Task Force For International Cooperation On Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research

Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research in Croatia

In remembering the victims, we remind new generations that respect for moral values, rule of law, appreciation and tolerance towards others and that which is different and, above all, the protection of those who are weaker and different, is the foundation of the survival and advancement of every democratic society. Remembering and honoring the victims of an historic tragedy is an opportunity to stress the dangers of Antisemitism, exclusion, intolerance, political oppression, radicalism and extremism, regardless of where they come from. Democracy's victory over totalitarianism is the victory of the values embedded in modern Europe and modern Croatia.

Croatia began its cooperation with the Task Force in 2001. In November 2005, during the Chairmanship of the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Croatia became a full member at the plenary session in Krakow.
Acquiring full membership of the ITF was a great acknowledgement for the Republic of Croatia for all efforts that it is undertaking in fostering democracy, tolerance and the fight against Antisemitism.
With its membership of the Task Force, the Republic of Croatia has significantly advanced its activities in the field of research, remembrance and education about the Holocaust. Through projects in the fields of research, museology and education, strong cooperation has been established between institutions in the Republic of Croatia and Yad Vashem (Israel), the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USA), Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (USA), University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education (USA), Anne Frank House (The Netherlands) and numerous other institutions in countries that are Task Force members.
This cooperation has increased the number of projects tied to research, remembrance and education about the Holocaust, which is evident from an ever-increasing number of annual project proposals from the Republic of Croatia that apply for co-financing with the Task Force.
We are confident that our participation in the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research will continue to have a positive effect on promotion of human rights and democracy in the Republic of Croatia.

Education

Although since World War Two pupils and students have learned about the Nazi and Ustasha regimes in History curricula in primary and secondary schools and universities, teaching was significantly enhanced with the adoption of the National Programme for Human Rights Education in 1999. It defines the aim of teaching about the Holocaust as not only to learn about and preserve the memory of the period of unprecedented suffering but also to reflect on what each individual should do to prevent Antisemitism, intolerance and any crime against humanity.
Holocaust education was additionally enhanced by the 2003 Decision of the Ministry of Education and Sports to establish the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and the Prevention of Crimes against Humanity which calls for the commemoration of January 27th and cross- curricular teaching on the topic.
Since 2004, around 500 teachers have been trained at national (on January 27th), regional and international seminars and some 150 at different US Holocaust Museums including the Jewish Foundation of the Righteous in New York, as well as Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and in different Council of Europe member states.
The Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and The Education and Teacher Training Agency, in co-operation with different international organisations have developed, distributed to schools and made available on The Ministry's website (www.mzos.hr) additional teaching materials on the topic of the Holocaust:

• ITF Guidelines for Teaching about the Holocaust, 2005,
• Teaching about the Holocaust, a resource book for educators, USHMM, 2005,
• Guidelines on how to commemorate the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem and the OSCE, 2006
• Posters, the stories on the Righteous among the Nations: "Traits that Transcend" and the manual for teachers, the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, New York, 2007
• Lessons based on survivors' video testimonies, the Shoah Foundation Visual Institute, 2008
• Teaching materials on Antisemitism, the Anne Frank's House Museum, and OSCE two sets of teaching materials on Antisemitism, 2007, 2008.

Remembrance

In 2002 the Jasenovac Memorial Area focused on preparing a permanent exhibition and Educational Centre which was completed in 2006. Together with the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports the ITF organised two workshops in which the concept of the museum exhibition was presented and agreed upon on at an international level, including how victims and crimes should be represented, and how educational programs tied to Ustasha crimes in Jasenovac should be conducted.
New forms of education and museum presentation were achieved due to international cooperation and through collaboration of Croatian experts, and this means that the Jasenovac Memorial Area honours the victims, giving them their dignity and identity in the new permanent exhibition of the Memorial Museum. The exhibit focuses on the affirmation of life and on increasing awareness among visitors, particularly among school children, about the fragility of human life against a frenzied ideology.
The work of the new Memorial Museum and Education Centre in Jasenovac has a basic scientific approach:

• to educate and prevent mass crimes against humanity
• to enable people to learn about the genocide committed in Jasenovac, about the Holocaust and suffering
• as a starting point in acquiring knowledge in the field of human rights, non-violence, peace, cultural diversity, democracy and the rule of law.

Here, future generations of young people should increase their awareness of the consequences of neglecting human dignity, and with this knowledge build a different world.
The Ministry of Culture and the Jasenovac Memorial Area is preparing a preliminary proposal for the plan to change the exhibition in the pavilion of the former Yugoslavia in Auschwitz Birkenau MM, and of staging their own national exhibition linked to the tribulations on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia 1941-1945.
The Ministry of Culture is financing the reconstruction of the "Petrova gora" Memorial Area, the main Partisan hospital "Petrova gora" in Vojnid and other monuments. The reconstruction of synagogues in Rijeka, Vara◊din, Dubrovnik and Vukovar is being cofinanced, while local governments are in-part responsible for maintaining Jewish cemeteries. Museum exhibitions covering the World War Two and the Holocaust are financially supported, along with activities tied to the publishing of texts on these two topics.

Research

The most significant issues discussed by the AWG cover the state of Holocaust-related material in archival holdings in the public archives of member countries, the issue of accessibility to public archives and the availability of funds for interested researchers. Consequently countries were asked to prepare national reports on the above issues and two Croatian reports: "Report on the Holocaust related Research in Croatian Public Archives" (presented at the AWG meeting in Prague in June 2007) and "Holocaust Related Archives in Croatia - Report No. 2" (presented at the AWG session in Prague in December 2007), present an important overview of the field.
Important resources for Holocaust researchers to be consulted in Croatia are the Croatian State Archives: (www.arhiv.hr/hr/teme/holokaust.htm) as well the Research and Documentation Center CENDO: (www.cendo.hr).
There are several research and academic institutions which have contributed to Holocaust research, among them the Croatian State Archives, Croatian Institute of History, and several Croatian universities as well as Jewish communities. The Jasenovac Memorial Area Public Institution catalogue "Jasenovac Memorial Site", was published in 2006 on the occasion of the opening of the new permanent exhibition in November of the same year and contains relevant information on the Ustasha regime in the Independent State of Croatia. It also contributes to broadening knowledge on the period. A number of publications in the field should be mentioned, such as:"Croatia: In Memory to Holocaust", published by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and the Croatian State Archives in 2000 and "The List of Names of the Victims of Jasenovac Concentration Camp 1941-1945" published in 2007 by the Jasenovac Memorial Area.
With the aim of gaining a broader insight into Holocaust research in Croatia and the world, the Croatian Government has, especially after acquiring full membership in the ITF, even more strongly encouraged and financially supported international cooperation as well as exchange of researchers. The older available archival holdings compiled after World War Two on cultural and historical objects and monuments as well as the The Cooperative Agreement between the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Central Archives of the Republic of Croatia, signed in 1995, have certainly contributed to the aims of the AWG and above all to the role of the ITF and the Croatian Government in supporting tolerant societies.