An afternoon TV talk show aired by the public broadcaster HRT on May 30 presented ideas and claims that insulted, shocked, and disturbed members of the Jewish community in Croatia, the Jewish group Beth Israel said in a press release on Monday.

“Even more shocking is the fact that such ideas are being promoted on public television,” the group said.

Beth Israel was referring to the views presented by journalist and writer Igor Vukic in a programme that aired last week.

Vukic is known for his claims that the World War II-era Jasenovac concentration camp run by the Croatian fascist Ustasha regime during the war served in fact as a labour camp, and that no crimes on a massive scale were committed there.

The programme talked about his recent book on the Jasenovac camp, and he again contested the figure of about 80,000 people killed in the camp by the pro-Nazi Ustasha regime.

Beth Israel said that that the theses presented in the talk show were a clear case of Holocaust denial.

“In countries to whose civilisational and cultural circles we (Croatians) wish to belong, Holocaust denial is considered a form of anti-Semitism,” Beth Israel said.

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