Author: Florian Rulitz
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150175663X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 310
Book Description
The atrocities and mass murders committed by Josip Broz Tito's Partisan units of the Yugoslav Army immediately after the Second World War had no place in the conscience of Socialist Yugoslavia. More than once, the annual Croatian commemoration of the Bleiburg victims was subject to attacks carried out by the socialist Yugoslav state. Abroad in the West, on Austrian soil, the Yugoslav secret service (UDBA) did not shy away from murdering the protagonist of the Croatian memory culture, Nicola Martinovic, as late as 1975. The official history was aligned with a firm interpretational paradigm that called for a glorification of the anti-fascist "people's liberation resistance." With the breakup of Yugoslavia and its socialist regime in 1991, the identity-establishing accounts of contemporary witnesses, which had mainly been cherished in exile circles abroad, increasingly reached public awareness in Croatia and Slovenia. In the 1990s Croatia witnessed the emergence of a memory that had been suppressed by the socialist-Yugoslav regime—namely the Bleiburg tragedy. The situation in Slovenia was similar in terms of identity and remembrance culture. Among the Slovenes, the communist crimes committed during the turmoil are known as the drama of Viktring or the Viktring tragedy, named after the largest refugee camp of the Slovenes. Reports on the communist postwar crimes and on the countless discoveries of mass gravesites have also begun circulating in the media of the German-speaking world in the last few years. Florian Rulitz's meticulously researched book, now available for the first time in English, provides a corrective to the historical memory that had been previously accepted as truth. Rulitz focuses on two essential questions. First, did the so-called "final encirclement battles" indeed occur in Carinthia in the Ferlach/Hollenburg/Viktring and Dravograd/Poljana/Bleiburg areas, resulting in military victories for the Yugoslav Army? Second, were the battles after the capitulation fought by the refugees with the aim of reaching the British-controlled areas in Carinthia? To answer these questions, Rulitz presents a detailed reconstruction of those days in May 1945. He furthermore considers the question of the murders on Austrian territory, which were hushed up in Partisan literature and presented as casualties of the final military operations. This groundbreaking study will interest scholars and students of modern European history.
The Tragedy of Bleiburg and Viktring, 1945
Author: Florian Rulitz
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150175663X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 310
Book Description
The atrocities and mass murders committed by Josip Broz Tito's Partisan units of the Yugoslav Army immediately after the Second World War had no place in the conscience of Socialist Yugoslavia. More than once, the annual Croatian commemoration of the Bleiburg victims was subject to attacks carried out by the socialist Yugoslav state. Abroad in the West, on Austrian soil, the Yugoslav secret service (UDBA) did not shy away from murdering the protagonist of the Croatian memory culture, Nicola Martinovic, as late as 1975. The official history was aligned with a firm interpretational paradigm that called for a glorification of the anti-fascist "people's liberation resistance." With the breakup of Yugoslavia and its socialist regime in 1991, the identity-establishing accounts of contemporary witnesses, which had mainly been cherished in exile circles abroad, increasingly reached public awareness in Croatia and Slovenia. In the 1990s Croatia witnessed the emergence of a memory that had been suppressed by the socialist-Yugoslav regime—namely the Bleiburg tragedy. The situation in Slovenia was similar in terms of identity and remembrance culture. Among the Slovenes, the communist crimes committed during the turmoil are known as the drama of Viktring or the Viktring tragedy, named after the largest refugee camp of the Slovenes. Reports on the communist postwar crimes and on the countless discoveries of mass gravesites have also begun circulating in the media of the German-speaking world in the last few years. Florian Rulitz's meticulously researched book, now available for the first time in English, provides a corrective to the historical memory that had been previously accepted as truth. Rulitz focuses on two essential questions. First, did the so-called "final encirclement battles" indeed occur in Carinthia in the Ferlach/Hollenburg/Viktring and Dravograd/Poljana/Bleiburg areas, resulting in military victories for the Yugoslav Army? Second, were the battles after the capitulation fought by the refugees with the aim of reaching the British-controlled areas in Carinthia? To answer these questions, Rulitz presents a detailed reconstruction of those days in May 1945. He furthermore considers the question of the murders on Austrian territory, which were hushed up in Partisan literature and presented as casualties of the final military operations. This groundbreaking study will interest scholars and students of modern European history.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150175663X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 310
