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The Jewish community voiced its "deepest indignation over the lack of any official ... reaction by Croatian authorities about the display of banned (pro-Nazi) Ustasha symbols during a recent concert by Marko Perkovic in Zagreb."
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ZAGREB (AFP)---Croatian Jewish groups voiced anger Tuesday after authorities in the country failed to condemn a weekend concert by a local folk singer that featured numerous pro-Nazi symbols.
The community voiced its "deepest indignation over the lack of any official ... reaction by Croatian authorities about the display of banned (pro-Nazi) Ustasha symbols during a recent concert by Marko Perkovic in Zagreb."
"Indifference and blindness of that kind ... not only harms Croatia’s reputation, reminding of its darkest and most shameful times, but also jeopardises its future," it said in a statement.
Sunday’s concert was attended by some 60,000 people, including several members of parliament.
The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre already criticised the event and called for a ban on concerts by singers who glorify fascism and racism.
Perkovic, alias Thompson, is seen as an icon by Croatian nationalists and is supported by right-wing politicians.
Later on Tuesday, the Croatian government slammed in a statement "attempts to use insignia and salutes from the times of World War II Ustasha regime." Without referring directly to the concert, the government urged "all those who exert influence on youth to cultivate and advocate values on which today's Europe is founded."
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He is known for sympathising with Croatia’s 1940s pro-Nazi Ustasha regime at his concerts where, dressed in black, he gives a Hitler-style salutes and shouts Ustasha slogans.
According to local media reports however, Perkovic refrained from pro-Ustasha references and salutes on Sunday.
Hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, anti-fascist Croatians, Gypsies and others were killed in the country’s concentration camps by Croatia’s World War II pro-Nazi Ustasha regime.
