ZAGREB, 1 Feb 2022 - The travelling exhibition called "Memory of Nations" about 12 people who survived the periods of large-scale displacements and changes of borders in the wake of the Second World War was staged in Zagreb on Tuesday.

The multilingual and multimedia exhibition, staged on a truck, is staying near the Trg Francuske Republike Square until 21 February. After Zagreb, the next stops are Dresden, Wrocław and Prague. It was already staged in Bratislava.

The exhibition, prepared as part of a project called "Inconvenient Mobility" by associations from Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Slovakia, brings stories and experiences of individuals who migrated after the Second World War due to changes of borders, political decisions, and the war and post-war legacy.

The Croatian NGO included in this project is Documenta, which has done five interviews with witnesses who speak about the migrations of local Italians in Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia.

The other stories in the exhibition are about displaced persons from Germany, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Ukraine, said Documenta leader Vesna Teršelič today in Zagreb.

April 10, 2021- The Documenta Centre for Dealing with the Past on Saturday organized a tour of Zagreb locations linked to suffering in WWII, starting outside the building of the USKOK anti-fraud office to prompt USKOK to put up an information plaque on the building from which, it said, "the Holocaust and the NDH started."

On 10 April 1941, Slavko Kvaternik proclaimed the NDH (Independent State of Croatia) in that building which then housed Radio Zagreb.

"The NDH was responsible for the Holocaust against Jews, the genocide against Serbs and Roma. We think it's essential that new generations in particular, as well as all those passing this building, know what happened inside," Documenta head Vesna Teršelič said before this, the second memorial walk.

Documenta expects USKOK to put up the plaque and the City of Zagreb to mark the locations of suffering and resistance so that new generations can learn what a criminal regime the NDH was, that the Nazis and fascists appointed its head Ante Pavelić and that it was a regime of terror, Teršelič said.

"That was a regime of which we are ashamed today, and this shame should be an important part of our identity because the condemnation of those crimes should be the starting point of our thinking and discussions," she said.

It is very important that all generations resolutely condemn the Ustasha crimes and the criminal NDH, which includes banning the "For the homeland ready" salute and Ustasha insignia, she added.

Teršelič said the ruling majority's will was necessary to ban the salute and that the ruling majority should do so this year.

Puhovski: Who is ashamed of our history is a moral idiot

Žarko Puhovski, a political analyst, said Pavelić was one of the most significant Croats in history and that "who doesn't understand that doesn't understand Croatian history, and who isn't ashamed of that is a moral idiot."

Puhovski, whose initiative for USKOK to put up the plaque on its building, said there were still many people who were not ashamed, adding that one could not take from history only what one liked.

He said Croatia's present-day stand on the NDH "is neutral as much as possible and negative when it must be."

A legal ban of the Ustasha salute is pointless as long as "we have the Ustasha kuna," he said, referring to the name of the national currency, the kuna.

The building housing USKOK is linked to another historic day, 8 May 1945, when the Partisan army entered Zagreb and sent its forces to Radio Zagreb to announce that "the glorious units of the Yugoslav army" had entered the capital, Documenta said, adding that the third memorial walk would be held on 8 May.

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ZAGREB, Aug 25, 2020 - The Documenta Centre for Dealing with the Past on Tuesday welcomed "today's step forward by government representatives and the honouring of the Grubori victims, hoping that it will soon be followed by the recognition of all civilian war victims' rights and the intensifying of crime investigations."

Although the facts relating to the commission of this crime have been established by domestic and international courts and human rights organisations, justice towards those killed has still not been served, Documenta said in a press release. "We remember the crime and call for admitting responsibility and ending the vow of silence."

The press release said that on 25 August 1995, members of the ATJ Lucko special police unit were sent to Plavno, including the village Grubori in Knin municipality, and that between 30 and 40 divided into four groups.

Most of the remaining residents of Grubori had headed for Plavno to report to UNPROFOR, with only several, mainly elderly, staying behind. Those going to Plavno noticed a group of soldiers in the village and later heard shots and saw houses burning, after which they went back to Grubori, finding the bodies of six villagers.

Documenta said an investigation into the crime began only in 2001 after multiple queries by international institutions. In 2010, the Zagreb county prosecutor's office indicted three ATJ Lucko members - Franjo Drljo, Bozo Krajina and Igor Beneta, who later hanged himself.

The Zagreb County Court found that the crime in Grubori was committed by members of the unit but all the defendants were acquitted. A 2016 retrial ended in the same way, with the court finding that "a very strong vow of silence" was at work and that it was unable to find that the defendants killed the civilians in Grubori.

The crime was covered by the verdict against Gotovina et al. before the Hague war crimes tribunal, but the panel of judges did not find the accused guilty, Documenta said.

In September 2019, the Croatian Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of Drljo and Krajina, ruling that "instead of effectively finding those responsible for the killing of civilians, just because they were Serbs, and for the burning of houses in the village of Grubori, just because Serbs lived in them, at work was a shameful fabrication about a Chetnik attack and a callous ignoring of a war crime against civilians," Documenta said.

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