In connection with the letter of Mr G. Herrington [Salient 18 July], entitled "Catholic Atrocities". I was interested to note that your cartoonist apparently regards the matter as a joke — this reaction I have observed frequently among Roman Catholics, I would respectfully-point out that a more appropriate picture for this sort of letter would be one showing, say, Jasenovac or Stara Gradiska Concentration Camps in Croatia and/or photographs of some of the unfortunate victims of the Ustashi murderers, the main victims being Eastern Orthodox Serbs and Jews, although other minorities were also included, e.g. Atheist-Communists and Catholics who were opposed to the Ustashi regime in the Independent State of Croatia, in Yugoslavia.

The concentration camp at Jasenovac was originally a brickyard, and the fourteen ovens in it had been converted for the purpose of burning people alive. The process used initially [early 1942] was to cremate the victims alive, that is, simply open the huge doors and push them alive into the fires already alight there. This excited a terrible reaction amongst those who were to be burned; people shrieked, shouted and defended themselves. To avoid such scenes [unclear: ti] was decided to kill them first and then burn the bodies. The first commandant of Jasenovac was Ljubo Milos [an Ustashi], who was later replaced by the Franciscan priest Br. Miroslav Filipovitch [also Ustashi] who was assisted by Zvonko Lipovac, Fr. Brekalo and Fr. Culina, also Ustashi members.

The mass murders and deportations would be unbelievable were they not authenticated. That clerics took part in the butchery was acknowedged by men such as Cardinal Tisserand, but there were no protests from the Prunce of Peace in the Vatican. Mass murders occurred throughout the state of Croatia, and at a later stage the strayed Orthodox sheep were given the option of returning to the one true church. Typical atrocities carried out by the Catholic Ustashi and their victims alive after tying their hands behind their backs, gourging the eyes out of their living victims, amputation of arms, legs noses, skull splitting, young girls having their breasts cut and their hands made to pass through them, bludgeoning with hammers, mallet, bars etc. The photographic records of these atrocities remind one of the book "The Scourge of the Swastika" — not bedtime reading. It was in the early stages of World War II that the worst atrocities occurred, when the Vatican was certain that the Nazis, Fascists and Ustasha — whom they supported — would beat the Allies, including the Communists, who were on our side. In October 1944, Belgrade was liberated by the Soviet Army and the Comminist Partisans, and the state of Yugoslavia was eventually unified again under the Croat who led the Partisans, one Joslp Broz, otherwise known as Tito

In closing, I would point out that the letter by Mr Herrington introduces a topic which is relevant and fundamental to our society, and I invite the Salient Cartoonist to give us another funny picture. I also invite the Catholic students to have a good laugh about this discussion — I'm sure they will find it hilarious — and I invite the non-Catholic students to direct a little less attention to solving problems in South Africa and to direct a little more attention to examining problems in New Zealand.