Slavko Goldstein (22 August 1928 – 13 September 2017) was a
Croatian
Croatian may refer to:
* Croatia
*Croatian language
*Croatian people
*Croatians (demonym)
See also
*
*
* Croatan (disambiguation)
* Croatia (disambiguation)
* Croatoan (disambiguation)
* Hrvatski (disambiguation)
* Hrvatsko (disambiguation)
* S ...
historian, politician, and fiction writer.
Biography
Early life
Slavko Goldstein was born in
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajev ...
in the
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family of Ivo and Lea Goldstein. His grandfather Aron had come to
Karlovac
Karlovac () is a city in central Croatia. According to the 2011 census, its population was 55,705.
Karlovac is the administrative centre of Karlovac County. The city is located on the Zagreb- Rijeka highway and railway line, south-west of Zagr ...
, which was at the time in the
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with t ...
, in 1890 from
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the ...
. There he worked in Lisander Reich's bookshop, and married the latter's sister Adolfa. The Goldsteins then opened a trade in
Topusko, and later moved to
Orljavac. From there, they moved to
Tuzla
Tuzla (, ) is the third-largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the administrative center of Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it has a population of 110,979 inhabitants.
Tuzla is the economic, cultural, ed ...
where they opened a store and where Slavko's father Ivo (''Izchak'') was born. After he graduated agronomy in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, Slavko's father returned briefly to Tuzla and, as a convinced
Zionist
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in J ...
, moved to
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 i ...
. He lived in an agricultural
kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
near
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropoli ...
. In 1928, with his wife Lea, whom he had met in Palestine, he returned to the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...
– not in Tuzla with his father, but in Karlovac where he took over the bookshop from his uncle Lisander Reich. Slavko was born during a trip to
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajev ...
, and spent his childhood in Karlovac with his brother
Danko (''Daniel''), where his father was a book dealer.
Second World War
During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
and the 1941
Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia
World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941, when the country was swiftly conquered by Axis forces and partitioned between Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and their client regimes. Shortly after Germany attacked ...
, Slavko's father was arrested by the
Ustaša, while Slavko escaped from Karlovac to where he was hidden by the Djerek family. His brother Danko took his grandfather Aron to Tuzla, while his mother Lea was in jail from July to August, when she was released thanks to some friends. In January 1942, all three were found in
Kraljevica
Kraljevica (known as ''Porto Re'' in Italian and literally translated as "King's cove" in English) is a town in the Kvarner region of Croatia, located between Rijeka and Crikvenica, approximately thirty kilometers from Opatija and near the entr ...
.
They thus joined the
Partisans with whom they stayed until the end of the war. From Spring 1942 to 1945, Goldstein was active in the field and combat units of the NOVJ.
[Slavko Goldstein, 2007, str. 479] He ended the war, at 17, with the rank of
Lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
.
His mother Lea spent the war in the medical service, and his brother Danko as a courier for the Agitprop of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia
The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...
(KPJ).
Slavko's father was killed at
Jadovno concentration camp
The Jadovno concentration camp was a concentration and extermination camp in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during World War II. Commanded by Juco Rukavina, it was the first of twenty-six concentration camps in the NDH during the war. Est ...
at the end of July or the first day of August 1941. Apart from his father, Slavko lost a part of the family from Tuzla during the Holocaust, who were killed in the
Jasenovac concentration camp
Jasenovac () was a concentration and extermination camp established in the Jasenovac, Sisak-Moslavina County, village of the same name by the authorities of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in Invasion of Yugoslavia, occupied Yugosla ...
and
Auschwitz.
After the war
After the war, Slavko Goldstein graduated in 1947 from the Karlovac Gymnasium. Then he moved to
Zagreb
Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Sl ...
with his family. After the establishment of the
State of Israel in 1949, he emigrated with his brother Danko and participated in the war for Israel's independence as a member of
Israel Defense Forces. He lived there for few years in a
kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
with his brother.
