Deifying the Defeated

Abstract

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Victimhood and the transnationalization of Croatian memory politics

“…For example, since 1991, a great deal of critical scholarly attention has been devoted to Croatian memory politics, most recently reflected in controversies over the fascist Croatian Ustaša during World War II and the atrocities committed at the Jasenovac concentration camp (the largest of several such camps) in Croatia, the war's aftermath and 45 years of socialist Yugoslavia (e.g. Banjeglav, 2012;Đurašković, 2016;Gagnon, 2004;Goldstein and Goldstein, 2016;Pavlaković, 2008Pavlaković, , 2010Pavlaković and Pauković, 2019;Radonić, 2018;Sindbaek Andersen, 2012;Subotić, 2019aSubotić, , 2019bYeomans, 2012Yeomans, , 2015. 6 The transnational manifestations of Croatian victimhood narratives and their contemporary representation in diasporic imaginaries and commemorative practices, though, have been under-researched.…”

“…The anniversary of Bleiburg marks the period when in mid-May 1945, Partisans of the newly formed Yugoslav Army under Josip Broz Tito’s command, captured and executed an estimated 70,000–80,000 people near the Austrian-Slovenian border (cf. Pavlaković, 2010; Pavlaković and Brentin, 2018). These were mostly retreating military personnel of the NDH, Ustaša , German units of the Third Reich, the anti-Communist Slovenian Home Guard, Croatian civilians and others who feared retribution by the new socialist regime.…”

“…During socialist Yugoslavia, discussion of Bleiburg was prohibited in favour of the valorization of the Partisan struggle against fascism (Nielsen, 2018; Subotić, 2019a). Commemorations of Bleiburg were first initiated in 1952 by émigrés from Yugoslavia at the Bleiburg site in Austria and in Croatian communities in Europe, Australia, North and South America (Knight, 2010; Pavlaković, 2010). As Tokić (2018) argues, the memory politics surrounding Bleiburg served to radicalize many diaspora Croats during the socialist era.…”

“…After the collapse of Yugoslavia when it became possible to talk openly about Bleiburg, the story was already seared in the memories and imaginations of those who felt a connection to the tragedy. 16 Despite extensive research revealing major discrepancies in the versions of the telling of the Bleiburg massacre from scholars including Pavlaković (2010), Grahek Ravančić (2018), Kolstø (2010), Nielsen (2018) and others, Croatian memory activists continue to promote the story of suffering and victimhood at Bleiburg, one nurtured in diaspora for generations (Winland, 2015). As Pavlaković (2010) has argued, Croatian ‘commemorative culture’ since the 1990s has focused on several categories, one of which is victims of communist repression.…”

Unintended consequences: the EU memory framework and the politics of memory in Serbia and Croatia

“…Tens of thousands of others associated (or allegedly associated) with the regime suffered in post-war communist massacres, death marches and other types of persecution. In Croatia, these events are symbolically remembered through the commemoration of the Bleiburg massacre (see e.g., Ravančić, Martina 2009;Pavlaković 2010). While fleeing Yugoslavia, a number of soldiers and civilians associated with the Axis were killed or imprisoned near Austrian village of Bleiburg.…”