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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: September 14, 2006 |
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The Croatian government and the city of Zagreb will finance the reconstruction of a synagogue that was leveled during World War II, when Croatia was a Nazi puppet state, officials said Wednesday.
The new synagogue will be built at the site of the old one in downtown Zagreb -- currently a car park run by the Jewish community.
"We want to correct the historical error," said Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, who met Croatian Jewish representatives late Tuesday.
Croatia's wartime pro-Nazi regime blew up the synagogue, and the site was later confiscated by the communist authorities. The Croatian government returned the site to the Jewish community in 1999.
There has been no synagogue in Zagreb since the war, and the Jews here have been using their community building for that purpose.
Croatia's late President Franjo Tudjman was often accused of generating nationalism reminiscent of World War II, when about 30,000 Croatian Jews perished in concentration camps. Only about 2,500 Jews live in Croatia now.
While some people in Croatia still tend to deny wartime crimes committed by their compatriots, pro-Western governments that took power after Tudjman's death in 1999 have clearly condemned Nazism and fascism. |
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