The Croatian capital of Zagreb hosted a massive and deeply troubling event on July 5.
Half a million people packed the city’s Hippodrome for a concert by Croatian singer Marko Perković Thompson, who is known for lyrics that glorify the dark ideology of the Ustaše, the Nazi puppet regime that existed during World War II.
Many attendees, bearing militaristic iconography associated with that murderous regime, shouted chilling slogans such as “Kill the Serbs” and “Hang the Serbs.” These chants echoed the horrors of a past many hoped had been buried forever.
What makes this event especially disturbing is not merely the performance itself, but the political support it received. Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković publicly endorsed the gathering, lending institutional legitimacy to a narrative that is not only offensive to Serbs, Jews, Roma and anti-fascist Croats but fundamentally incompatible with the values upon which modern Europe is built.
As the 30th anniversary of “Operation Storm"—the military campaign launched on Aug. 4, 1995, during which Croatia ethnically cleansed more than 200,000 Serbs from its territory—approaches, we are witnessing a dangerous phenomenon: a crime that was never fully prosecuted is now openly glorified. This is not an isolated case, but part of a broader effort to erase historical memory, deny justice and reframe symbols of hatred as “cultural expression.”
The ideology celebrated at this concert has a well-documented legacy. The Ustaše, known also as the Independent State of Croatia, operated under the protection of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, and orchestrated the genocide of Serbs, Jews, Roma and dissident Croats during World War II. In concentration camps such as Jasenovac, Stara Gradiška and Lepoglava, victims were murdered brutally and systematically.
One of the darkest chapters was the establishment of concentration camps for children, such as the one in Sisak, where many died from hunger, disease, and abuse. These atrocities were not random acts of violence; they were state policy in pursuit of a “pure Croatian land.”
Today, the public celebration of that ideology, particularly when endorsed by state institutions, is a dangerous form of historical revisionism.
That same hatred resurfaced in August 1995 with Operation Storm. According to Human Rights Watch, in just 36 hours, more than 200,000 Serbs were expelled, and at least 526 people, including 116 civilians, were killed, mostly after the fighting had ended. In the following months, at least 150 elderly or infirm Serbs were executed extrajudicially, 110 disappeared, and entire Serbian villages were looted and burned.
Human Rights Watch noted that top Croatian officials, including Defense Minister Gojko Šušak and Army Chief Zvonimir Červenko, did not merely fail to stop the crimes; they facilitated their continuation “in an atmosphere of total impunity.”
Three decades later, justice remains elusive, and the crimes have been largely erased from public discourse. Incredibly, Operation Storm is celebrated in Croatia as a “liberation.”
Croatian schoolbooks omit the story of murder and expulsion, the media avoids mention of it, and public figures continue to glorify Ustaše symbolism. This deliberately commodifies the past for political gain, at the cost of truth and reconciliation.
At a time when Europe faces rising extremism, silence in the face of the rehabilitation of fascism is a form of complicity. While Austria, Slovenia, the Netherlands, and Switzerland have banned Thompson from performing, and both the EU and the European Jewish Federation condemned the concert, Croatia did the opposite: it tacitly endorsed it. History teaches us that evil, which is not named and condemned, will always return.
Because of Europe’s heavy historical burden—and particularly the unhealed trauma of the Holocaust—such events must not be ignored. It is simply unthinkable that in the European Union in 2025, songs are being sung in praise of a regime that murdered women, children and the elderly for who they were.
The silence of many European institutions following the Zagreb concert is not only politically and morally irresponsible - it is an insult to the memory of all victims, whether their names were Goldstein, Kabiljo, Levi, Petrović or Jovanović.
Serbia honors the past with reverence—not to be imprisoned by it, but to learn from it. True reconciliation begins with the acknowledgment of every pain and every life lost, regardless of name, faith, or flag.
Guided by this truth, Serbia chooses cooperation over conflict, dialogue over denial and a shared future built on regional peace, European values, and unwavering respect for the rights of all refugees and displaced persons. This is not just a strategic path; it is a moral one. And it is time for the rest of Europe to do the same.
