Overview

Picturing Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia examines the role which atrocity photographs played, and continue to play, in shaping the public memory of the Second World War in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Focusing on visual representations of one of the most controversial and politically divisive episodes of the war -- genocidal violence perpetrated against Serbs, Jews, and Roma by the pro-Nazi Ustasha regime in the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945) -- the book examines the origins, history and legacy of violent images. Notably, this book pays special attention to the politics of the atrocity photograph. It explores how images were strategically and selectively mobilized at different times, and by different memory communities and stakeholders, to do different things: justify retribution against political opponents in the immediate aftermath of the war, sustain the discourses of national unity on which socialist Yugoslavia was founded, or, in the post-communist era, prop-up different nationalist agendas, and ‘frame’ the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. In exploring this hitherto neglected aspect of Yugoslav history and visual culture, Jovan Byford sheds important light on the intricate nexus of political, cultural and psychological factors which account for the enduring power of atrocity images to shape the collective memory of mass violence.

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9781350192522

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This thoughtful and persuasively argued book explores images of Ustasha atrocities to shed light not only on Yugoslavia's troubled and divided visual memory but also on the broader social and cultural history of the socialist country and its post-socialist successors. Byford's thought-provoking and nuanced analysis of these graphic photographs and their many uses opens an unexpected window onto some of the most important moments, transitions and conflicts in Yugoslav history. * Ana Antic, Associate Professor of History, University of Copenhagen, Denmark * Picturing Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia is a theoretically-sophisticated and painstakingly-researched book. It debunks several major mythologies about the postwar memory of genocidal Ustasha violence during World War II. Byford approaches the history of atrocity photography in Yugoslavia and its successor states with strong ethical commitments and razor-sharp analysis, and illuminates the questions of production and consumption of atrocity photography in changing historical contexts more generally. * Emil Kerenji, Applied Research Scholar, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, USA *

Author Information

Jovan Byford is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at The Open University, UK. He has published widely on Holocaust memory, conspiracy theories and the relationship between psychology and history. His recent books include Denial and Repression of Antisemitism (2008), Conspiracy Theories: A Critical Introduction (2011), and the edited volume Psychology and History: Interdisciplinary Explorations (2014).

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