Luring investors and tenants with the promise of gentrification, the Victorian state government and municipal council promote Footscray as ‘an artsy, edgy, affordable, regional and multicultural centre’. In the jargon of the real-estate tout, the Melbourne suburb is now ‘vibrant’, ‘ethnically diverse’ and ‘cosmopolitan’.
While it is tired, the image is accurate enough. The brand rests on the suburb’s demographic profile, its East Meets West Tet festival, the Little Saigon marketplace and other assorted African, South Asian and South-East Asian retail stores.
The ‘edgy’ part, on the other hand, might derive from the local Croatian House (Hrvatski Dom). There patrons can sit for a quiet meal of pork and mashed potatoes, surrounded by Ustasha paraphernalia.
In the foyer, visitors can offer homage or pose cheerily next to a bust of the great fascist Poglavnik, Ante Pavelić, leader of one of history’s most terrifyingly murderous governments.
The Ustasha were perhaps more bloodthirsty than the Nazis. Certainly the Wehrmacht, along with the Italian fascist officer corps, expressed unease at their sadistic ‘excesses’.
At extermination camps like Jasenovac, hundreds of thousands of people were murdered, not merely by cremation and gassing, but also by hand: pulverized with hammers, slashed open with knives, hacked apart with saws.
In the Wannsee Protocol, Nazi officials remarked that implementing the Final Solution in Croatia would be ‘no longer so difficult, since the most substantial problems in this respect have already been brought near a solution.’ Even Joseph Goebbels recoiled at the barbarity of the Ustaše, gasping in his diaries at a ‘regime of terror which defies description.’
If that stimulates your appetite, get down to Croatian House in Footscray.
It’s located only a few hundred metres from Maribyrnong City Council, which speaks elsewhere, in a promotional booklet, of trying to ‘raise community awareness of the impact of racial discrimination’. In its Indigenous Action Plan, the council speaks piously of the need to promote ‘respect’, ‘reconciliation’ and an ‘inclusive community’.
In another lecture, municipal authorities explain that:
People who are considered ‘other’ or ‘different’ can feel invisible, disenfranchised, silenced and stigmatised.
The council resolves to address ‘stigma through education strategies and in social marketing campaigns.’
Perhaps it might first look under its own fucking nose.
Tags: Australia, fascism, nationalism, racism
Churls Gone Wild 
June 30, 2010 at 8:32 am |
Woah. I hope they do read this! I had no idea it was that bad.
July 2, 2010 at 2:51 am |
It’s nothing they don’t already know. The Sunday Herald Sun ran an article about it two years ago.
July 4, 2010 at 7:56 am |
That video gives me the creeps, it wasn’t you filming was it? It reminds me of a video that someone would film as they were about to unleash gunfire on unsuspecting people ala Columbine.
Good post by the way, bitingly bitey as usual:)
July 4, 2010 at 10:23 am |
Nah, it wasn’t me. It’s even more creepy to think that the cinematographer’s silence is probably meant to suggest his reverence, as he zooms in on the photos of Pavelić and Tudjman (the latter responsible for, among other things, the 1995 “ethnic cleansing” of some 200 000 Serbs from Krajina).
July 6, 2010 at 3:37 am |
This is horrifying! And that article was two years ago – I can’t believe the restaurant hasn’t been shut down. Let’s deface the bust with pork and mashed potato.
September 5, 2011 at 8:42 am |
Ustasha – nazi scum
October 7, 2011 at 1:50 pm |
Ignorance is bliss! The entire artical is absolute Bullshit! Jasenovac was never an extermination camp and simple original sources prooves that. Bloodthirsty? hypocritical! The entire population of Indigenous Australians were exterminated in the state of Tasmania by the very same people who ended up forming the Commonwealth of Australia.
Ustase does not = National Socialisim!
Fools!
March 27, 2018 at 3:24 am |
Dear Nick, What I love about these blogs is that you come across so much regurgitated Communist era trash with absolutely no evidence supporting the either the numbers tooted, physical proof of the alleged atrocities, or who the authors of the propaganda you are peddling. So here you go, my name is John Ovcaric, Im a Croat, writer, blogger, historian of sorts and political commentator. And although this is a very OLDddddddddddddddddddd thread, thats happens to use an image of a relative of mine who I will be informing about this thread and your unauthorised use of her image, lets put this out there, I am happy to come and address what ever lynching party you care to muster regarding both your comments here and also the source of the propaganda you have utilised and some hard core evidence that will open a few eyes and probably see them leave the presentation with tears of remorse, the big question is however, can you handle the truth or am I going to be crucified digitally on this page by faceless avatars, your choice, I’m very easy to find.