At the regular session of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, on 16 April 2026, a Conclusion was adopted launching the scientific project “Victims of Wars and State/Political Violence in Croatian History of the 20th Century”. The project will be implemented and coordinated by the Croatian Institute of History over the project’s five-year duration. Conclusion of the Government of the Republic of Croatia
From the text of the project proposal:
The issue of victims of wars and political violence in Croatian historical areas of the 20th century represents a complex and emotionally sensitive area of research, marked by various forms of violence and repression through several wars and political regimes. Wars, revolutions, political changes and ideological struggles have left a deep mark on society, and research on the victims of these conflicts is often subject to political interpretations and ideological divisions. In the context of the First and Second World Wars, the victims of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and the communist regime have been researched the most. The NDH was responsible for violence and crimes against dissenters, especially Serbs, Jews and Roma, and the number of victims and the circumstances of their suffering are still a controversial topic in our history. During the communist period, at the end and after World War II, repression against political opponents of the new regime followed, and many were imprisoned, declared enemies of the people and liquidated. Research on the victims of that period was often limited due to the political framework of Yugoslavia, a state in which history was often interpreted selectively and biasedly. Historical research on the victims of the war of the 1990s became crucial after the creation of the independent Republic of Croatia. The Croatian Memorial and Documentation Center of the Homeland War has so far made a significant contribution to identifying and documenting war victims of all nationalities and continues to invest significant efforts in identifying them, listing them and researching the circumstances of their suffering. Because of all this, researchers, primarily historians who deal with victims of wars and political violence of the 20th century, face various challenges, such as the unavailability of some archival sources or the actions of certain social groups that seek to instrumentalize history and put pressure on institutions and individuals who research history.
Despite these obstacles, in recent decades, progress has been made in understanding and recognizing victims of political violence through cooperation with international institutions, the publication of new sources and scientific works, and the encouragement of dialogue among historians. However, for a more comprehensive approach to researching the past, it is necessary to overcome ideological barriers and enable further progress in objective research on all victims of wars and political violence.
Based on the Source Principles and Fundamental Provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and the European Parliament Resolution on European Conscience and Totalitarianism of 2 April 2009, the Government of the Republic of Croatia, at its session on 2 March 2017, decided to establish the Council for Dealing with the Consequences of the Rule of Undemocratic Regimes. As one of its fundamental tasks, the Council was tasked with formulating comprehensive recommendations aimed at dealing with the past. In February 2018, the Council adopted a Dialogue Document in which, among other things, it proposed some measures to overcome the consequences of the rule of undemocratic regimes (Zagreb, 28 February 2018, pp. 15–16). The proposals included, among other things:
‒ Encourage activities of the scientific, cultural and political community that lead to confronting the past through a culture of dialogue and a politics of memory in which reconciling forms of social and political relations develop and improve the democratic and humanistic identity of the country.
‒ Encourage scientific, historiographical, political science, legal, social psychological and other research in order to achieve complex insight into topics of the past as a condition for their broader and better understanding in the present.
‒ Develop a broader research network connecting faculties, institutes and other scientific and professional organizations and experts that would result in the publication of analytical, but also synthetic macro-projects related to the research of the past and the confronting and overcoming of its negative consequences in the present.
‒ Open and critically research and publish archival materials and other sources related to the activities of individual undemocratic regimes and create the prerequisites for complex scientific work on the critical analysis and study of modern Croatian history, especially the history of the Kingdom of SHS/Yugoslavia, the NDH and the history of the SFRY.
‒ Continue work and additionally train research teams to critically examine all politicized approaches to determining the number of victims of undemocratic regimes and to find and mark crime scenes and mass graves while ensuring the dignified burial of victims. (…)
‒ Ensure the participation of internationally recognized institutions and experts in broader or specialized conferences related to the topics of dealing with the past and publish such discussions and papers (including e-publications).
The scientific project entitled “Victims of Wars and State/Political Violence in 20th-Century Croatian History” can significantly contribute to the implementation of the proposals from the Dialogue Document in several ways.
First, the project will enable detailed research and documentation of victims of wars and political violence, which will contribute to a better understanding of historical events and their consequences. The results of the research can serve as a basis for further historiographical, political scientific, legal and socio-psychological studies.
The project will establish cooperation between faculties, institutes and other scientific and professional organizations, thus creating a broader research network. This network will enable the exchange of knowledge and resources and the joint publication of analytical and synthetic works. The project will encourage the opening and critical research of archival materials related to the activities of undemocratic regimes. The publication of these sources will enable complex scientific work on the analysis of modern and contemporary Croatian history.
A critical review of all politicized approaches to determining the number of victims of undemocratic regimes is planned. This is particularly related to the issue of the number of victims of World War II and the post-war period. Previous research on demographic and actual losses provides insight into the approximate possible number of victims and casualties. In determining demographic and actual human losses, there are serious doubts regarding the number of casualties and victims by national/ethnic, ideological and military affiliation, as well as by place of loss of life and perpetrator or cause of death. The project will also work on finding and marking crime scenes and mass graves and ensuring dignified burial of victims. The participation of internationally recognized institutions and experts in conferences related to the topics of dealing with the past will be ensured. The publication of discussions and papers, including e-publications, will enable wider availability of the research results. This project should contribute to a better understanding and overcoming of the negative consequences of the past, to the improvement of the democratic and humanistic identity of the country, and to the development of a culture of dialogue and the politics of remembrance.
The main goals of this project are to create a digital database (PostgreSQL) of the dead, murdered and missing persons collected during the research, and to form a research team that would provide Croatian historiography with a quality foundation for future research into this controversial and burdensome history. The goal of the project is to list all victims from the territory of present-day Croatia and Croats from the territory of the former Yugoslavia who died and were killed in wars during the 20th century (World War I and II, the Homeland War), as well as Croats whose deaths were the result of state/political violence on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, especially immediately after the First and Second World Wars, as well as all victims of state/political violence in the Independent State of Croatia.
In addition to creating a list of victims, the task of researchers on the project is to collect and update sources on the deceased and publish lists of victims or sources relevant to the topic, as well as write scientific and professional papers and present them to the wider public.
