JANJA BEC-NEUMANN, (Germany/Vojvodina), Author of the concept and strategies of the Course "War Crimes, Genocide and Memories"
“DARKNESS AT NOON: WAR CRIMES, GENOCIDE AND MEMORIES”

LANA SLEZIC, (Canada), War Photographer
"FORSAKEN - THE LIVES OF AFGHAN WOMEN"

Lana Slezic spent two years in Afghanistan, photographing Afghan women. She will talk about her experiences documenting the oppressive conditions women are forced to live under.

STEVEN SAGE, (USA), US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.
“SEPHARDIM AND THE HOLOCAUST IN SEE”

"BALKAN SOBRANIE: JEWS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE"

A brief introduction to the civilization of the Sephardic Jews in the Balkans, and to that of the Ashkenazy Jews in Romania during the early 20th century period of rising nationalism. Salonika is noted as the cultural capital of Balkan Jewry; Bulgarian, Bosnian, and Serbian Jews maintained ties to Salonika. This is followed by a review of the impact of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), the Great War (1914-1918), anti-Semitism and continuing ethnic unrest in the post-Great War decades.

"A GENOCIDAL SCRIPT"

German Nazism and Hitler's personal agenda were the active agents for turning Southeast European anti-Semitism into an instrument of genocide. This lecture will introduce new empirical discoveries as published in my book last year (Ibsen and Hitler; NY: Carroll & Graf, 2006). Copies of my book are obtainable at a discount from Amazon.com; a paperback edition will be out in June or July, 2007. Readers and reviewers of this book have acclaimed it for the crucial and unexpected historical discoveries it presents. A Norwegian historian, Professor Hans Fredrik Dahl of the University of Oslo, wrote in "Dagbladet" (Oslo): "More thorough than anyone before him, Steven Sage has gone through the material around the young Hitler and his literary sources. His work encompasses much new research and draws conclusions in many different directions. That there was an actual line of influence between Ibsen and the young Hitler is to me beyond doubt." (See attached for Dahl's op-ed of 11 June 2006, in Norwegian and English.)

"DEALING WITH THE DEVIL"

Nazism offered territorial inducements to the countries of Southeastern Europe. The price was their cooperation in identifying, expropriating, enslaving, and deporting the Jewish population of each country. The detailed course of events is given for Romania and the Yugoslav component states, in 1941.

"THE HOLOCAUST MOVES SOUTH"

The events of the Holocaust are examined in Bulgaria and Greece. This lecture concludes with a review of first Holocaust trial in history (Sofia, 1945), followed by an overview of Holocaust denial and memorial in Bulgaria and the region as a whole.

LISA DI CAPRIO, (USA), Washington and Lee University Lexington, Virginia
“THE POLITICS OF MEMORY: FRANCE AND THE HOLOCAUST”

This course will examine the process by which nongovernmental organizations, historians, journalists and lawyers compelled official French recognition of France's role in the Holocaust. We will also consider the role of various forms of visual memorialization, such as monuments and museums, in conveying the memory of the Holocaust from one generation to another. Finally, we will compare the Memorial to the Shoah in Paris with the Memorial to the Martyred Jews of Europe in Berlin.
Suggested books:
(1) Susan Zuccotti, "The Holocaust, The French, and the Jews," (1999), paperback, $17.95 and
(2) Richard Golsan, editor, "Memory, the Holocaust, and French Justice: the Bousquet and Touvier Affairs (1996), paperback, $24.95.

DALIBOR DAVIDOVIC, (Croatia), University of Zagreb, Music Academy
“THE MEMORY OF MUSIC”

“Radical Jewish Culture” is the name of the ongoing project started in the early 1990s by contemporary composer and musician John Zorn. The project enfolds a series of music albums composed and played by different musicians and published on Zorn's New York-based label “Tzadik”. In my lecture I'll present some of the music published in that series and take it as a starting point for the analysis of the relation between music, memory and identity. In the case of “Radical Jewish Culture” the role of the traditional music patterns for the production of new music on one side and the memory of the Holocaust on the other side will be elaborated. Though my analysis will be focused on that single case, my aim is to show that the issues that arise from it are singular, but also more than that. Finally, in my lecture I'll discuss the political and ethical implications of the case.