He returned to
SFR Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...
in the 1950s, and started studying literature and philosophy at the
Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences or the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb (Croatian: ''Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu'') is one of the faculties of the University of Zagreb.
History
The Faculty of Philosophy is the oldest fa ...
, but he never graduated.
In the 1950s, Slavko married the Croat Vera Goldstein. Their son
Ivo Goldstein was born in 1958.
Writing career
During his studies, Goldstein began working as a
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
. He worked at
Jadran Film
Jadran Film is a film production studio and distribution company founded in 1946 in Zagreb, Croatia. In the period between the early 1960s and late 1980s Jadran Film was one of the biggest and most notable film studios in Central Europe, with some ...
, and in 1952 was a member of the editorial staff of ''Vjesnika u srijedu'', editor at
Radio Zagreb
''Hrvatska radiotelevizija'' (abbr. HRT), or Croatian Radiotelevision, is Croatia's public broadcasting company. It operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as well as satellite. HRT is divided into t ...
, and since 1969 editor-in-chief of the publishing house ''Stvarnost''.
Since the 1950s, Goldstein has been continuously active in journalism, publishing and public life in Yugoslavia and later Croatia. He also worked as an editor of ''
Vjesnik
''Vjesnik'' () was a Croatian state-owned daily newspaper published in Zagreb which ceased publication in April 2012. Originally established in 1940 as a wartime illegal publication of the Communist Party of Croatia, it later built and maintained ...
''. He is the founder of the publishing house ''Sveučilišne naklade Liber''."
Goldstein also directed five documentary films, and wrote screenplays for several Yugoslav World War II films such as ''
Signal Over the City'' (''Signali nad gradom'', 1960), ''
Prometheus of the Island'' (''Prometej s otoka Viševice'', 1964; co-written with
Vatroslav Mimica
Vatroslav Mimica (25 June 1923 – 15 February 2020) was a Croatian film director and screenwriter.
Early life
Born in Omiš, Mimica had enrolled at the University of Zagreb School of Medicine before the outbreak of World War II. In 1942 he jo ...
and Krunoslav Quien), and ''
Operation Stadium
''Operation Stadium'' (Serbo-Croatian: ''Akcija stadion'') is a 1977 Croatian film directed by Dušan Vukotić.
Cast
* Igor Galo - Kruno
* Franjo Majetić - Stric Luka
* Zvonimir Črnko - Lujo Verdar
* Božidar Alić - Ferko
* Zvonko Lepet ...
'' (''Akcija stadion'', 1977; co-written with
Dušan Vukotić
Dušan Vukotić (7 February 1927 – 8 July 1998) was a Yugoslav and Croatian cartoonist, author and director of animated films of Montenegrin descent. He is the best known member of the Zagreb school of animated films.
Biography
Vukotić ...
). He edited more than 150 books, and worked as a publisher on about 400 titles.
Later years
One article claims Goldstein identified as "
Yugoslav".
However, in his book '1941: The Year That Keeps Returning' he repeatedly refers to himself as a Croatian Jew. On 20 May 1989, together with his brother and several associates from ''Cankarjeva založba'', where he worked then (
Vlado Gotovac
Vladimir "Vlado" Gotovac (18 September 1930 – 7 December 2000) was a Croatian poet and politician.
Early activism
In the late 1960s, Gotovac joined the Croatian movement demanding political and economic reform, which eventually led to the Croa ...
and
Božo Kovačević were also employed there), he founded the first political party in modern Croatia, the
Croatian Social Liberal Party
The Croatian Social Liberal Party ( hr, Hrvatska socijalno-liberalna stranka or HSLS) is a conservative-liberal political party in Croatia. The HSLS was formed in 1989 as the first Croatian political party formed after the reintroduction of mult ...
(HSLS) and until February 1990 was its President.
He launched the journal for democratic culture "''Erazmus''", of which he was also the editor-in-chief.
During the 1990s, Goldstein opposed the nationalist politics of the Croatian President
Franjo Tuđman
Franjo Tuđman (; 14 May 1922 – 10 December 1999), also written as Franjo Tudjman, was a Croatian politician and historian. Following the country's independence from Yugoslavia, he became the first president of Croatia and served as ...
