By:Franci Kindlhofer
Already after the well-worn scenario, ZZB NOB again wrote a protest letter to RTVS, because their journalist and historian dr. Jože Možina allowed himself to scratch on their Moses plaques, in which the whole truth of our recent past, which is inviolable, is engraved.
When I saw this protest letter on Twitter, I couldn’t help but take a closer look at this “truth-loving” and militant organization that always screams when someone steps on its tail. Otherwise, I took a closer look at it years ago, when Janez Stanovnik was still president. Namely, Gorenjski glas published an advertisement of this association to invite new members to its ranks, especially young people who are interested in historical truth. I felt addressed, so 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. On my reminder, I was informed that my matter had been sent to the local committee. I never heard anything from there again. I was deeply offended that they didn’t let me to the source of the truth, so I kept quiet myself.
One only has to browse the website a bit, and it soon becomes clear that taxpayer money is being put to good use. The union is highly efficiently organised. It maintains around 85 associations throughout Slovenia, whose presidents also represent the main committee. As far as I know, the societies also have employed secretaries. The Board consists of a President, four Vice-Presidents and a Secretary-General. The presidency still consists of ten members and the president of youth organisations. The content and work are taken care of by ten committees, in which 72 members work. Such a large team is certainly needed as they have to do an extensive task board. It seems that events are a very important activity, as they still have 16 events on the programmme by the end of the year. The Decorations Committee is also very busy, as they have already awarded 101 decorations by October this year. In addition, they publish publications and books. If I compare this organisation with our Association of Prisoners and Other Victims of Communist Violence, then it is clear to me why we live this way. We do not have our own premises, but we have EUR 1,000 in the account. This is a real shame and unacceptable and the government will definitely have to do something. Of course, ZZB members will laugh at us now, but I hope not for long.
I note that taxpayer money is not only wasted without, but also supports the spread of hatred among the nation, erodes democracy, supports one-mindedness and hinders the real processing of our history. ZZB is overflowing with dubious literature, which primarily conveys, especially to young ignorant 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, especially not incitement to intolerance and justification of violence. This is especially so if we know that this organisation is tackling unencumbered young people who did not yet have form social views of the world. For that reason alone, its association must be banned immediately. At least to that extent and with that content. I wonder if SOVA (=Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency) ever looked at what was going on there. This is unconstitutional.
Some examples of posts that should not be tolerated
The author Milan Gorjanc begins the article on Huda jama as follows: “In October, there were some pious events in our country, when politicians worshiped the bones of fallen enemies in the Second World War.” He justifies the massacre with the events of two years ago in Bosnia and counts civilians as the enemy army. He concludes 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 also 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 youth.
That ZZB also has pretensions of interfering in current politics is evident from Janez Stanovnik‘s book “Fight for the Future“. In it, the “father of the nation” tries to generously explain that OF (=Liberation Front) was born out of patriotism and strengthened patriotism, despite the mistakes, defeats and mistakes it made its way through. Then he tries to build bridges until the independence of Slovenia, as if this had always been in the OF plan, but then he finds out that these merits were appropriated by some new, self-proclaimed liberators at the time of independence in 1990.
Maybe Možina and Omerza should add something rather than omit it.
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.”