>>>Look what the kids learn at school. WWII==Holocaust plus Pearl Harbour plus D Day. Not much more. For instance, how many times have you heard that the communists were just as likely residents of concentration camps as the Jews? Or that in Jasenovac (never heard of that one, huh?) the Jews, Roma and Serbs were gathered and shot together.
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>>One of John Irving's best novels, written when he was about 23 (just cut off my fingertips now), was "Setting Free the Bears". Part of it was a flashback set in what later became Yugoslavia, during WWII. The book said every time a German soldier was killed by a sniper the Nazis retaliated by killing 100 Croatians, and the Croatians in turn retaliated by killing 100 Serbs for eech of those. The end result, Irving wrote, was a heck of a lot of dead Serbs. In a memorable scene one character comes across a raft on the river piled with the skulls of victims of the latest massacre. It said someone had arranged the skulls into a perfect pyramid, except one skull near the top had tumbled and been caught by the hair between skulls down below and was swinging back and forth. "Some skulls watched it swing in the river wind, while others looked away." Brilliant!
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>Probably close to what was really happening, with some poetic exaggerations in the numbers. First off, Croatia was an ally of the Axis. The so-called "Independent State" was a member, and fought alongside the Germans and Italians. I somehow don't see them being decimated like that, nor do I remember hearing of a 1:100:100 scheme. I've seen repros of German posters where they did say they'll shoot 1:10 - in Serbia. Which culminated with October 1941 massive shooting in Kragujevac, seven to eight thousand in a day, including the local high school, students and staff together.
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>The skull pyramid exists, but it was built by Ottoman Turks more than a century before. That's in Niš (nish). I wouldn't be surprised that that bit of history was repeated later - it was a symbol that everyone knew.


It may or may not have been the pyramid John Irving had in mind. I wouldn't be surprised if that image influenced his writing. Ultimately, though, "Setting Free the Bears" is a work of fiction, with the tension between Serbs and Croats being backdrop. If you're looking for a good read, I highly recommend it, and would look forward to your comments on its historical accuracy.