Center for the Renewal of Culture (COK) organised a two-day conference in Zagreb on 8-9 July, 2025, together with the Brussels-based New Direction thinktank. The theme was titled “Eighty Years after the End of the War in Europe: Liberation or Enslavement?” The videos from the conference were recently made available via COK’s YouTube channel. Below you will find all the recordings in chronological order.
Videos from the conference Liberation or Enslavement, Tuesday afternoon
On Tuesday, 8th July, Branka Lozo from the New Direction management board was the first to address the attendees, drawing attention to the importance of these topics for contemporary Croatia.
Following her address, the Chairman of COK, Robin Harris, delivered the first presentation, titled “What the Communist Revolution in Yugoslavia Brought About.” In it, described the repressive measures adopted, despite earlier promises made by the Partisan leadership.
The second presentation was delivered by Mario Jareb Drugo je izlaganje održao Mario Jareb from the Croatian Institute of History. He showed how Stalin had been accorded enormous veneration, in the years before Yugoslavia was ejected from Cominform in 1948.
Igor Omerza, a writer on security issues from Slovenia, then delivered a lecture on the Party’s secret police structure and operations there between 1941 and 1990.
Experience outside Yugoslavia
The focus of discussion now shifted to outside Yugoslavia. Arunas Bubnys, from the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, described the Communist-Soviet terror in Lithuania between 1944 and 1953.
Grzegorz Wołk, from the Institute of National Remembrance in Poland, described the Polish experience of Communist revolution. He mentioned that, between 1939 and 1941, more than 300.000 Polish citizens were deported deep into the Soviet Union.
The second of our guests from Lithuania, Rasa Čepaitienė, from the Lithuanian Institute of History, discussed in her lecture, “Considering and confronting memories of the Communist Past”, the different approaches of the former Soviet Republics to their own history.
The first day ended with a panel discussion titled “The Reality of Communism”. It was moderated by Robin Harris, and all the aforementioned speakers participated, exploring the common features of Communist rule.
The videos from the second day of the conference
Mario Jareb opened the second day of the conference. He discussed the significance of the observations of the famous British (Catholic) novelist, Evelyn Waugh, about the revolutionary aims and brutal behaviour – particularly towards the Church – of Tito’s Partisans.
Continuing the same theme, Jure Krišto, retired scholar from the Croatian Institute of History, spoke about the persecution of the Catholic Church in Croatia. Dr Krišto concentrated on the immediate aftermath of the Partisan’s entry into Zagreb in May 1945 and the role of (Blessed Cardinal) Alojzije Stepinac.
In the third presentation, Robin Harris described the actions of the Party in Dubrovnik after its occupation by the Partisans on 18 October 1944. The case of Dubrovnik is especially revealing of how the new authorities acted with a mixture of brutality and subtlety to destroy their opponents
Hrvoje Čapo moderated the following panel discussion in which attention continued to be focused on the Party’s dealings with the Church. The participants were Mario Jareb, Jure Krišto and Robin Harris.
Third round of presentations: treatment of minorities by the Communist Revolutionaries
After a coffee break, the third block of presentations turned the conference’s attention to the treatment by the Communist Revolutionaries and their agents of minorities singled out for persecution – and in some cases extinction. Bože Vukušić, from the Way of the Cross Association, and formerly secretary of the Council for Affirmation of the Post-War Victims of the Communist System Killed Abroad, discussed Yugoslav state terrorism against the Croatian emigration.
Zlatko Hasanbegović, from the Ivo Pilar Institute (and former Minister of Culture) then discussed the Communist repression of the Islamic Community, taking Zagreb as a case study.
In the third presentation, Marino Manin discussed the still internationally controversial topic of the fate of the Italians at the end of the Second World War (1943 and then 1945 and later). The Italian minority were persecuted in both Dalmatia and Istria, and subsequently many thousands fled.
Vladimir Geiger, from the Croatian Institute of History, was unable to attend but his paper – The Fate of the German Minority in Croatia and Yugoslavia at the End of the Second World War and the Immediate Post-War Period – was read out by Hrvoje Čapo.
Hrvoje Čapo then moderated a panel discussion in which all these themes were further investigated and comparisons drawn.
The Bleiburg massacre and mass graves
The fourth and last block of lectures concentrated on the Bleiburg massacre and mass graves. Mitja Ferenc, an historian from Slovenia, but most importantly in this context Slovenia’s most distinguished expert concerning the location, probing, exhumation and analysis of mass graves, delivered the first lecture “Liquidations and mass graves in Slovenia”.
Amir Obhođaš, an historian at the Croatian State Archives, continued the same theme by reporting on the sites of mass graves which have recently been investigated on Croatian soil. He described and showed details of the exhumations done at Prudnice (Brdovec), Križanov jarak (Macelj), Jazovka and, most recently, at Sveta Nedelja.
Hrvoje Mandić, an historian from the University of Zagreb, discussed OZNA Repression in Herzegovina in 1945. From May to August 1945 Mostar was one of the stations on the Way of the Cross.
The last lecture of the conference was delivered by Hrvoje Čapo, who contrasted the approach to retribution for war crimes pursued at the end of the Second World War in Western and Eastern Europe.
Mate Ćurić, COK General Secretary, chaired the final panel discussion on Bleiburg and the Way of the Cross with the final five participants.
One part of presentations were given in English, and the other in Croatian. Although simultaneous translation was provided on the site, you may also turn on the automated translations in the videos by clicking on the CC button in the bottom right corner of each video.
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