ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY

We should mention another manipulation with the results of anthropological research, made by Dr. Vida Brodar and Dr. Ante Pogacnik from Ljubljana, and Dr. Srboljub Zivanovic from Novi Sad, between June 22 and 27, 1964 in Jasenovac.

The TV show Porota (Jury) was broadcasted from Belgrade on November 13,1989. The participants in the show were Dr. Milan Bulajic, Dr. Nikola Zivkovic, Dr. Vjenceslav Glisic, Prof. R.Petrovic, and Mr. Antun Miletic from Belgrade and Zeljko Kruselj, Slavko Goldstein, and myself from Zagreb. A section of the documentary "Jasenovac", by Lordan Zafranovic, was shown as an introduction to the discussion. During the program, Dr. Srboljub Zivanovic stated that the aforementioned commission calculated that in the Jasenovac-Gradina area at least 700,000 victims were executed and that mass graves had about 800 skeletons each. This program had an aim to prove that the field excavations verified this number of victims, in front of a large TV audience. Since I was not acquainted with the report of the anthropology team which carried out excavations at Gradina, and I cannot say if other participants read that report, Dr. Zivanovic's claims were received as authentic. This, of course, was the aim of the TV program.

However, when the Memorial Center at Jasenovac handed in that report, it showed that the 32 page report, signed by all three anthropologists, did not contain such calculations, or the number of 700,000. The report says that 7 mass graves were excavated, with the following findings: grave 1 - 197 skeletons, grave 2 48 skeletons, grave 3 - only 2 skeletons, grave 4 - 8 skeletons, grave 5 - no data, grave 6 - 26 skeletons, and grave 7 - 3 skeletons.

No expert in anthropology, or any other science, could, on the basis of such a report, come to the conclusion stated by Dr. Zivanovic. Although any reader of the report could clearly see that Dr. Zivanovic's claim was fabricated, I decided to visit Ljubljana and ask Dr. Vida Brodar (Dr. Pogacnik had died earlier) to tell me if she knew whether the commission discussed and calculated the total number of victims possible at Jasenovac-Gradina on some other meeting, which was not mentioned in the report. She wrote in her testimony of April 11, 1990:

"I hereby declare that the anthropological team composed of Dr. Vida Brodar, Dr. Anton Pogacnik, and Dr. Srboljub Zivanovic, which performed excavations at Gradina near Jasenovac, between June 22 and 27, 1964, produced a 32 page report, describing every significant detail of the excavations. I specifically declare that, apart from the contents of the report our team never discussed or calculated the total number of victims of the concen- tration camp Gradina-Jasenovac."

Had Dr. Zivanovic thought that Dr. Brodar was dead too, thus having no living witnesses to the research or did he assume that the original report would never be subject of investigation, remains a secret. However, it is unbelievable that a person with an academic title could do something like that, just to satisfy somebody's pre- determined goals.