AERNOUT VAN LYNDEN, (Holland), American University Blagoevgrad, AUB, Bulgaria

“WAR AND WAR CRIMES THROUGH THE EYES OF A WAR CORRESPONDENT”

The various problems and pitfalls correspondents face when confronted by war, both in general and specific terms (in my case the wars in Lebanon, Iran-Iraq, Afghanistan, 1991 Gulf War and Yugoslavia). The differences between the various branches of the media - print, television, radio and now the internet - when covering wars. Does the general public really get a sound impression about a war being waged on the other side of the world through journalism? And does journalism uncover war crimes?

“LIVING WITH MEMORY: THE PUBLIC AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF A FOREIGN EYE-WITNESS”

Within this lecture I will try, through personal experiences, to explain how every war correspondent is confronted by a certain local "memory", or understanding of the past (often mythical) and of how this can affect his or her work. He or she is also confronted by such "memory" amongst the readers/viewers for whom he/she is reporting and has to bear that in mind too. Quite separate to this is the question of one's own memory and of being a witness in a court of law. I will describe my personal experience as a witness in four trials at the ICTY. Finally I will try to deal with the question of living with the personal experience of 25 years spent in war zones - what effect that can have not just on our personal lives, but in our way of looking at any new development, social, political, economic or cultural, in the world.

DINKO GRUHONJIC, (Vojvodina/ Serbia), Deutsche Welle Correspondent & Lecturer at University of Novi Sad, President of Independent Journalists Association of Vojvodina

“SRDJAN ALEKSIC CASE AND MEMORIES IN TREBINJE AND SERBIA“

Srdjan Aleksic from Trebinje was murdered in his hometown in January, 1993. Four armed men, local “chetniks” killed him in the center of the town, in front of local police station.
On January 21st four chetniks wanted to slaughter Bosniak Alen Glavovic in the centre of the town. Srdjan stood up and said: “Leave that guy alone!” Chetniks were surprised and their anger was redirected: they attacked Srdjan and started to beat him with their gun butts. Srdjan fell in a coma and six days later he passed away on January 27th 1993.
“Srdjan died because of his humanity, because he wanted to protect a man, regardless of his nationality”, said Srdjan’s father Rade Aleksic.
Everybody in Trebinje knew what happened on that January day, but almost no one wanted to talk about it. Conspiracy of silence was finally broken thanks to initiative of my very good friend Mr. Ljubisa Gluscevic. He told me this story; I published it in Beta News Agency from Belgrade.
After that, Mr. Dobroslav Chuk, the mayor of Trebinje, promised municipality will build Srdjan’s monument.
“He tried to protect a man and I’m very proud because of that”, concluded Mr. Rade Aleksic. Or, as my colleague Nikola Gurovic once said: “Srdjan Aleksic was a firefly in the night!”

Concept of the lesson: Brief Introduction (10 min), documentary movie “Srdjo” (30 min), brief explanation of the movie (5 min), discussion (15 min)

Objective: To discuss whether we can implement the story to the process of the facing with the past and reconciliation; to try to find similar stories in Bosnia-Herzegovina; to discuss is it better recipe to talk about positive examples then always talk only about war crimes and criminals.

MARIO BEZBRADICA, (Croatia), ERMA graduate 2005/2006

“GENOCIDE PHOBIA IN SERBIA”

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague has been dealing for years with the process of bringing perpetrators of the crime of genocide in Srebrenica, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 11 July – 19 July 1995, to justice. There were trials and judgments and those convicted serve their sentences. The Serbian society, however, refuses to accept factual truths of its deep involvement in the genocide in Srebrenica. Instead, a project of denial of genocide minimizes every effort of recognizing the co-responsibility on the moral-political-metaphysical level. Moreover, one of the principal manufacturers of truth transformation is the newspaper medium. Its daily dosage of denial is a powerful antidote to any self-initiated process of confronting the legacy of genocide. The Hague Tribunal rendered its legal judgments, and the newspaper medium rendered its sociopolitical dismissal of those judgments by means of disinformation and refinement of its forms, techniques and methods of denial.

Analyzing the newspaper articles* in their relation to the denial of genocide it is noted that the print medium itself by its confessional character of the inside story and the communal participation in its mosaic form reinforces the denial’s determination to invalidate the explicitness of factual truths. The relativization, rationalization and normalization of the crime of genocide are widely used forms in the project of denial taking advantage of and adding to the banality of indifference thus obfuscating and trivializing the general public’s process of acknowledging political and moral guilt. The denial’s admissibility - the banality of indifference - is twofold and visible in arguments with the strong moral/legal pathos of correctness as to show that anything either proving or disapproving of genocide is sacred and consecrated and thus truly unbelievable.