Book Description
The atrocities and mass murders committed by Josip Broz Tito's Partisan units of the Yugoslav Army immediately after the Second World War had no place in the conscience of Socialist Yugoslavia. More than once, the annual Croatian commemoration of the Bleiburg victims was subject to attacks carried out by the socialist Yugoslav state. Abroad in the West, on Austrian soil, the Yugoslav secret service (UDBA) did not shy away from murdering the protagonist of the Croatian memory culture, Nicola Martinovic, as late as 1975. The official history was aligned with a firm interpretational paradigm that called for a glorification of the anti-fascist "people's liberation resistance." With the breakup of Yugoslavia and its socialist regime in 1991, the identity-establishing accounts of contemporary witnesses, which had mainly been cherished in exile circles abroad, increasingly reached public awareness in Croatia and Slovenia. In the 1990s Croatia witnessed the emergence of a memory that had been suppressed by the socialist-Yugoslav regime—namely the Bleiburg tragedy. The situation in Slovenia was similar in terms of identity and remembrance culture. Among the Slovenes, the communist crimes committed during the turmoil are known as the drama of Viktring or the Viktring tragedy, named after the largest refugee camp of the Slovenes. Reports on the communist postwar crimes and on the countless discoveries of mass gravesites have also begun circulating in the media of the German-speaking world in the last few years. Florian Rulitz's meticulously researched book, now available for the first time in English, provides a corrective to the historical memory that had been previously accepted as truth. Rulitz focuses on two essential questions. First, did the so-called "final encirclement battles" indeed occur in Carinthia in the Ferlach/Hollenburg/Viktring and Dravograd/Poljana/Bleiburg areas, resulting in military victories for the Yugoslav Army? Second, were the battles after the capitulation fought by the refugees with the aim of reaching the British-controlled areas in Carinthia? To answer these questions, Rulitz presents a detailed reconstruction of those days in May 1945. He furthermore considers the question of the murders on Austrian territory, which were hushed up in Partisan literature and presented as casualties of the final military operations. This groundbreaking study will interest scholars and students of modern European history.
German-Balkan Entangled Histories in the Twentieth Century
Author: Christopher A. Molnar
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822987910
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390
Book Description
This volume brings together a diverse group of scholars from North America and Europe to explore the history and memory of Germany’s fateful push for power in the Balkans during the era of the two world wars and the long postwar period. Each chapter focuses on one or more of four interrelated themes: war, empire, (forced) migration, and memory. The first section, “War and Empire in the Balkans,” explores Germany’s quest for empire in Southeast Europe during the first half of the century, a goal that was pursued by economic and military means. The book’s second section, “Aftershocks and Memories of War,” focuses on entangled German-Balkan histories that were shaped by, or a direct legacy of, Germany’s exceptionally destructive push for power in Southeast Europe during World War II. German-Balkan Entangled Histories in the Twentieth Century expands and enriches the neglected topic of Germany’s continued entanglements with the Balkans in the era of the world wars, the Cold War, and today.
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822987910
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390
Book Description
This volume brings together a diverse group of scholars from North America and Europe to explore the history and memory of Germany’s fateful push for power in the Balkans during the era of the two world wars and the long postwar period. Each chapter focuses on one or more of four interrelated themes: war, empire, (forced) migration, and memory. The first section, “War and Empire in the Balkans,” explores Germany’s quest for empire in Southeast Europe during the first half of the century, a goal that was pursued by economic and military means. The book’s second section, “Aftershocks and Memories of War,” focuses on entangled German-Balkan histories that were shaped by, or a direct legacy of, Germany’s exceptionally destructive push for power in Southeast Europe during World War II. German-Balkan Entangled Histories in the Twentieth Century expands and enriches the neglected topic of Germany’s continued entanglements with the Balkans in the era of the world wars, the Cold War, and today.
