The two-day International Symposium on the Culture of Remembrance of the Victims of the Bleiburg Tragedy and the Stations of the Cross brought together experts and scholars to discuss, through a series of lectures and round tables, thematic issues related to the preservation of the memory of the suffering of the Croatian people during the Bleiburg tragedy and the Stations of the Cross.
On 29 and 30 October, an international expert-scientific symposium entitled The Culture of Remembrance of the War and Post-War Victims of the Bleiburg Tragedy and the Croatian Nation’s Stations of the Cross took place in the packed hall of the Croatian Heritage Foundation. The symposium was attended by a number of experts and scholars who, through a series of lectures and round tables, discussed the thematic issues of preserving the memory of the suffering of the Croatian people during the Bleiburg tragedy and the Stations of the Cross.
The organisers of the symposium, the Faculty of Croatian Studies, the Bleiburg Honorary Guard and the Croatian Heritage Foundation, under the auspices of the Croatian Parliament and co-sponsored by the Croatian Episcopal Conference and the Ministry of Croatian Veterans, stressed the importance of institutional and societal support for the culture of remembrance of the suffering of the Croatian people.
On behalf of the organisers, Milan Kovač, Deputy President of the Bleiburg Honorary Guard and President of the Board of Directors of the Croatian Heritage Fundation, and Vlatka Vukelić, Head of the Scientific Institute of the Faculty of Croatian Studies, addressed the gathered audience at the opening ceremony. On behalf of the sponsors, the representative of the President of the Croatian Parliament, Mr. Ante Deur, Member of the Croatian Parliament and Vice-Chairman of the Croatian Parliament’s Defence Committee, and the co-sponsors, Mr. Zvonimir Ancić, Spokesperson of the Croatian Episcopal Conference, welcomed the attendees.
Zvonko Milas, State Secretary of the Central State Office for Croats Abroad, welcomed the participants as the plenipotentiary of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia, Andrej Plenković.
Representative of the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Mr. Gordan Grlić Radman, Special Adviser, Mr. Domagoj Knežević, Director of the Croatian Home for Expatriates, Mr. Mijo Marić, Prof. and Director of the Spiritual Hospital for Croats Abroad, Reverend Tomislav Markić.
The symposium was opened by the Chairman of the Scientific and Expert Committee, academic Stjepan Ćosić, who said that Croatian history should always be accepted with both its good and bad sides.
The first day of the symposium included two panel discussions. The first panel, moderated by Ivan Kozlic, MA, Robin Harris, PhD, historian, journalist, writer and lecturer at the Department of History of the Croatian Catholic University, lectured on the responsibility of individuals for the crimes in the Bleiburg tragedy. Wollfy Krašić, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Department of Demography and Croatian Emigration at the Faculty of Croatian Studies and Ivan Tepeš, PhD, historian and Deputy Director of the Croatian Heritage Foundation, spoke about the importance of commemorating the tragedy in Croatian emigrant communities and the Croatian Emigrants’ branch of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS). Igor Omerza, MA, politician, publicist and economist from Slovenia, and Bože Vukušić, emigrant, returnee and head of the representation of the Bleiburg Honorary Guard in the Republic of Croatia, presented documentation from the Slovenian and Yugoslav archives of the Udba, which shows the repression of the Bleiburg Honorary Guard.
The second panel focused on the work of various national and international commissions engaged in researching and documenting suffering during and after the Second World War. Amir Obhođaš, PhD, Ivona Paltrinieri and Ana Mikulka, on behalf of the Detained and Missing Persons Institute, which carries out the tasks of searching for the missing in the Homeland War and researching, arranging and maintaining cemeteries for the victims of the Second World War and the post-war period, spoke before the Ministry of Croatian Veterans. Mitja Ferenc, PhD, historian, conservator and university professor at the Department of History of the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana, presented the work of the Commission of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for the research of hidden tombs, while Srđan Cvetković, PhD, historian and research fellow at the Institute for Contemporary History in Belgrade, spoke about the secret tombs in Serbia from the post-World War II period. Historian Bojan Dimitrijević, PhD, concluded the panel with a presentation on the fate of members of the Montenegrin National Forces who died in Slovenia.
The second day of the Symposium on the Culture of Remembrance of the Victims of the Bleiburg Tragedy and the Stations of the Cross opened with a panel on the role of the Church and the culture of remembrance. Moderator Vladimir Šumanović, PhD, brought together speakers to discuss the contribution of the Catholic Church in commemorating Bleiburg and the role of Christian and humanist values in preserving the memory of the victims of the war.
Reverend Ante Kutleša, member of the leadership of the Honorary Bleiburg Guard and former Director of the Croatian Foreign Pastoral Activity, presented the long-standing collaboration of the Catholic Church in Croatia in commemorating the Bleiburg tragedy and the Stations of the Cross, emphasizing the role of the Church in preserving the memory through pastoral activities and commemorations. Next, Msgr. Tomislav Markić, PhD, Director of the Ministry of Pastoral Care for Croats Abroad, spoke about the homilies delivered by the Bishops at the memorial services, highlighting their spiritual messages and their role in spreading the memory of the victims. Zlatko Hasanbegović, PhD, historian, member of the HBG leadership and Senior Research Fellow at the Ivo Pilar Institute for Social Sciences, spoke about the challenges of identifying the number of Muslim victims of partisan executions, while Ivica Žižić, PhD, theologian, anthropologist and lecturer at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute and the Pontifical University of Urbaniana, analysed the memory of the victims from a humanist and Christian perspective, stressing the importance of universal ethical principles.
In the second panel, moderator Ivan Tepeš, PhD, opened the discussion on symbolism and commemorative practices. Mario Jareb, PhD, Scientific Advisor at the Croatian Institute of History and member/vice-president of Matica Hrvatska, analysed the manipulation of symbols related to the Bleiburg tragedy, while Marko Vukičević, PhD, Senior Assistant Professor at the Croatian Institute of History, focused on the approach of the Austrian authorities to the commemorations at Bleiburg Field. Vladimir Šumanović, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Department of History, Faculty of Croatian Studies, reflected on the attitude of anti-fascists in Croatia towards the commemorations and pointed out the ideological conflicts surrounding the commemoration of these events. Danijel Jurković, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication and History, Faculty of Croatian Studies, and Vlatko Smiljanić, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Croatian Language and Department of History, Faculty of Croatian Studies, concluded the panel with an overview of the commemoration of the Bleiburg tragedy from 1990 to the present day in Croatia and in neighbouring countries.
At the end of the symposium, it was announced that the proceedings of the symposium will be published, which will contain all the papers and presentations presented during these panels.