In addition, Krstic’s Defense Appeal arguments reiterated and transfigured through the forms of relativization, rationalization and normalization by the Serbian print media can be summarized as serial of denial artifacts [a) relativization - men of military age are not substantial part of the group b) rationalization - the prosecution of women, children and elderly is “broadened definition of genocide” c) normalization - no intent to destroy]. These denial artifacts have been produced and reproduced expansively and consistently in the Serbian print media discourse to the extent of establishing falsehood as factual truth.

Phases of denial enable the forms of denial represented in the social environment as hate silence and banality of indifference
Conspiracy of silence / crime of silence		relativization
		rationalization
Legacy / burden of silence		normalization
Hate silence / banality of indifference

In the continuum of misstating, misrepresenting, misinterpreting and amending factual truths as the analyzed newspaper articles show ‘the other side of the story’ is deemed correct. As McLuhan concluded, newspaper is confessional in character thus creating the ‘inside story’ by its mere form. Its mosaic form is communal and inclusive allowing press to make news thus shaping and revealing group attitudes. Through its medium’s power of shaping group attitudes the deceptive newspaper articles contributed to the blindfold on the eyes of the Serbian public already drowning in the stultification of moral consciousness manifested in the banality of indifference. Finally, there cannot be any ‘solution’ for the Serbian denial of genocide as long as there is the perception in Serbia – as seen in the Serbian print media – that there is no ‘problem’ to be solved at all.

* EVIL NEVER BRINGS ABOUT GOOD, Vecernje Novosti, 26 May 2003: 23
PROSECUTORS AND JUDGES IN THE HAGUE ACT AS ONE, Politika, 28 May 2003: A24
EVIDENCE OR INFORMATION., Danas, 5 October 2003:7
THERE WERE CRIMES BUT GENOIDE NO!, Vecernje Novosti, 3 December 2003:8
THE BROADENED NOTION OF GENOCIDE, Politika, 21 April 2004: A1
BLACK HOLE IN THE JUDGEMENT, Vecernje Novosti, 22 April 2004: 7
PERSECUTION OF THE TRUTH OF SREBRENICA, Srpski Nacional, 21 April 2005: 12

ANGELA WIESER, (Austria), ERMA graduate 2005/2006
“JUSTICE FOR THE PAST AND THE FUTURE”

TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
- Definitions of and Reasons for Transitional Justice
- Dilemmas of Transitional Justic
- Goals of Transitional Justice
- Means of Transitional Justice

EU-CONDITIONALITY AND EUROPEANISATION

TRANSIONTIONAL JUSTICE IN THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

- The ICTY
- Difficulties of and Critique towards the ICTY
- Achievements of the ICTY
- Other Transitional Justice Approaches in the Region

THE EU AS THE MAIN POLITICAL POWER BEHIND TRASNITIONAL JUSTICE

XABIER AGUIRRE, (Spain), ICC
“GENOCIDE, MEMORY AND INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE”

Since the times of ancient Greece mythology and philosophy it is known that memory can have three main dimensions, as identity, as therapy and as knowledge. These three dimensions are related in different ways to the international crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes) and the modern efforts to prevent them through justice.

A range of options have been utilized to deal with the memory of past crimes, from sheer denial, amnesty or oblivion, to strict criminal justice, through middle-ground efforts of truth commissions. The advantages and limitations of these options need to be discussed for each situation, but the development of a global society is reducing the space for impunity; denying and forgetting the crime is becoming more and more difficult.

The complex issues of fact and law surrounding international crimes will be discussed reviewing different cases of ICTY (including Dubrovnik, Srebrenica, Prijedor and Sarajevo) and ICTR, the recent decision of the ICJ on genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the cases of the ICC, and different experiences in Europe, Africa and Latin America.

MARJAN VEJVODA, (Croatia), University of Rijeka
“GENOCIDE IN THE AGE OF CULTURE OF CYNICISM AND THE SPECTACLE AS IDEOLOGY”

To research genocide in the light of science in the age of “Culture of Cynicism”, and “Spectacle as Ideology”, and ”Three Nemesis of Creativity” means to have a very real doubts weather any understanding and restraining of this “global phenomenon” can be achieved. All three characteristics of our age strongly suggest the validity of La pensee traditionnelle which unsparingly criticizes contemporary world but contrary to most of the critiques of the contemporary civilization traditionalists do not rely on “humanist” and “progressive” values but on the values of the Integral Tradition, understood as the “total phenomenon” to which all the aspects of social, political and cultural life are subordinate.

