During the conference entitled "European Culture of Remembrance in the case of Croats' suffering in the Bleiburg field and along the so-called Way of Cross", Lithuanian member of the European Parliament, Rasa Juknevičienė, of the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) , said that the Nazi regime was properly evaluated and condemned, however, Communism and Communist crimes have never been treated as they should be.
Juknevičienė. whose grandparents were forced to go to Siberia during the Soviet Communist regime where they died in a camp, has set up the "Informal Group on European Remembrance" with the aim of campaigning for the erection of a monument to victims of all the totalitarian regimes in the European Parliament.
Bulgarian MEP Andrey Kovatchev,, a representative of the GERB party, a member of the EPP, said that Fascism, Nazism and Communism were three equally gross evils which were not condemned in the equal manner in the present-day Europe.
Austrian historian Florian Rulitz, the author of the book "The Tragedy of Bleiburg and Viktring, 1945" which is about the atrocities and mass murders committed by Josip Broz Tito's Partisan units of the Yugoslav Army immediately after the Second World War, also addressed the conference.
Croatian MEP Zovko (EPP) said that "today's conference builds on important events I organized before, with the aim to commemorate and reflect upon the lives affected by totalitarianism."
"Millions of lives were lost during one of the darkest chapters of European history. It is our duty to ensure that history never repeats itself. In Central and Eastern Europe, the end of World War II marked the defeat of fascist terror and wartime atrocities, yet, tragically, it did not bring democracy. Instead, it ushered in a new form of totalitarianism—communism—with Croatia too facing this fate, remaining deprived of freedom and democracy for nearly half a century. While in Western Europe, the end of the war signaled an end to unprecedented horrors and fascist crimes, notably the Holocaust, in Croatia, May 1945 also became a symbol of horrific post-war communist crimes;" she said.
"At that time, tens of thousands—disarmed soldiers of the defeated forces, as well as a large number of civilians fleeing the establishment of the communist regime—were killed without trial along the path from Bleiburg through Tezno and along the 'Way of the Cross' or the 'death marches,' and buried in unmarked graves," she said.
These mass killings, along with the persecution, arrests of so-called 'class enemies' and dissenters, and repressive actions against the Catholic Church, stirred unrest and fear within the Croatian people, said the Croatian MEP.
"This is why, to this day, this period in Croatian history remains deeply painful and traumatic, even though Croatia emerged from World War II on the side of victory."