Kroatia Istorija

Remembrance and Restoration in Djakovo, Croatia

In 1941, the fascist Croatian state ordered the Jewish community of Osijek to set up a camp for deported Jewish women and children, mostly from Sarajevo. The community chose an old flour mill in Djakovo and established a camp there.

For the first four months of the camp’s operation, the camp was run by the local Jewish community, who did their best with extremely limited resources to make the place even close to livable. In March of 1942, however, the Ustaše, the Croatian fascist militia, took control of the camp. The mortality rate of the camp increased just as quickly as the conditions deteriorated.

Unlike in many other camps, the Jewish community was able to bury the women and children murdered at Djakovo in a proper Jewish cemetery. Local gravedigger Stephan Kolb kept meticulous records of the names, ages, and origins of every person he buried. He painted each one of them a gravemarker. 

The Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities of Bosnia and Herzegovina were almost completely destroyed by the Nazis and their collaborators, but the Djakovo cemetery remains.

Over the decades, the gravemarkers began to rust and fade, so the Jewish Historical Museum of Belgrade and the Jewish Community of Sarajevo started the Project for the Restoration of the Cemetery of the Victims of the Djakovo Concentration Camp to restore the graves and replace the gravemarkers. Five of the original gravemarkers were donated to Yad Vashem.

(click photos for captions & credits)

As a result of the previous deaths of three family members on a Tuesday, Alexander refused to undertake any public functions on that day of the week. On Tuesday, 9 October 1934, however, he had no choice, as he was arriving in Marseilles to start a state visit to France, to strengthen the two countries’ alliance in the Little Entente.

While Alexander was being slowly driven in a car through the streets along with French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou, a gunman —  Vlado Černozemski, stepped from the street and shot the King twice and the chauffeur with a Mauser C96 semiautomatic pistol.

Map of the territories claimed as “irredenti” in the 1930s. In green: Nice, Ticino and Dalmatia; in red: Malta; in violet: Corsica.Savoy and Corfù were also later claimed.

The territories of Corsica, Nice, and Savoy were claimed by irredentists. During the period of Risorgimento in 1860 to 1861, Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour who was leading the Risorgimento effort, faced the view of French Emperor Napoleon III who indicated that France would support militarily the Italian unification provided that France was given Nice and Savoy that were held by Piedmont-Sardinia, as France did not want a powerful state having control of the passages of the Alps.

As a result, Piedmont-Sardinia was pressured to concede Nice and Savoy to France in exchange for France accepting and sending troops to help the unification of Italy.

Topusko, Croatia 1995 (v)

Lipik and Pakrac

Lipik (first 3 pictures) and Pakrac (4 last pictures) are two towns located in the region of Western Slavonija, Croatia, and were heavily damaged when the Independence War of Croatia took place between 1991 and 1995 (it was mostly finished in 1992, although some intermitent battles took place until 1995 until Croatia achieve its goals and proclamed victory).

Croatia wanted independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and Serbs wouldnt let them go; that was seen as an attempt to form a “Greater Serbia”, including those parts of Croatia were Serb population was living, and also with the willing to conquer as much of Croatia as possible. Although the war ended with total Croatian victory, big part of Croatia was devastated, 20.000 people were killed, about 25% of their economy destroyed, US$37 billion in damaged infrastructure and some regions still hasn’t recovered from the war.

Looking at the holes in the buildings and the scars from shelling, left a big impression on me. Everybody knows about that war, how terrible was to see tanks breaking down the streets and buildings and people dying of hunger. The world looked at it but did nothing. Now, walking down the streets of towns like these, makes me think. Fuck nationalisms, I am a citizen of the world.

