The Holocaust in Yugoslav Cinema

The Holocaust in Yugoslav Cinema (HYC) examines the representations of the Holocaust in 50 Yugoslav films between 1945 and 1992.

The Holocaust in Yugoslavia forms a major chapter in modern European history that saw the country partitioned and the majority annexed to the Nazi-backed Independent State of Croatia that perpetrated a systematic genocide against Serbs, Jews, and Roma.

Memorialisation found dynamic, increasingly unexpected and altogether radical expression through films which dealt with issues of ethnic persecution, resistance, Jewish history, faith and culture in original ways.

By combining film, historiographical, and archival analysis, and empirical fieldwork in the archives in Belgrade, Zagreb, and Vienna, the proposed Project will systematize the Holocaust in Yugoslav cinema.

In doing so, the Project fills a major gap in European historiography: HYC opens the door to understanding the socio-political, ethnic, religious, and cultural specificities of Shoah representation in the Balkans and unlocks the heritage of a great cinematic tradition, altogether unresearched and yet one that can help us to reframe how we read visual histories of the Holocaust.