Fight against forgetting: the Jewish community in Yugoslavia and preserving the memory of the Holocaust 1945-1955

Članak je pokušaj da se prikažu i analiziraju metodi i aktivnosti putem kojih je jevrejska zajednica u Jugoslaviji, u toku prve posleratne decenije, nastojala da najpre formira, a potom i sačuva sećanje na Holokaust. Glavni cilj ovog rada jeste da pokaže da su jugoslovenski Jevreji već u prvim posleratnim godinama postavili čvrste osnove sopstvene kulture sećanja na rat i stradanje, i na taj način na jugoslovenskom slučaju opovrgne široko rasprostranjeno mišljenje o tome da su četrdesete i pedesete godine 20. veka bile vreme u kome se preživeli nisu usudili da govore o Holokaustu i sopstvenom stradanju. U obzir su uzeti različiti aspekti ovih nastojanja, kao što su memorijalizacije, objavljivanja publikacija i osnivanja ustanova poput Jevrejskog istorijskog muzeja i njegovog arhiva.Under the influence of different historiographical interpretations in the late 90s in the the professional community was actualized the idea arose in the sixties among American Jews. The idea is that a decade and a half after the end of the war was a time of the conscious and deliberate suppression of Holocaust Remembrance. In modern historiography, numerous experts from David Cesarani to Hasia Diner constantly and successfully sought to prove that the Jewish individuals and organizations since the end of the war tried not to remain silent and wanted to speak about the horrors of Hitler’s concentration camp. An important place, especially in the socialist bloc, among those who spoke about their own suffering, almost immediately after the war, were Jews of Yugoslavia and this article deals specifically with Jewish activity from 1945 to 1955. Already in Yugoslavia in 1946 was built the first modest monuments, in 1948 was formally established the Jewish Historical Museum and collecting documentation about the suffering and memories of survivors began soon after the restoration work of the Association of Municipalities in the early post-war years. The unveiling ceremony of five monuments in five Yugoslav cities in September and October 1952 was the culmination of efforts that the genocide of the Jews never forgets. Also, it was one of the most important an initiative of memorialization of Holocaust victims at that time in Eastern Europe, due to which the Federation of Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia became one of the pioneers in the development of awareness of the Holocaust as a phenomenon in the socialist part of Europe, at a time when in most countries of the Eastern bloc Stalin’s anti-Semitic purges were in full swing