                                                                  Lipik and Pakrac, January 2015

Lipik and Pakrac

Lipik (3 primeras fotos) y Pakrac (4 últimas fotos) son dos pueblos que se encuentran en la parte oeste de la región de Eslavonia, en Croacia. Estos dos pueblos fueron fuertemente atacados durante la Guerra para la Independencia de Croacia, que ocurrió entre 1991 y 1995 (casi terminada en 1992, aunque algunas batallas intermitentes aún tuvieron lugar hasta 1995, cuando la victoria de Croacia fue oficialmente declarada)

Croacia quiso independizarse de la República Socialista Federal de Yugoslavia, pero los serbios no quisieron que eso ocurriera; más tarde, eso se vio como un intento para formar una “Gran Serbia”, incluyendo esas partes de Croacia donde población serbia vivía, y también para conquistar la mayor parte posible de Croacia. Aunque la guerra terminó favorablemente para Croacia, 20.000 personas murieron, aproximadamente un 25% de su economía fue destruida (37 billones de dólares es el cálculo que se atribuye a daños en infraestructura), y algunas regiones aún no se han recuperado de la guerra.

Ver los parches y los agujeros en los edificios me dejó personalmente impactado. Todo el mundo (o almenos mi generación para adelante) recuerda imágenes de esa guerra… qué terrible era ver tanques circulando por las calles y gente muriendo de hambre. Y cómo el mundo miraba y no hacía nada. Ahora, paseando por esas calles 20 años después y viendo las cicatrices que la guerra dejó, me da que pensar. A la mierda con los nacionalismos, o almenos no a este precio. “Ciudadano del mundo”, así es como me siento hoy.

River Cetina. The river, sourced from a karst spring, has its origins in Dinara, a mountain located on the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, having two major peaks called Troglav (meaning “three-headed” in Croatian) and Dinara, which happens to be the highest peak of Croatia and its shape looks like a stone-made human head.

The river flows into the Adriatic Sea, in the city of Omiš, Croatia, and has been essential for the development of the Balkans and a notable part of Europe. Besides from being the main route for inhabitants to go from the Croatian coast to hinterland and vice-versa, the river has showed significant importance as to the tourism matter in the country, enabling the practice of rafting in its basin.

As for its main inhabitants, the area the river takes place in is highly associated to the Dalmatea, known as an ancient tribe that resided in the core of what would later become Dalmatia, the eastern coast of Croatia.

HISTORY MEME || [1] War ↛ The Croatian War of Independence (1991-1995)

The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between Croat forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) — and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat operations in Croatia by 1992. In Croatia, the war is primarily referred to as the Homeland War  and also as the Greater-Serbian aggression. In Serbian sources, War in Croatia is the most commonly used term.

Croatia aimed to leave Yugoslavia as a sovereign country, while the Serbs, supported by Serbia, opposed the secession and wanted Croatia to remain a part of Yugoslavia. The Serbs effectively sought a new Serb state with new boundaries in areas of Croatia with a Serb majority or significant minority, and attempted to conquer as much of Croatia as possible. The goal was primarily to remain in the same state with the rest of the Serbian nation, which was seen as an attempt to form a “Greater Serbia”. In 2007, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) returned a guilty verdict against Milan Martić, one of the Serb leaders in Croatia, stating that he colluded with Slobodan Milošević and others to create a “unified Serbian state”. Between 2008 and 2012, the ICTY had also prosecuted Croatian generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markač and Ivan Čermak for alleged involvement in the crimes related to Operation Storm, but all three were ultimately acquitted.

At the beginning of the war, the JNA tried to forcefully keep Croatia within Yugoslavia by occupying the whole of Croatia. After they failed to do this, Serbian forces established the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) within Croatia. After the ceasefire of January 1992 and international recognition of the Republic of Croatia as a sovereign state, the front lines were entrenched, United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) was deployed, and combat became largely intermittent in the following three years. During that time, the RSK encompassed 13,913 square kilometers (5,372 sq mi), more than a quarter of Croatia. In 1995, Croatia launched two major offensives known as Operation Flash and Operation Storm, which would effectively end the war in its favor. The remaining United Nations Transitional Authority for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) zone was peacefully reintegrated into Croatia by 1998.

Croatian Dog Legally Forbidden to Bark

Tuesday, February 3, 2015 

(image via BBC)

The case of Serbia and Croatia’s claims of genocide against one another has come to a definitive ending, both granted absolvement from their alleged crimes. More below the cut.