Historical Dictionary of Slovenia
Author: Leopoldina Plut-Pregelj
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538111063
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 746
Book Description
The expanded third edition of the Historical Dictionary of Slovenia covers personalities and events that have made a mark on Slovenia in the more than a decade since the last edition. This includes new entries related to Slovenia’s first 13 years as a member of NATO and the EU, changing diplomatic relations with its neighbors and other global states and institutions, a new crop of politicians who have upended the political status quo, entries related to Slovenia’s worst 21st century recession (2008-2013), nationwide protests against corruption, and many other developments. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Slovenia contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Slovenia.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538111063
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 746
Book Description
The expanded third edition of the Historical Dictionary of Slovenia covers personalities and events that have made a mark on Slovenia in the more than a decade since the last edition. This includes new entries related to Slovenia’s first 13 years as a member of NATO and the EU, changing diplomatic relations with its neighbors and other global states and institutions, a new crop of politicians who have upended the political status quo, entries related to Slovenia’s worst 21st century recession (2008-2013), nationwide protests against corruption, and many other developments. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Slovenia contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Slovenia.
Memory, Politics, and Yugoslav Migrations to Postwar Germany
Author: Christopher A. Molnar
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253037743
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
This historical study “persuasively links the reception of Yugoslav migrants to West Germany’s shifting relationship to the Nazi past . . . essential reading” (Tara Zahra, author of The Great Departure). During Europe’s 2015 refugee crisis, more than a hundred thousand asylum seekers from the western Balkans sought refuge in Germany. This was nothing new, however. Immigrants from the Balkans have streamed into West Germany in massive numbers since the end of the Second World War. In fact, Yugoslavs became the country’s second largest immigrant group. Yet their impact has received little critical attention until now. Memory, Politics, and Yugoslav Migrations to Postwar Germany tells the story of how Germans received the many thousands of Yugoslavs who migrated to Germany as political emigres, labor migrants, asylum seekers, and war refugees from 1945 to the mid-1990s. With a particular focus on German policies and attitudes toward immigrants, Christopher Molnar argues that considerations of race played only a marginal role in German attitudes and policies towards Yugoslavs. Rather, the history of Yugoslavs in postwar Germany was most profoundly shaped by the memory of World War II and the shifting Cold War context. Molnar shows how immigration was a central aspect of how Germany negotiated the meaning and legacy of the war.
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253037743
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
This historical study “persuasively links the reception of Yugoslav migrants to West Germany’s shifting relationship to the Nazi past . . . essential reading” (Tara Zahra, author of The Great Departure). During Europe’s 2015 refugee crisis, more than a hundred thousand asylum seekers from the western Balkans sought refuge in Germany. This was nothing new, however. Immigrants from the Balkans have streamed into West Germany in massive numbers since the end of the Second World War. In fact, Yugoslavs became the country’s second largest immigrant group. Yet their impact has received little critical attention until now. Memory, Politics, and Yugoslav Migrations to Postwar Germany tells the story of how Germans received the many thousands of Yugoslavs who migrated to Germany as political emigres, labor migrants, asylum seekers, and war refugees from 1945 to the mid-1990s. With a particular focus on German policies and attitudes toward immigrants, Christopher Molnar argues that considerations of race played only a marginal role in German attitudes and policies towards Yugoslavs. Rather, the history of Yugoslavs in postwar Germany was most profoundly shaped by the memory of World War II and the shifting Cold War context. Molnar shows how immigration was a central aspect of how Germany negotiated the meaning and legacy of the war.
