Jerusalem - The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed its sense of outrage in response to the July 22 annulment by theZagreb County Court of the 1946 conviction
In a statement issued by its Director for Eastern European Affairs, Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted Stepinac's supportfor the Ustasha rulers of the NDH despite the horrific crimes they committed against innocent civilians.
According to Zuroff:
"As the leading Catholic priest in the NDH, Stepinac's responsibility was to speak out on behalf of the innocent victims of the Ustasha, notto lend spiritual support to their murderers. The genocidal campaign waged by the Ustasha against Serbs, their active participation in Holocaust crimes against Jews, and the murder of Roma andanti-fascist Croatians carried out in their network of concentration camps are among the most heinous crimes of World War II. No person who supported that regime should have their convictionannulled."
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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in theUnited States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament(Parlatino).