Six Ex-Yugoslav States to Restore Joint Exhibition at Auschwitz Memorial
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Visual shown at UNESCO headquarters in Paris at the ceremony to mark the agreement. Photo: Serbian Ministry of Culture.
United Nations heritage body UNESCO announced on Thursday evening that six ex-Yugoslav republics agreed to renovate Block 17 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, a former shared exhibition space which has stood empty for many years because the six countries could not agree how the events of the Holocaust in Yugoslavia should be represented.
The deal was made after 14 years of negotiations and UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay said that it “fills a void, an absence of memory at the very site where these horrors unfolded”.
“It shows our joint commitment to learning from the past and healing the wounds of history, which transcends borders and generations,” Azoulay said at a ceremony at UNESCO headquarters in Paris to announce the agreement, according to a press release.
Around 20,000 people from Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, most of them Jews, but also Roma.
In the mid-1960s, a Yugoslav national exhibition was opened in Block 17 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim. The exhibition was last updated at the end of 1980s, just before the violent break-up of Yugoslavia.
During and after Yugoslavia’s collapse, memorialisation of World War II events became a contentious issue between its successor republics, who often interpreted history differently for contemporary political purposes. This meant there was no further cooperation over the Auschwitz exhibition and the Yugoslav pavilion was eventually closed in 2009.
The Serbian Ministry of Culture said in a statement on Thursday that the agreement “envisages the joint financing of the renovation and conservation of the first floor of Block 17 and the common rooms and structures that the former Yugoslav republics share with Austria”.
The agreement also envisages “the joint financing of the costs of implementing a joint permanent exhibition at the place of remembrance for the victims from the territory of the former Yugoslavia in the concentration camp and Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp”.
Montenegrin Culture Minister Tamara Vujovic said that “through this agreement, Montenegro and other former Yugoslav republics are showing solidarity and commitment to preserving the memories that connect us”, Radio Television Montenegro reported.
The director-general of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, Wojciech Soczewica, said after the signing that it was “a clear sign” that the governments of the six ex-Yugoslav states “are willing … to contribute to memory and our responsibility towards future generations”.
Croatia’s Social Democratic Party leader Pedja Grbin commemorates Holocaust victims in Zagreb on Friday. Photo: SDP.
The announcement of the agreement came ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, when ceremonies are being held in countries across the region to commemorate the victims.
On Friday in Zagreb, a Croatian parliament delegation led by speaker Gordan Jandrokovic laid a wreath at the monument to Moses at the Mirogoj cemetery, while deputy prime minister Davor Bozinovic did the same on behalf of the government.
“This is also a moment to remember what the Jewish people contributed to Croatian society,” said Zvonimir Troskot from the MOST (Bridge) party, who was part of the parliamentary delegation.
A wreath was also laid on behalf of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, whose president, Pedja Grbin, said the Holocaust was a crime that “must never happen again”.
“Unfortunately, today we see the hatred that is flourishing in Europe and the world. Again, people are attacked because they are different,” Grbin warned.
“If you look around the world, the number of people who deny that the Holocaust even happened is frightening,” he added.
Traditional Jewish visitation stones were also placed at the monument in memory of the Holocaust’s victims by the president of the Jewish Municipality of Zagreb, Ognjen Kraus, and Rabbi Luciano Moshe Prelevic.
In the Bosnian capital on Friday, the Jewish Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Jewish Municipality of Sarajevo also organised a commemorative event to honour Holocaust victims.
Jakob Finci, president of the Jewish Community, noted that six million Jews perished in the Holocaust, but some survived.
“Today, despite the passing years, we have nearly 245,000 people who survived the Holocaust. Of them, 54 live in our country. Therefore we should, not only for them who are alive but for ourselves, remember it and speak about it to others,” Finci said.
In Montenegro, parliament and the Jewish Community will hold a commemoration on Saturday.
