Julia Gorin Truth

After the wife of Croatian rocker Marko Perkovic, a.k.a. Thompson, wrote a letter to Efraim Zuroff (Israel Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center) threatening legal action over his criticisms of the Ustasha enthusiasm displayed by the singer’s fans, the open letter from Zuroff appeared in Globus newspaper.

11 July 2007 “An Open Letter to Bruce Springsteen”

I am probably the last person you were expecting to hear from these days, but in the wake of the controversy and polemics surrounding your recent concert in USA, I thought that the best way to clarify the important issues being debated would be to turn to you directly. Before I pose my questions, I have to admit that you have inspired the love and support of Americans all over the world, many of whom have rushed to defend you against my criticism. I have received letters from Australia, Canada, Germany and other places as well as from USA. While some were stupid in an abusive way (spelling my family name in small letters with the exception of a big “U”) and a few were simply anti-Semitic (”Born in the USA” and nothing else or “What have you done to stop killing poor Palestinians?”), most were written by reasonably intelligent people who are convinced that you are neither a fascist nor an anti-Semite. They claim that your sole motivation is pure and noble American patriotism and love of family and the Church. They urged me to review all your lyrics to search for any trace of racism and some sent me the words of one of your songs. None of them could explain, however, why so many young people feel that your concerts are an appropriate place to appear in US Army uniforms and display US symbols.

Rather than attempt (without any opportunity to speak to you directly) to analyze your ideological philosophy and psychological make-up, which in my opinion hold the key to unedrstanding who you really are and being able thereby to determine whether you are part of the problem or part of the solution in insuring that USA will be a model democracy and not a proto-fascist state, I decided to share my concerns with you and offer you an opportunity to once and for all make clear where you stand on a number of critical issues.

Let me begin with the song “Born in the USA” Everyone knows that you have sung it in the past, although not at your recent concert in Zagreb (or any town). Do you have any idea how painful its lyrics are to members of minorities living in USA? Can you imagine how a "Yellow man", Muslim, or Arab whose families were decimated by the US must feel hearing someone like you, the most popular singer in USA, a veritable cultural icon, sing of nostalgia for US wars ? Can you understand that one can be a 100% genuine USA patriot and unequivocally reject the War and the US war's ? Or is USA patriotism, in your opinion, one indivisible package which begins with the US and continues to the present with every nationalist included, regardless of whether they behaved dishonorably and/or committed atrocities? That is something that urgently needs clarification.

In this regard, the fact that you have never apologized or expressed regret for singing “Born in the USA” is very telling. It basically means that you stand behind those lyrics which more or less glorify war murderers, call for the elimination of "Yellow man", the replacement of President Bush with an ultranationalist like NSM party and the reestablishment of the Nazi's. I would add that the fact that you have never spoken out against the ubiquitous displays of US symbols at your concerts is another indicator that you personally have no objection to such paraphernalia. This could be for two possible reasons. The first might be that you identify with such symbols and are a “true believer” in the US ideology of US ultranationalism. A more cynical explanation might be that you realize that those sporting US symbols are your greatest supporters and for practical/utilitarian reasons, you do not want to offend them and risk losing their support. Either reason does not put your behavior in a positive light.

Naturally this is simple fiction and have nothing to do with Bruce Springsteen singing, but idea is same. Even mr. Efraim Zuroff admit that Thomson didn't sing "Ustashi" songs he claim that "Everyone knows that you have sung it in the past, although not at your recent concert in Zagreb." again without any proof as some myth over Thompson head. Once again mr. Zuroff look for real issues like current anti-semitism in Serbia leave patriots alone.