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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 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.

Žerjavić calculated 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 Ustaše regime at the time). Furthermore, another 36,000 from those countries died abroad. His calculation 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 who died in concentration camps.

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 Ustaše, 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.

Most international agencies have accepted Croat Žerjavić's (and almost equal data calculated independently by Serbian statistician Bogoljub Kočović) calculations as the most reliable data on war losses in Yugoslavia during WW2. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum reports:

"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 Ustaše between 330,000 and 390,000, with 45,000 to 52,000 Serbs murdered in Jasenovac."

A notable exception still seems to be the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

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. His primary intent was to demonstrate that there should be no argument for further bloodshed between Croats and Serbs based on the exaggerated figures as much of the revenge had already occurred between Croats and Serbs during the war. Moreover, Croats and Serbs should continue to live together peacefully, as they had done 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 Ustaše 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 living together with Croatians, in a state with a prosperous economic future, is the most acceptable solution for them.“

- Vladimir Žerjavić, Zagreb, April 27, 1992

Controversy

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

Žerjavić also fabricated a passage ("Slobodan Milosevic stated that he will 'unite all Serbs into one state, either with institutional or non-institutional measures, even with weapons if necessary', what was done in 1991") purportedly from Slobodan Milošević's famous 1989 Kosovo speech which does not appear in said speech . Opponents would point to this as an example of Žerjavić ethics and "honesty."

Proponents point out that Croatia proper had circa 650,000 Serb inhabitants in 1941 — virtually the same percentage of Croatia's population as in the first post-war census. In 1931, there were 3,430,270 people in Croatia, of which around 633,000 Serbs (~18.5%). In 1948, there were 3,779,858 inhabitants, of which the Serbs numbered 543,795 (14.38%).

Defenders of Žerjavić contend that had genocide of such monstrous proportions as those for whom Žerjavić is a bete noire claim really happened, this would certainly have left a vast and all-too-visible hole in the country's demographics. They contend that other researchers and comparison of official censa in 1931 and 1948 bears this out.

See also

• World War II casualties

External links

• Vladimir Zerjavic: Manipulations with WW2 victims in Yugoslavia
• Lies of dr. Bulajic on the Internet: a polemic with Director of the Museum of Victims of Genocide in Belgrade
• Dinko Sakic trial:Jasenovac Memorial Area

• 1912 births
• 2001 deaths
• Croatian economists