General censorship and control of knowledge which is delivered to mankind through educational system over the ages is the main reason why the world is in the shape it is now and the one most devastating being global management of violence and terrorism.
Censorship and control of knowledge is the strongest evidence of the traditionalist view of metaphysical history which has established the existence of clandestine (occult) centre of human history which, in addition, consists of two opposite parts.

LUIS MORENO OCAMPO, (Argentina), Chief Prosecutor of ICC,

Talks with Luis Moreno Ocampo

“ICC AND INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE”

“FROM ARGENTINA TO ICC”

FILM PROGRAM IN ART RADIONICA LAZARETI/ ARL
Author: Ms. NATASA GOVEDARICA,
Sarajevo Film Festival, Sarajevo, ERMA graduate 2004/2005

“TAKING SIDES”, Istvan SZABO (2001)
As part of the denazification process after World War II, the American occupying forces in Germany are preparing a trial against an ageing, celebrated conductor, Wilhelm Furtwangler. Although Furtwangler brought many Jewish musicians into his orchestra, saving them from certain death, he is suspected of having Nazi sympathies. An American major, with a black and white sense of justice, is assigned to investigate the case.
(British Film Institute Library Synopses)

“NOWHERE IN AFRICA”, Caroline Link (German: Nirgendwo in Afrika) (2001)
Just before the outbreak of World War II, the German-Jewish Redrich family manages to escape the Nazi terror at the very last moment to a small isolated farm in Kenya. Here they lead an impoverished existence far removed from their roots in Germany. While daughter Regina discovers the magic of Africa, her parents become desperate in the face of poverty and isolation. For Walter, the father, his inability to cut Germany out of his heart tortures him far more than their economic plight.
The film won an 2002 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
(British Film Institute Library Synopses)

“SHOAH”, Claude LANZMAN (1985)
A nine-hour documentary on the victims, perpetrators and witnesses to the Nazi extermination camps in Poland. Made over a period of ten years, the director Claude Lanzmann filmed interviews with Jewish survivors, former German SS officers and Polish peasants. He revisited Treblinka, Auschwitz, Chelmno, Sobibor and Belzeac. Interviewees include Simon Srebnik, one of only two survivors of the 400,000 Jews at Chelmno, and SS officer Franz Suchomel, who served at Treblinka. The film uses no newsreel footage at all.
(British Film Institute Library Synopses)

“SQUAD”, Filip Svarm (Serbian: Jedinica,) (2006)
By the end of 2003 not so many people knew the purpose of Serbian Government’s Special Operation Squad: media buttered them up, politicians honored them, military and police bowed, and all Serbia was in fear. They were also called Red Berets or – bloody simple – The Squad. After the murder of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic on the 12th of March 2003 they were quietly dismissed. But how did it happen that Milorad Ulemek Legija – first and only true leader of the Squad and the man whom Djindjic described as one of The Fifth October’s heroes – was accused to be the organizer of his murder. How can it be that the worst political crimes – murders, assassinations, kidnappings – were done by the members of The Squad? Answers can be found in the three episodes of the B92 and Vreme series ‘Squad’.
(ZagrebDox Festival Synopsis)

”HIDDEN SORROWS”, Michelle KELSO (2005)
Michelle Kelso, the guest author of the Seminar 'War Crime, genocide, Memory', is a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of Michigan. She explains:

«Before meeting survivors, I knew little about the Nazi persecution of Roma. Although an estimated 500,000 Roma perished in the Holocaust, research on the genocide of the Roma is paltry. Concerning Romania’s role in the destruction of Roma, almost nothing was available then in English or Romanian. That’s when I decided to concentrate my research on the tragedy of the Roma during the Holocaust.

The film has been shown at cultural institutions and in several high schools across Romania and in the United States. It will be duplicated and sent to every Romanian high school to serve as an educational tool for teaching about the Holocaust and for discussion in civic education classes on topics such as xenophobia, racism, and discrimination. My hope for both my academic work and the film is to start a much-needed dialogue about the place of Roma in both Romanian and Holocaust history.» (M. Kelso)

“OFFICIAL STORY”, Luis PUENZO (1985)
Buenos Aires, 1983. Alicia and Roberto live with their adopted daughter, Gabi. Alicia begins to suspect that the child is the daughter of a 'desaparecida', a missing person, and that her husband is involved with the military régime.
(British Film Institute Library Synopses)

“FIGLI/HIJOS”, Marco BECHIS (2001)
Drama about an Italian boy contacted by a woman in Argentina who claims to be his sister. The boy is prompted to find out more about his origins and makes some disturbing discoveries.
(British Film Institute Library Synopses)