ANTI-FASCIST FIGHTERS MARK 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF JEWISH BATTALION

ZAGREB, March 7 (Hina) - The Alliance of Anti-Fascist Fighters of Croatia (SABH) on Sunday marked the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Jewish Battalion which in WWII fought as part of the Seventh Banija Division of the National Liberation Army.#L# The battalion, also known as the Rab Battalion, was formed after Italy capitulated in November 1943 and included Jews then liberated from a concentration camp on Rab island. Three-hundred Jewish Battalion fighters joined the Seventh Banija Division and 70 died in battles fought on Croatian territory, said Adam Dupalo, president of the SABH Seventh Banija Brigade section. "The Seventh Banija Brigade's members were of 16 different nationalities who fought side by side, so shame on those saying that we are Serbo-Chetniks," he said. Slavko Goldstein said there were 39,000 Jews in the 1941 Independent State of Croatia, but that only between 8,000 and 9,000 survived the war, including 5,000 who survived thanks to the National Liberation Struggle (NOB). The partisans helped rescue 3,200 Jews from the Rab concentration camp, of whom 900 joined the NOB while the rest was evacuated, he said. Golstein thanked the partisans for enabling Jews to "honorably fight against those who wanted to exterminate us". The president of the SABH Seventh Banija Division section, Mirko Mecava, said the marking of the anniversary was aimed at shutting up the Ustasha followers who were saying that the Banija partisans were Serbo-Chetniks. (Hina) ha sb