You can expect a rich movie program with lots of feature films and documentaries, exhibitions, concerts, “Educational mornings” and discussions.

As always, all the film screenings, educations, discussions and exhibitions are free of charge.

Welcome to the opening …

The message of this exhibition isn’t just to remember but to commit to memory that the perished were individuals.

Each child had a name and family name. Each child then became a number, and each child ended up in a crematorium.

It is important to know that these are just a fragment of one and a half million murdered children. These are the ones we know about, because they were recorded and photographed when they entered the camps. What they couldn’t know at the time, as they looked into the camera, was the horrible truth that that was an official photograph for a passport to death.

As you all know, I was lucky to have survived – while these children did not. Perhaps, in some archive, there is a similar picture of me. Just as somewhere in Auschwitz there is my suitcase, which I brought with me from Čakovec. When I arrived in Auschwitz, for a long time I didn’t know why I was there … and when they moved me from camp to camp I could never know where I was.

Like these children, all I knew was that they came for me, took me away, recorded me, that I became an enemy, through no fault of mine.

As long as these photographs exist, as tonight we look in the depths of these children’s eyes, they exist. And so, even though they are dead, while this exhibition lasts, they are alive. They are among us as a reminder of the past, as restless ghosts whose message is to never forget that they existed and then vanished. And that their short, sad lives, have been forever made eternal.

Remember as you watch them, these were and remain someone’s enemy … and they were someone’s children.

Besides the rich film program, visitors Mini Teatree in Ljubljana had the opportunity to participate in discussions with guests such as philosopher Slavoj Žižek, director Udi Aloni, historian Oto Luthar and many others. Festivals “Educational Mornings” traditionally attract many visitors to the lectures with always interesting mr. Branko Lustig and mr. Mirko Ilic, whome were joined  in Ljubljana by prof. Frank Stern and Mrs. Erika Fuerst.

Festival of Tolerance continues in Ljubljana with an Seiji Kimoto exhibition, which opens in February at Gradska Hiža and a Video Conference on February 26th 2016 between Ljubljana – Zagreb on the subject ”The lack of marking / memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in Zagreb and Ljubljana”.

During the festival week, till January 21st 2016, 22 films on the subject of Holocaust and tolerance will be screened. There will also be 5 panel discussions and 3 Educational Mornings with survivors of the Holocaust and with Mirko Ilić on the subject of neo-Nazi iconography.

Submit the films by sending Vimeo links and passwords for online preview to e-mail jffzagreb@gmail.com. In addition to the screener, please also send the documentation with the following information included: title of the film (the original title and title in English), name of the director(s), country(-ies) and year of production, running time, synopsis, list of awards and name and function of contact person. Also, you have to specify which category the film belongs to (feature, documentary, short or animated film).

Film in any other language than English and Croatian must have English subtitles. Films produced in year 2014 or later are preferred.

The alternative way of submission is sending DVDs to the following address: Festival of Tolerance, Vojnovićeva 15, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia.

You are sending the DVDs for the selection purposes at your own expense. When sending, please write on the envelope “For cultural purposes, no commercial value” and indicate that the value of the package is not higher than $ 10. Please send only films that thematically correspond to our Festival (Holocaust, promotion of tolerance, Jewish culture, position and promotion of rights of members of national or religious minorities, handicapped persons, LGBT community…). Final decision about the films that will be included in the Festival program will be announced at the beginning of March, 2016. At the last few editions of the Festival, we have screened around 60 films, as our audience chooses the best works in the categories of feature and documentary films (Audience Award).

If you do not explicitly ask for them, copies of DVDs sent for selection purposes will not be returned. They will become the part of the Festival of Tolerance archive, but will never be publicly screened without the prior agreement with the distributors.

If you choose to submit the films by this option, you will also have to send us the info requested in the second paragraph.

Thank you for your interest and we look forward to having a great cooperation with you! For any further questions, feel free to contact us at jffzagreb@gmail.com.

It was an honour to present terrific guests, such as Mr Zlatko Dizdarević, Sarajevo’s journalist, diplomat and an expert in Middle Eastern relations who pointed out that identity and self-defining of Israel and Palestina are two culturally, civilizationally and historically equal nations.

Mr Davor Gjenero supported tolerance in the sense of region and needs, while political correctness was put in the context of humanity and tolerant coexistence.

The documentary led audience into critical thinking and intelligent questions, which were answered and discussed about despite the lack of time.

The discussion was stimulatingly and lively moderated by Morana Kasapović.

We would like to thank all participants.

Apart from the professionals’ point of view, the discussion also offered an insight into ideal investors – people in Croatia who do not want to destroy but renew with the intent to share their goods with the local community. And yet, the bureaucracy and ignorance have been offering nothing but resistance.

Rich cultural legacy undoubtedly exists in this country. However, do we appreciate it enough when those, who are stronger and impudent,  have no basic knowledge on how to support and maintain its benefits?

The programme consisted of the award-winning movie for the youth  “Belle i Sébastien“ (95 min), testimonies by Oleg Mandic, one of the last concentration camp survivors in Auschwitz  and Branko Lustig, a two time Oscar-winning producer for movies “The Schindler’s List” and “Gladiator”, who spent two years in infamous concentration camps not older than a 10-year-old boy.