by Franci Kindlhofer
Following the well-known and tested recipe, the Union of the associations for the values of the national liberation movement of Slovenia (ZZB NOB) once again wrote a protest letter to RTV Slovenia, because their journalist and historian dr. Jože Možina dared to critique their “Tablets of Stone,” engraved with the whole inviolable truth of our recent past.
When I saw this protest letter on Twitter, I could not help myself and I looked closely at this “truth-loving” and militant organization, which always squeals when someone steps on its tail. I had already looked into it years ago, when Janez Stanovnik was still its president. Gorenjski glas published an advertisement of this association inviting new members to its ranks, especially young people who are interested in historical truth. I felt addressed, thus I sent my application to the regional committee. It seemed very strange to me that I had not received any answer for a long time. When I follwed-up, I was informed that my application had been sent to the local committee. I have never heard anything from them since. I was deeply offended that they did not let me to the source of the truth and, like them, I kept quiet.
One only has to browse the website a bit to realise that the taxpayer’s money is being put to good use. The union is efficiently organized. It maintains around 85 associations throughout Slovenia, whose presidents form the main committee. As far as I know, the societies employ secretaries. The Board consists of the President, four Vice-Presidents and the Secretary-General. The presidency consists of ten members and the president of the youth organizations. Ten committees consisting of 72 working members are responsible for the content and work. Such a large team is certainly needed as they do have to do an extensive amount of work. It seems that events are a very important activity, as they currently have 16 events planned until the end of this year. The Award Committee is also very busy – by October this year, it has awarded 101 medals . In addition, they publish publications and books. If I compare this organization with our Association of Prisoners and Other Victims of Communist Violence, it is becomes clear to me why we are scraping by. We do not have our own premises and we have EUR 1,000 in our bank account. This is unacceptable and a real shame and and the government should do something about it. Of course, the ZZB members will laugh at us now, but I hope that not for long.
I note that taxpayer money is not only wasted, but it also supports the spread of hatred among the nation, erodes democracy, supports unanimity, and hinders the real processing of our history. ZZB is overflown with dubious literature, which above all conveys, especially to young unschooled people, a completely distorted history. I am an advocate of freedom of speech and of the press, but I do not think that propaganda material in the style of the Bolshevik revolution should be tolerated, and especially not incitement to intolerance and justification of violence. This organization is manipulating carefree young people who do not yet have formed social views of the world. For this reason alone, this association must be banned immediately. At least this content. I wonder if SOVA ever looked at what was going on there. It is unconstitutional.
Some examples of posts that should not be tolerated
The author Milan Gorjanc begins the article about Huda jama with: “In October, there were some pious events in our country, when politicians bowed over the bones of fallen enemies in the Second World War.” He justifies the massacre with the events of two years ago in Bosnia and considers civilians a part of the enemy’s army. He ends with the sentence: “Our president stood by the wreath with the inscription Glory to our heroes, the bishops donated a mass for the victims of “communist violence”. In fact, these are the bones of hardened criminals who killed with the blessing of the church.” This is content that should not be passed on to a young person without a thorough explanation. It is mental violence against the youth.
That ZZB interferes in in the current politics is evident from Janez Stanovnik’s booklet “Fight for the Future“. In it, the “father of the nation” tries to generously explain that OF was born out of patriotism and it strengthened patriotism, despite the mistakes and defeats, through which it struggled. It tried to build bridges until the independence of Slovenia, as if this had always been in the OF plan, but then, out of the blue, it found out that merits for this were appropriated by some new, self-proclaimed liberators at the time of independence in 1990.
Perhaps Možina and Omerza should add more something than omit anything.
Franci Kindlhofer is vice-president of the Association of Political Prisoners and Other Victims of Communist Violence. He graduated from the Academy of World Trade in Frankfurt am Main. He translated the book Stalin and Hitler – Pact against Europe into Slovene. He has been living in Bled since his retirement. His motto are the words of dr. Jože Pučnik: “Slovenians must re-write recent history completely anew.”