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Vladimir Žerjavić (August 2, 1912 - September 5, 2001) was a Croatian economist and a United Nations specialist who published a series of revisionist historical articles and books during the 1980s and 1990s in which he argued that the scope of the Holocaust in World War II-era Croatia was exaggerated. Zerjavic is notorious for inflating death count during war 1991-1995 and also for making all-to-convenient and inflated counts of the killed Ustasha soldiers in Bleiburg. Most Serbs and Serbian historians see him as a blatant holocaust denier, prone to manipulations and arbitrary undocumented calculations that people such as David Irving never resorted to.

Žerjavić asserted that Yugoslavia lost 1,027,000 people in World War II. Of that, 295,000 died in Croatia, and 328,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina (both part of the Independent State of Croatia and under the Ustasa regime at the time), and another 36,000 from those countries died abroad. His claim includes 153,000 civilian victims in Croatia and 174,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and of that, 85,000 people from Bosnia and Herzegovina and 48,000 from Croatia died in concentration camps. It went against all official figures, and denied hundreds of thousands of Serbian deaths in Jasenovac and other places.

Zerjavic used growth rate for Serbs in Bosnia as 1,1%(as for all nations together), while acctual growth rate was 2,4%(1921-1931) and 3,5%(1949-1953).

With regard to the Serbs, Žerjavić's calculation ended with a total of 197,000 Serbian civilian victims on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia: 50,000 in the Jasenovac concentration camp, 45,000 killed by the Germans, 34,000 civilians killed in battles between Ustashas, Chetniks and Partisans, 28,000 killed in prisons, pits and other camps, etc. Another 125,000 Serbian people from NDH were killed as combatants, raising the total to 322,000.

Due to heavy lobbying on the side of new Croatian seccesionist government in the 90s, that went so far as to propose reburial of Ustashe from Bleiburg with their victims in Jasenovac as a sign of "national reconcilation" between Croats (though most victims in Jasenovac were Serbs), in the time of renewed persecution of Serbs, and renamed streets after such Ustashe figures as Mile Budak, Žerjavić's (and Bogoljub Kočović's) calculations of war losses in Yugoslavia during WW2 were accepted at some international institutions. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has accepted such figures, together with other estimates:

"Due to differing views and lack of documentation, estimates for the number of Serbian victims in Croatia range widely, from 25,000 to more than one million. The estimated number of Serbs killed in Jasenovac ranges from 25,000 to 700,000. The most reliable figures place the number of Serbs killed by the Ustaša between 330,000 and 390,000, with 45,000 to 52,000 Serbs murdered in Jasenovac."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Yad Vashem on the other side did not accept this new Croatian-state sponsored revisionism.

Žerjavić's opinions and statements

His investigations and statistical analysis aim to show that the original number of lives lost on all sides in the Balkans was considerably exaggerated for the sake of war reparations claims by the Yugoslav government shortly after the war. His primary intent was to demonstrate with these findings that there should be no argument for further bloodshed between Croats and Serbs based on these exaggerated figures, that much of the revenge had already occurred between Croats and Serbs during the war, and that Croats and Serbs could continue to live together peacefully, as they had for centuries.

Žerjavić also stated that the majority of Croats and Serbs fought side by side against the Nazis, as did he, in Tito's partisan army.

Excerpt from Žerjavić's book "Manipulations with WW2 victims in Yugoslavia":

“One should also believe that the Serbians in Croatia, who have lived in these territories for more than four centuries, will realize that they are not endangered in a community with Croatians. They especially should not be afraid that any form of genocide could occur, because they themselves know best that during the Second World War a large number of Croatians stood at their defense, and that they, along with Serbians, contributed to the National Liberation War, and even prevented a larger number of victims. It should be mentioned that the regular Croatian Army (Domobrani) also helped with their passive role and even by logistic support to the partisan units.

It should be noted that vengeance for the crimes committed by the Ustashas was executed immediately after the war, with the terrible massacres at Bleiburg in Austria and during the so-called Way of the Cross (Death Marches), when many innocent opponents of the Communist regime were also killed. Therefore, enacting vengeance against the Croatians, with whom the Serbians in Croatia have peacefully lived for the past 45 years, could not be excused, neither morally nor politically.

After the artificially created euphoria is over, and once peace is established, all reasonable and objective Serbians will -- I strongly believe -- realize that their common life with Croatians, in a state with a prosperous economic future, is the most acceptable solution for them.“

- Vladimir Žerjavić, Zagreb, April 27, 1992

Controversy

Critics consider his work to have been politically motivated, with the aim of downplaying nationalist Ustashi atrocities during the war, such as at the concentration camp of Jasenovac. Some go so far to state he was a Holocaust denier.

Critics point out that Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia lived in rural areas and therefore had much higher growth rate then others. Zerjavic used growth rate for Serbs in Bosnia as 1,1%(as for all nations together), while acctual growth rate was 2,4%(1921-1931) and 3,5%(1949-1953). He underestimated growth rate of Serbs in order to decrease Serbs death count, according to critics.

According to investigations of Vladimir Zerjavic overall there are 220,000 victims in Bosnia-Herzegovina of which 160.000 Muslims,30.000 Croasts and 25.000 Serbs. The number of people killed in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was around 102,000, according to research done by the International Criminal Tribunalfor the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Ammong killed it was found 69,24% Muslims, 25,35 % Serbs and 5,33% Croats. Everybody could see how Zerjavic obviously inflated Croatian death count to be higher then Serbian death count, although Serbian death count was 5 times higher. He inflated total death count 2 times and inflated Muslim count 2 times.

External links

• Vladimir Zerjavic: Manipulations with WW2 victims in Yugoslavia
• Dinko Sakic trial:Jasenovac Memorial Area

• 1912 births
• 2001 deaths