THE CULTURE OF REMEMBRANCE AND DEALING WITH THE PAST - THE EXAMPLE OF A VILLAGE IN ISTRIA

Kako je događaj s polovice 20. stoljeća uspio obilježiti jedno selo u Istri za čitav vijek njegovog postojanja? Stravična ubojstva kao dio odmazde u Drugom svjetskom ratu urezala su se u pamćenje svim preživjelima, ali i njihovim potomcima koji priče o tome slušaju od malih nogu. Ne samo da je sjećanje na taj događaj vrlo živo, nego je kod pojedinaca i nakon 77 godina još uvijek prisutan antagonizam prema počiniteljima i narodu kojem su počinitelji pripadali. Razloge tome možemo tražiti u dugom nizu godina neuspješnog procesa suočavanja s prošlošću.
In October 1943, the Germans occupied Istria to secure the area from Allied attacks, and the only ones who defied them were the partisans. Partisan actions interfered with German governance, so in the last years of the war, strict measures were taken to suppress such actions. These measures included burning down villages and killing the population in retaliation for partisan attacks. Such massacres were remembered in the collective memory of burning villages as the greatest tragedy of all time, and witnessing individuals remembered the event to the last detail for the rest of their lives. Some events, such as the burning of the villages Šajini and Bokordići in January 1944, have remained unexplained to this day. Moreover, no one has ever been convicted of burning those villages. The causes of this are most likely poverty caused after the end of the war, which made additional investigation impossible, but also the political situation of the newly formed state in which individuals may not have liked a full investigation. Because of this, the inhabitants of the village blamed the Germans and the Italians for the massacre of the innocent Croatian population for unknown reasons for years, which made the process of dealing with the past difficult, and has not yet been fully implemented to this day.