox faith. For this, they are crowned with martyrdom; Christ blesses them, while on either side St. John the Baptist (patron of the Jasenovac Church) and St. Sava (patron of the Serbian people) intercede on their people’s behalf. (from pages 101-102.)

Канон Светим Српским Мученицима – песма 7.

Uploaded on May 28, 2008 by ognjens

The truth about the Croatian concentration camp

April 18, 2013
April 16— To the Editor:

Kudos to your newspaper for not hesitating to publish the truth about Croatia’s notorious Jasenovac concentration camp.

I hope that many people read this excellent, well-researched article by John Meinhold, so that they can know that Auschwitz and Dachau, and other concentration camps in World War II Germany, were more than matched in World War II by Croatia’s Jasenovac camp.

My own maternal grandfather was one of the victims of Croatia’s Ustasha (Nazi) regime, led by the notorious Ante Pavelic. My grandfather, an innocent farmer, was massacred not in Jasenovac, but in his field of corn for the sole reason that he was a Christian Orthodox Serb, and not of the same skewed Croatian Catholicism which, to this day, has not been put to task for the horrific World War II deeds perpetrated upon Serbs, Jews and Roma. If one knows Yugoslav history, it is not all that difficult to connect the dots from the 1940s to the 1990s, as Croatia finally achieved what it was after in World War II, i.e. separation from Yugoslavia, supported primarily by its World War II German and Vatican allies. The United States joined that duo, totally ignoring World War II history. Today, Croatia is virtually ethnically cleansed of all non-Croatians. Close to 300,000 Christian Serbs were ethnically cleansed from their ancestral homes in the 1990s.

The only reason Jasenovac has been kept under wraps in the West is because of Croatia’s connection to the Vatican. That is the truth, even if unpalatable to many. Why else did Pope John Paul II make the trek to Croatia in 1998, supposedly to beatify a notorious war criminal, aka Croatian Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac?

There is sufficient historical evidence to back up what I say here. One only needs to do the necessary research to get to the truth. I would suggest that folks not rely solely on the main media to be informed.

Will Pope Francis be the first pope to pray at the Jasenovac site? A very valid question.

Regards,

Liz Milanovich

Edmonton, Alberta

Also see:

• ST NICHOLAS SERBIAN ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL Diocese of Canada
• Wikipedia: Fr. Theodore Jurewicz
• Orthodox America: Parishes and Missions Church of the Nativity of Christ An Old-Rite Parish in Erie, Pennsylvania
• Church of the Nativity, Russian Orthodox Old Rite

Tagged as: Dr. John Meinhold