, as well as the
privatization process. Together with several other Croatian intellectuals, he signed a request for the resignation of President Tuđman in 1993, published in the Erasmus magazine.
Goldstein also argued that Tuđman was more a politician than a historian, and that history was interpreted according to his political views. For Goldstein, Tuđman was a solid personality who did not accept the uprising, that is, he flirted with some
Greater Croatia ideas, but not with the Ustaša.
In 2007, Goldstein published the book ''1941. – Godina koja se vraća'' ("1941 – The Year That Comes Back") for which he received the Cyclop Award for the Publicist Work of the Year.
He founded the publishing house "Novi Liber".
For a time he was President of the Zagreb Jewish Community and of the "Cultural Society Miroslav Šalom Freiberger", and together with his son,
Ivo, historian, advocated the reconstruction of the
Zagreb Synagogue.
Goldstein was then the first president of the Jewish religious community ''Beth Israel'' from Zagreb, founded in 2007 after an internal conflict in the Jewish community of Zagreb led by
Ognjen Kraus.
In 2008, although he had stated that he would visit
Bleiburg together with the
SDP President
Zoran Milanovic
Zoran ( sr-Cyrl, Зоран) is a common South Slavic name, the masculine form of Zora, which means ''dawn, daybreak''. The name is especially common in Serbia, North Macedonia, Croatia and a little in Slovenia.
Notable people with this given n ...
, he finally renounced because he "did not want to hurt the feelings of people from my most intimate circle who pleaded me not to go to Bleiburg."
After the victory of the
SDP-led coalition in the
2011 parliamentary elections, Goldstein became a special advisor for culture of the Croatian Prime Minister
Zoran Milanović
Zoran Milanović (; born 30 October 1966) is a Croatian politician serving as President of Croatia since 19 February 2020. Prior to assuming the presidency, he was prime minister from 2011 to 2016 and president of the Social Democratic Party f ...
, as well as President of the Council of the
Jasenovac Memorial Center
Jasenovac () was a concentration and extermination camp established in the village of the same name by the authorities of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in occupied Yugoslavia during World War II. The concentration camp, one of the ...
. In 2011, together with his son Ivo he published the book ''Jasenovac i Bleiburg nisu isto'' ("Jasenovac and Bleiburg are not the same"). In this book, he opposes those who hold that "... Jasenovac and Bleiburg are simply two identical crimes with different ideological signs."
In 2012, he supported the initiative of his brother Danko to abolish the parliamentary
Bleiburg commemoration.
In 2015, Slavko Goldstein opposed the initiative to introduce the greeting ''
Za dom spremni'' as an official greeting of the
Armed Forces of Croatia
The Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Oružane snage Republike Hrvatske – OSRH) is the military service of Croatia.
The President is the Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief, and exercises administrative powers in times of war by giv ...
. He stated that he would not be able to live in Croatia if the greeting was introduced in the military, schools or other state institutions, and that he would immediately seek political asylum in another European country.
Goldstein died on 13 September 2017.
Works
* ''Okrug Karlovac 1941''; (with I. Butković and M. Bekić), 1965
* ''
Holokaust u Zagrebu
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ar ...
''; 2001
* ''1941. – Godina koja se vraća''; 2007
* ''Jasenovac and Bleiburg are not the same''; 2011 (with his son
Ivo Goldstein)
* ''Josip Broz Tito''; 2015 (with his son Ivo Goldstein)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldstein, Slavko
1928 births
2017 deaths
Writers from Sarajevo
Croatian Jews
Croatian people of Bosnia and Herzegovina-Jewish descent
Croatian people of World War II
20th-century Croatian historians
Croatian screenwriters
Croatian Social Liberal Party politicians
Yugoslav Partisans members
Golden Arena winners
Historians of the Holocaust
Jews in the Yugoslav Partisans
Politicians from Sarajevo
Child soldiers in World War II
21st-century Croatian historians