Memory Politics and Populism in Southeastern Europe
Author: Jody Jensen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000378853
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188
Book Description
This book explores the politics of memory in Southeastern Europe in the context of rising populisms and their hegemonic grip on official memory and politics. It speaks to the increased political, media and academic attention paid to the rise of discontent, frustration and cultural resistance from below across the European continent and the world. In order to demonstrate the complexities of these processes, the volume transcends disciplinary boundaries to explore memory politics, examining the interconnections between memory and populism. It shows how memory politics has become one of the most important fields of symbolic struggle in the contemporary process of "meaning-making," providing space for actors, movements and other mnemonic entrepreneurs who challenge and point to incoherencies in the official narratives of memory and forgetting. Charting the contemporary rise of populist movements, the volume will be of particular interest to regional specialists in Southeastern Europe, Balkan and postcommunist studies, as well as researchers, activists, policy-makers and politicians at the national and EU levels and academics in the fields of political science, sociology, history, cultural heritage and management, conflict and peace studies.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000378853
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188
Book Description
This book explores the politics of memory in Southeastern Europe in the context of rising populisms and their hegemonic grip on official memory and politics. It speaks to the increased political, media and academic attention paid to the rise of discontent, frustration and cultural resistance from below across the European continent and the world. In order to demonstrate the complexities of these processes, the volume transcends disciplinary boundaries to explore memory politics, examining the interconnections between memory and populism. It shows how memory politics has become one of the most important fields of symbolic struggle in the contemporary process of "meaning-making," providing space for actors, movements and other mnemonic entrepreneurs who challenge and point to incoherencies in the official narratives of memory and forgetting. Charting the contemporary rise of populist movements, the volume will be of particular interest to regional specialists in Southeastern Europe, Balkan and postcommunist studies, as well as researchers, activists, policy-makers and politicians at the national and EU levels and academics in the fields of political science, sociology, history, cultural heritage and management, conflict and peace studies.
War and the Historic Environment
Author: Michael Dawson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040092950
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 323
Book Description
This book explores how societies deal with the effects of war on the historic environment. Written by historians, archaeologists, and conservation professionals, it offers a dramatic perspective on the war in Ukraine. It reveals the truth behind the Kremlin’s ‘just war’ narrative and touches on the complex relationship between war, society and the historic environment with examples of heritage conservation, archaeology and political expediency from Europe to Namibia. Prompted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the first section ‘Frontline Ukraine’ examines the manipulation of history, the use of propaganda, and the decolonisation of Russian memorials in former Soviet states. It highlights how illegal archaeological excavations, looting and the removal of museum collections beginning from seizure of Crimea in 2014 until the present day have contributed to an increasingly implausible Russian narrative which attempts to represent an imperial land grab as a ‘just war’. In the second section ‘Aspects of War’, the authors provide a wider perspective, with chapters on the influence of film, the effect of war on conservation, forensic archaeology, the reconstruction of damaged or destroyed museums as well as the relationship between America and the Hague Convention. Topical and lucid, this volume will be beneficial to students and researchers of history, archaeology, politics and international relations. The chapters in this book were originally published in The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice and are accompanied by an updated introduction and a new conclusion.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040092950
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 323
Book Description
This book explores how societies deal with the effects of war on the historic environment. Written by historians, archaeologists, and conservation professionals, it offers a dramatic perspective on the war in Ukraine. It reveals the truth behind the Kremlin’s ‘just war’ narrative and touches on the complex relationship between war, society and the historic environment with examples of heritage conservation, archaeology and political expediency from Europe to Namibia. Prompted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the first section ‘Frontline Ukraine’ examines the manipulation of history, the use of propaganda, and the decolonisation of Russian memorials in former Soviet states. It highlights how illegal archaeological excavations, looting and the removal of museum collections beginning from seizure of Crimea in 2014 until the present day have contributed to an increasingly implausible Russian narrative which attempts to represent an imperial land grab as a ‘just war’. In the second section ‘Aspects of War’, the authors provide a wider perspective, with chapters on the influence of film, the effect of war on conservation, forensic archaeology, the reconstruction of damaged or destroyed museums as well as the relationship between America and the Hague Convention. Topical and lucid, this volume will be beneficial to students and researchers of history, archaeology, politics and international relations. The chapters in this book were originally published in The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice and are accompanied by an updated introduction and a new conclusion.
