Holocaust and genocide memorialisation policies in the Western Balkans and Israel/Palestine

Abstract

In this article I approach memory construction as one of the crucial categories through which human rights values are invoked to impose moral responsibilities for past atrocities. In the conflict and post-conflict settings, however, memory construction is quite often used to define and reinforce ethnic boundaries. Analysing putative Holocaust-genocide nexuses in different conflict (Israel and Palestine) and post-conflict (Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina) settings, I argue that it is precisely the transition from a supposed ‘duty to remember’ to an internationally supported policy-oriented and mandatory ‘proper way of remembrance’ that brings justice for some victims but renders many other victim groups invisible. I suggest that the attempts to enforce memorialisation policies set a stage for competition not only over nominal recognition of past atrocities, but also over who gets to be ‘memorialized’ as the ultimate victim. Thus, rather than strengthening human rights values in conflict and post-conflict societies, an internationally supported ‘proper way of remembrance’ often results in strengthening further divisions and ethnic nationalism.