This article examines attitudes of the Croatian final grade high school students towards the burdensome legacy of the Second World War and Croatian war for independence (1991–1995). Following the theoretical framework of memory studies, and implementing the concept of postmemory, we have developed a structural model connecting ideology and legacy of the wars. In addition, we have further modelled postmemory and its reliance on democratic values, namely political attitudes, trust in state institutions and political knowledge. Individualised predictors offered more nuanced analysis away from the binary understanding of pro-collaborationist and anti-fascist divide, in line with wider European trends and political culture(s).
AssmannJ (2008) Communicative and cultural memory. In: ErllANunningA (eds) Cultural Memory Studies. An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, pp.109–118.
2.
BagićDŠalajB (2012) Političko znanje mladih u Hrvatskoj. Zagreb: GONG & Fakultet političkih znanosti.
3.
BlanušaN (2013) Internal memory divided: conspiratorial thinking, ideological and historical cleavages in Croatia – lessons for Europe. European Quarterly of Political Attitudes and Mentalities2(4): 16–33.
4.
BlanušaN (2015) II Svjetski rat kao transgeneracijska trauma: sablasti prošlosti među mladima u Hrvatskoj. In: IlišinV (eds) Demokratski potencijali mladih u Hrvatskoj. Zagreb: IDIZ i Centar za demokraciju i pravo Miko Tripalo, pp.125–144.
5.
BlanušaN (2023) (Post)pamćenje traumatične prošlosti Drugog svjetskog rata kao izvor političke polarizacije u Hrvatskoj. In: KulenovićE (eds) Politike polarizacije i kulturni rat u Hrvatskoj. Zagreb: Biblioteka Političke analize, Fakultet političkih znanosti Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, pp.141–178.
6.
BlanušaNKulenovićE (2018) Hate speech, contentious symbols and politics of memory: survey research on Croatian citizens’ attitudes. Croatian Political Science Review55(4): 176–202.
7.
BovanKBaketaN (2022) Stabilnost i/ili promjene? Povjerenje u institucije u Hrvatskoj od 1999. do 2020. Revija za sociologiju | Croatian Sociological Review52(1): 31–60.
8.
BrophyJVanSledrightB (1997) Teaching and learning history in element schools. New York: Teachers College Press.
9.
CarreteroM (2011) Constructing Patriotism. Teaching History and Memories in Global Worlds. Charlotte, CT: Information Age Publishing.
10.
DimouA (2009) Transition’ and the Politics of History Education in Southeast Europe. Gottingen: V&R Unipress.
11.
GrbešaMVolarevićM (2021) Media in Croatia: from freedom fighters to tabloid avengers. Publizistik66(3-4): 621–636.
12.
HirschM (2012) The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture After the. Holocaust. New York: Columbia University Press.
13.
HöpkenW (1996) Oil on Fire? Textbooks, Ethnic Stereotypes and Violence in South-Eastern Europe. Hannover: Georg Eckert Institute.
14.
HorneCM (2017) Building Trust and Democracy: Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
15.
JakovinaT (ed) (2012) Hrvatsko proljeće: 40 godina poslije. Zagreb: Centar za demokraciju i pravo Miko Tripalo.
16.
JelinE (2003) State Repression and the Labors of Memory. Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press.
17.
JovićD (2012) The war that is not allowed to be forgotten: nationalist discourse on the ‘Homeland War’ (1991-1995) in contemporary Croatia. Südosteuropa Mitteilungen3: 52–69.
18.
KolstoP (2010) Bleiburg: the creation of a national martyrology. Europe-Asia Studies62(7): 1153–1174.
19.
KoulouriC (2002) Clio in the Balkans: The Politics of History Education. Thessaloniki: Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe.
20.
LjubojevicA (2021) Contested narratives of Bleiburg in the context of WWII remembrance in Croatia. In: JensenJ (eds) Memory Politics and Populism in Southeastern Europe. London: Routledge, pp.110–126.
21.
MacDonaldDB (2003) Balkan Holocausts? Serbian and Croatian Victim Centred Propaganda and the War in Yugoslavia. Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press.
22.
Matić BojićJBovanK (2024) Political knowledge of youth and their proneness to prejudice: Empirical test of direct and indirect effect via right-wing authoritarianism. Citizenship, Social and Economics Education. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14788047231225378
23.
MeusburgerP (2011) Knowledge, cultural memory, and politics. In: MeusburgerPHeffernanMWunderE (eds) Cultural Memories. The Geographical Point of View. Knowledge and Space, Volume 4. Dordrecht: Springer, pp.51–69.
24.
NoraP (1989) Between memory and history: les lieux de memoire. Representations26: 7–24.
25.
PaukovićD (2019) Framing the narrative about communist crimes in Croatia: Bleiburg and Jazovka. In: PaukovićDPavlakovićV (eds) Framing the Nation and Collective Identities: Political Rituals and Cultural Memory of the Twentieth-Century Traumas in Croatia. Abingdon, New York: Routledge, pp.99–118.
26.
PaukovićDPavlakovićV (2019) Framing the narrative about communist crimes in Croatia: Bleiburg and Jazovka. In: PaukovićDPavlakovićV (eds) Framing the Nation and Collective Identities: Political Rituals and Cultural Memory of the Twentieth-Century Traumas in Croatia. Abingdon, New York: Routledge, pp.99–118.
27.
PavlakovićV (2020) Memory politics in the Former Yugoslavia. Rocznik Instytutu Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej18(2): 9–32.
28.
PažurM (2016) Rekonstrukcija građanskog odgoja I obrazovanja: koncept, teorije i prakse. Zagreb: Mreža mladih Hrvatske.
29.
PažurM (2022) Komparativna analiza institucionalizacije građanskog odgoja i obrazovanja u Hrvatskoj, Austriji, Francuskoj i Njemačkoj. Zagreb: Gong.
30.
PericaV (2002) Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav State. New York: Oxford University Press.
31.
RothsteinB (2000) Trust, social dilemmas and collective memories. Journal of Theoretical Politics12(4): 477–501.
32.
Spajić-VrkašVHorvatM (2016) Participativna demokracija, učenje za aktivno građanstvo i školska kultura. In: KovačićMHorvatM (eds) Od podanika do građana: razvoj građanske kompetencije kod mladih. Zagreb: Institut za društvena istraživanja, pp.111–153.
33.
Spajić-VrkašV, et al. (2016) (Ne)moć građanskog odgoja i obrazovanja: objedinjeni izvještaj o učincima eksperimentalne provedbe kurikuluma građanskog odgoja i obrazovanja u 12 osnovnih i srednjih škola (2012./2013.). Zagreb: Nacionalni centar za vanjsko vrednovanje obrazovanja.
34.
SubotićJ (2019) Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Rememberance after Communism. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
35.
ŠvigirD (2021) Didaktika povijesti nedavnih nasilnih sukoba i njihova prezentacija na primjeru nekoliko kurikuluma povijesti s osvrtom na hrvatski slučaj. Časopis za suvremenu povijest2: 441–466.
36.
TroštTPMihajlović TrbovcJ (2020) History textbooks in war-time: the use of Second World War narratives in 1990s war propaganda in the former Yugoslavia. War & Society39(4): 290–309.