The Holocaust/Genocide Template in Eastern Europe
Author: Ljiljana Radonić
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000712125
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
The Holocaust/Genocide Template in Eastern Europe discusses the “memory wars” in the course of the post-Communist re-narration of history since 1989 and the current authoritarian backlash. The book focuses specifically on how “mnemonic warriors” employ the “Holocaust template” and the concept of genocide in tendentious ways to justify radical policies and externalize the culpability for their international isolation and worsening social and economic circumstances domestically. The chapters analyze three dimensions: 1) the competing narratives of the “universalization of the Holocaust” as the negative icon of our era, on the one hand, and the “double genocide” paradigm, on the other, which focuses on “our own” national suffering under – allegedly “equally” evil – Nazism and Communism; 2) the juxtaposition of post-Communist Eastern Europe and Russia, reflected primarily in the struggle of the Baltic states and Ukraine to challenge Russian propaganda, a struggle that runs the risk of employing similarly distorting and propagandistic tropes; and 3) the post-Yugoslav rhetoric portraying one’s own group as “the new Jews” and one’s opponents in the wars of the 1990s as (akin to) “Nazis”. Surveying major battle sites in this “memory war”: memorial museums, monuments, film and the war over definitions and terminology in relevant public discourse, The Holocaust/Genocide Template in Eastern Europe will be of great interest to scholars of genocide, the Holocaust, historical memory and revisionism, and Eastern European Politics. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Genocide Research.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000712125
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
The Holocaust/Genocide Template in Eastern Europe discusses the “memory wars” in the course of the post-Communist re-narration of history since 1989 and the current authoritarian backlash. The book focuses specifically on how “mnemonic warriors” employ the “Holocaust template” and the concept of genocide in tendentious ways to justify radical policies and externalize the culpability for their international isolation and worsening social and economic circumstances domestically. The chapters analyze three dimensions: 1) the competing narratives of the “universalization of the Holocaust” as the negative icon of our era, on the one hand, and the “double genocide” paradigm, on the other, which focuses on “our own” national suffering under – allegedly “equally” evil – Nazism and Communism; 2) the juxtaposition of post-Communist Eastern Europe and Russia, reflected primarily in the struggle of the Baltic states and Ukraine to challenge Russian propaganda, a struggle that runs the risk of employing similarly distorting and propagandistic tropes; and 3) the post-Yugoslav rhetoric portraying one’s own group as “the new Jews” and one’s opponents in the wars of the 1990s as (akin to) “Nazis”. Surveying major battle sites in this “memory war”: memorial museums, monuments, film and the war over definitions and terminology in relevant public discourse, The Holocaust/Genocide Template in Eastern Europe will be of great interest to scholars of genocide, the Holocaust, historical memory and revisionism, and Eastern European Politics. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Genocide Research.
Revisions and Dissents
Author: Paul Gottfried
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
ISBN: 1501757490
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 193
Book Description
Paul Gottfried's critical engagement with political correctness is well known. The essays in Revisions and Dissents focus on a range of topics in European intellectual and political history, social theory, and the history of modern political movements. With subjects as varied as Robert Nisbet, Whig history, the European Union election of 2014, and Donald Trump, the essays are tied together by their strenuous confrontation with historians and journalists whose claims about the past no longer receive critical scrutiny. According to Gottfried, successful writers on historical topics take advantage of political orthodoxy and/or widespread ignorance to present questionable platitudes as self-evident historical judgments. New research ceases to be of importance in determining accepted interpretations. What remains decisive, Gottfried maintains, is whether the favored view fits the political and emotional needs of what he calls "verbalizing elites." In this highly politicized age, Gottfried argues, it is necessary to re-examine these prevalent interpretations of the past. He does so in this engaging volume, which will appeal to general readers interested in political and intellectual history.
