ABSTRACT
Boycotts, protests, and counter-commemorations by political rivals or other memory actors characterized every commemoration related to the Second World War and included in the FRAMNAT research project from 2014–2017, indicating the deep divisions in Croatian society and the politicized nature of dealing with the country’s traumatic past. This chapter traces how these sites of memory have become arenas in which the state has had difficulty converting the dominant narrative into political memory, resulting in frequent challenges by multiple actors that have occasionally resulted in physical disruptions. It will also provide a historical overview of how the legacy of the Ustaša regime (1941–1945) and Partisan narrative continues to affect Croatian politics, from commemorative events to the creation of a controversial government commission in 2017 tasked to investigate the consequences of “undemocratic regimes.” In addition to analyzing the contested sites and how the fragmented narratives changed over time, the chapter will provide an overview of the various mnemonic actors involved in the debates and the manner in which these disruptions are represented in the media.
