CULTURICIDE AGAINST THE SERBS IN CROATIA IN THE CONTEXT OF THE WARS OF THE NINETIES

Text topic: Culture and National Trauma

Text author: Јелена Н. Арсенијевић Митрић

The paper discusses the problem of the destruction of Serbian cultural heritage in Croatia during the war in Yugoslavia (1991‒1995) while pointing to the fact that cultural and spiritual genocide against the Serbs took place in the mentioned area in three forms: devastation of Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries, destruction of books and libraries, namely the funds consisting of works by Serbian authors, those written in Cyrillic or published in Serbia, and also the demolition of monuments dedicated to the anti-fascist struggle as well as those built in honor of famous people of Serbian origin. Having in mind all three aspects of the premeditated eradication of traces of the Serbian culture, we point out that the Serbs as a nation are exposed to continuous trauma caused by one of the greatest cultural crimes committed after the Second World War.