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
ISBN: 1501757490
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 193
Book Description
Paul Gottfried's critical engagement with political correctness is well known. The essays in Revisions and Dissents focus on a range of topics in European intellectual and political history, social theory, and the history of modern political movements. With subjects as varied as Robert Nisbet, Whig history, the European Union election of 2014, and Donald Trump, the essays are tied together by their strenuous confrontation with historians and journalists whose claims about the past no longer receive critical scrutiny. According to Gottfried, successful writers on historical topics take advantage of political orthodoxy and/or widespread ignorance to present questionable platitudes as self-evident historical judgments. New research ceases to be of importance in determining accepted interpretations. What remains decisive, Gottfried maintains, is whether the favored view fits the political and emotional needs of what he calls "verbalizing elites." In this highly politicized age, Gottfried argues, it is necessary to re-examine these prevalent interpretations of the past. He does so in this engaging volume, which will appeal to general readers interested in political and intellectual history.
Framing the Nation and Collective Identities
Author: Vjeran Pavlaković
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351381784
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 245
Book Description
This book analyzes top-down and bottom-up strategies of framing the nation and collective identities through commemorative practices relating to events from the Second World War and the 1990s "Homeland War" in Croatia. With attention to media representations of commemorative events and opinion poll data, it draws on interviews and participant observation at commemorative events to focus on the speeches of political elites, together with the speeches of opposition politicians and other social actors (such as the Catholic Church, anti-fascist organizations and war veterans’ and victims’ organizations) who challenge official narratives. Offering innovative approaches to researching and analyzing commemorative practices in post-conflict societies, this examination of a nation’s transition from a Yugoslav republic to an independent state – and now the newest member of the European Union – constitutes a unique case study for scholars of cultural memory and identity politics interested in the production and representation of national identities in official narratives.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351381784
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 245
Book Description
This book analyzes top-down and bottom-up strategies of framing the nation and collective identities through commemorative practices relating to events from the Second World War and the 1990s "Homeland War" in Croatia. With attention to media representations of commemorative events and opinion poll data, it draws on interviews and participant observation at commemorative events to focus on the speeches of political elites, together with the speeches of opposition politicians and other social actors (such as the Catholic Church, anti-fascist organizations and war veterans’ and victims’ organizations) who challenge official narratives. Offering innovative approaches to researching and analyzing commemorative practices in post-conflict societies, this examination of a nation’s transition from a Yugoslav republic to an independent state – and now the newest member of the European Union – constitutes a unique case study for scholars of cultural memory and identity politics interested in the production and representation of national identities in official narratives.
In Tito’s Death Marches
Author: Joseph Hecimovic
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1789127408
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 146
Book Description
In Tito’s Death Marches is an eyewitness account of the Croatian war prisoners and civilians following World War II. This volume by Captain Hecimovic assembles the major pieces of an evil conspiracy worked against the Croatian nation in the immediate aftermath of World War II. It introduces the discerning reader to the political realities of Yugoslavia before, during, and after World War II. Its major vehicles of insight are the tragedies which befell the Croatian people whose only “crime” was an insatiable desire for national identity and independence.
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1789127408
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 146
Book Description
In Tito’s Death Marches is an eyewitness account of the Croatian war prisoners and civilians following World War II. This volume by Captain Hecimovic assembles the major pieces of an evil conspiracy worked against the Croatian nation in the immediate aftermath of World War II. It introduces the discerning reader to the political realities of Yugoslavia before, during, and after World War II. Its major vehicles of insight are the tragedies which befell the Croatian people whose only “crime” was an insatiable desire for national identity and independence.