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The Europeanization of Memory at the Jasenovac Memorial Museum

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Nationalism and the Politicization of History in the Former Yugoslavia

Part of the book series: Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe ((MOMEIDSEE))

Abstract

Starting from the premise that post-Communist memorial museums dedicated to events that took place during World War II share significant similarities, this chapter will consider a recent aspect of the “Europeanization of memory” since 1989: the universalization and Europeanization of the Holocaust as a negative founding myth for post-1945 Europe in relation to the Holocaust’s difficult place in post-Communist national narratives of “Eastern Europe.” The focus here is on Croatia, and on one post-Communist memorial display in particular—the ultra-modern exhibition at the Jasenovac Memorial Museum, which opened in 2006.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No 816784).

  2. 2.

    In 2015, the Memorial Centre Lipa Remembers opened, dedicated to the inhabitants of the Lipa village burnt down by the Nazis in 1944.

  3. 3.

    Recently, the museum also introduced multilingual tablets for international visitors.

  4. 4.

    For a discussion of historical photographs from Jasenovac, see also Mataušić (2008).

  5. 5.

    Jasenovac Education Center, www.jusp-jasenovac.hr/Default.aspx?sid=6609.

  6. 6.

    www.jusp-jasenovac.hr/Default.aspx?sid=6609. Also see Jovičić (2006, 10).

  7. 7.

    Against all expertise around the theory of anti-Semitism, the authors of the exhibition battle the idea of destructive Jews by pointing out that this Ustaša and Nazi propaganda is proved wrong by the fact that architects and builders of Jewish origin constructed many important buildings in Zagreb during the first four decades of the twentieth century. As the symbol of the snake full of stars of David indicates, however, anti-Semitism is not about criticizing Jewish unproductiveness, but imagining Jews as the “Gegenvolk” that will destroy “us,” if “we” do not destroy them first.

  8. 8.

    39,570 men, 23,474 women and 20,101 children under the age of 14 were killed in the Jasenovac concentration camp, 47,627 of them Serbs, 16,173 Roma, 13,116 Jews, 4255 Croats, 1128 Muslims, and several hundred from 15 other countries—942 being by far the most fatal year for all three victim groups of racist persecution, and 1945 for Croats and Muslims. “List of individual victims of Jasenovac concentration camp,” www.jusp-jasenovac.hr/Default.aspx?sid=6711.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Culture Studies and Theatre History of the Academy of Sciences, Wien, Austria

    Ljiljana Radonić

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  1. Ljiljana Radonić
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Correspondence to Ljiljana Radonić .

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  1. University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Gorana Ognjenovic

  2. Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, Oslo, Norway

    Jasna Jozelic

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Radonić, L. (2021). The Europeanization of Memory at the Jasenovac Memorial Museum. In: Ognjenovic, G., Jozelic, J. (eds) Nationalism and the Politicization of History in the Former Yugoslavia. Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65832-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65832-8_4

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