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The T-shirts also showed two commanders of the Ustashe’s notorious Black Legion, which murdered thousands of civilians and Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, who was jailed for collaborating with the Ustashe.

Drinkers at the bar were also toasting “The Poglavnik” - the name fascists use for their Fuhrer - and on Thursday the restaurant commemorated Hitler’s establishment of the puppet state of Croatia on April 10, 1941.

On Tuesday the restaurant was reviewed in a Melbourne newspaper’s food section, with its “large, airy downstairs dining room perfect for large, extended family groups”.

Dr Bob Miller, a Balkans expert at the Australian National University, has hit out at the club’s feting of Pavelic.

“It’s disgusting. This would be the equivalent to the German community honouring Himmler,” he said.

“Even the Nazis found the Ustashe regime’s actions so brutal as to be counter-productive.”

Serbians in Victoria have also expressed their distress.

“How can they do this?” George Marinkovic, publisher of the Serb Voice, said.

“Can someone explain this? We are in one beautiful country and you are going back and promoting fascists from the Hitler era. I cannot understand it.”

Dr Colin Rubinstein, executive director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, said: “While it is entirely understandable that Croatian Australians would want to celebrate the self-determination of modern democratic Croatia, to celebrate a fascist World War II Nazi puppet state and its war criminal leader is totally contrary to the norms of multicultural Australia and should be condemned by Australians committed to a tolerant, diverse and democratic society.”

Club president Tony Juric acknowledged the restaurant honoured Pavelic, but said the leader had nothing to do with the Nazis.

“What the Nazis did was a disgrace and we had nothing to do with that,” he said. “I have never received one letter of complaint from a Jewish or a Serb organisation.”

Hopefully Mr. Juric doesn’t bring that same level of blatant dishonesty to his upcoming trial.

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Geelong’s ethnic community leader Michael Martinez also expressed concern. The Diversitat CEO was not aware of the band but said he disapproved of its actions.

“If they are promoting racism, whether anti-semitic or not, we don’t support that,” he said.

The Croatian association’s president, Frank Skoko, denied he knew Thompson promoted racial hatred, saying he first heard about its anti-semitic antics in a Sunday newspaper at the weekend.

Mr Skoko refused to comment on the sponsorship deal, but the association’s logo heads a promotional poster of the band’s Melbourne concert at Festival Hall.

The president directed the Geelong Advertiser to the association’s secretary, Ivan Herceg, who could not be reached yesterday despite repeated attempts.

Jewish human rights organisation, B’Nai B’Rith Anti-Defamation Commission, has called on the Federal Government to deny Perkovic entry to the country.

The commission’s executive officer, Manny Waks, said the band’s racist antics were “common knowledge”, and was disappointed the Croatian association had invted them to Australia.

“Perkovic has a track record of offending the Jewish community. We don’t want to see him here,” he said.

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The B’Nai B’Rith Anti-Defamation Commission, a Jewish human rights organisation, has asked the Federal Government to ban the group.

The Melbourne leg of Thompson’s tour is being sponsored by the Australian Croatian Association, based in Geelong, which could not be contacted despite several attempts by The Sunday Age. The gig follows a rock concert organised by neo-Nazi music promotion group Blood and Honour, which was held at the Croatia Social Club in mid-October.

Manny Waks from the Anti-Defamation Commission said the commission was “disturbed” by the Blood and Honour concert in October, and was disappointed that the Croatian community had now invited Thompson to perform.

“We deplore the Croatian community for associating themselves once again with a racist individual by hosting this event,” he said.

But not everyone is against the group. Catherine Lukic, who works at the Australian Croatian Association’s club, said she worked with the band when they played there several years ago. Ms Lukic describes Thompson as excellent entertainers who are extremely popular with both the young and old.

“I am nearly 60 years old and I enjoy them,” she said. Ms Lukic was surprised to hear that Thompson had been criticised for anti-semitic lyrics.

“I never heard them say (nationalist catchcry) ‘Za dom-Spremni’ when they were here,” she said.

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The Israel director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Dr Ephraim Zuroff, told the European Jewish Press in July that a sell-out Thompson concert in Zagreb would “encourage Croatian extremist nationalists by giving official sanction to an event that constituted a brazen display of the symbols of Croatian racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia.”

B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission executive director Manny Waks said he was not surprised the Thompson concert was going ahead.

The AJN reported last month that Thompson was rumoured to be playing at the Melbourne Croatia Social Club in late December. These rumours were dismissed by club president Steven Mandekic, but Cam Smith from the anti-race-hate website Fight Dem Back said Croatian internet forums had been promoting the concert.

Despite Perkovic and his band previously playing in Australia, Waks said he had petitioned former Immigration minister Kevin Andrews not to allow Thompson back into Australia. Waks said he would call on new minister Senator Chris Evans to deny visas to the band members.

“This concert is highly inappropriate and offensive and we will be doing what we can to prevent it,” Waks said.

He said some members of Melbourne’s Croatian community had a history of displaying a poor attitude toward the Jewish community and that the ADC “would take a strong position about it.”

“Their [parts of the Croatian community’s] track record is not that impressive,” he said. A representative from Festival Hall - a West Melbourne venue that can hold more than 5000 people - spoke to the AJN but refused to allow his comments to be published.

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