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The Jewish Museum in Prague resumes its activities in collection the memories of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and those, who were involved in the resistance movement. We publish below the seventh hundred of annotations of these recorded memoirs.
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This paper examines the memory of the Romanian-German victims of the Soviet Gulag as recorded in recent collections of testimonies and interviews, a museum exhibition, an audio-visual documentary project, and Herta Müller’s 2009 novel Atemschaukel. It employs Alexander Etkind’s notions of “soft memory” and “hard memory” to discuss some of the key historical and political events that have impeded the establishing of consensual remembrance policies of the Soviet Gulag in communist Romania. I show how both German and Romanian communities since 1990 have memorialized the Gulag and discuss Atemschaukel as a legitimate impulse to document both personal and collective trauma of the second and subsequent generations. I argue that in the absence of a crystallized, hard memory, the historical documents and the historical fiction analyzed serve as viable examples of soft memory that succeed in memorializing the forced labor camps experience in its collective and individual forms.
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The purpose of the research was to identify the psychological characteristics of young women descended from aggressive families. The research sample consisted of 182 women, with an average age of 27.07 years. The experimental study of the personality of young women from aggressive backgrounds was conducted; the specifics of the interaction of young women involved in domestic violence with the aggressor from the basic family was identified, the level of risk for domestic violence for women from aggressive backgrounds of the origin was assessed; the level of aggression and its components (physical and verbal aggression, hostility and anger) in young women were highlighted; the level of self-perception on the status of victim of domestic violence was assessed; the personality factors of women victims of domestic violence that are considered to be predictors of the status of victim-aggressor and the relation between them were investigated; the link between the perceived aggression in in the family of origin and the perceived aggression in the current family was explained.
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The subject of this paper is to establish risk factors which make elderly and dependent people vulnerable to different forms of mistreatment and victimization. Therefore, firstly there will be presented different forms of mistreatment or abuse, including some crimes, and risk factors of mistreatment and victimization. Secondly, against this background Author will identify social law instruments, which may minimize the impact of those factors.
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Classic forensic investigations are sometimes insufficient to collect all of the potential evidence from a crime-scene, especially if conducted a long-time after, particularly when there are limitations in accessing the site and performing the fieldwork. The described limitations are particularly pronounced in the investigation of war crimes or location of war legacy (unexploded ordnance, buried weapons, mass graves and other potential war-crimes). This paper presents some of the geophysical and geochemical methods and techniques that have been used around the world - the Balkans, the Middle East and the Ukraine, especially in locating secondary and tertiary mass graves and residual military materiel. The described methods include the use of remote sensing methods via airborne or satellite sensors that indicate certain changes on the ground, the use of ground penetrating radar systems, electromagnetic methods, sensors for detecting residual radiation, and geochemical methods of water and soil sampling to collect evidence or locate zones of potential interest. The presented methods outline descriptive alterations in the soil mineralogy, electrical conductivity, occurrences of voids or discontinuities in the ground-penetrating radar data and unusual concentrations of metals or organic substances in water or soil as potential indicators of mass war-crimes or other war legacy.
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Vrelim danima srpnja i rujna ratne 1993. godine, hercegovačkim selima, klancima i gudurama, proplancima i riječnim kanjonima, prolamali su se krikovi očajnika, dječji posljednji hropci i vapaji potpunoga sloma duša njihovih majki, očeva… Posjećujući stratišta Stipića livada, Grabovice i Uzdola, tek tri od užasavajućega mnoštva duboko potresnih mjesta na kojima su pripadnici Armije RBiH prije tri desetljeća bezdušno, zvjerski pobili hrvatsku djecu, majke, bake i djedove, razoružane muškarce – ratne zarobljenike, pribilježih tri zapisa koja su ponikla iz drhtaja onoga trenutka kada čovjek, na takovim mjestima, zatvori oči i začuje ledene urlike ubojica i posljednje jauke njihovih žrtava.
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Review of: Andrew I. Port, NEVER AGAIN: GERMANS AND GENOCIDE AFTER THE HOLOCAUST, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; USA, Cambridge, Massachusetts; England, London 2023, 403 str
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The process of administering justice is absolutely necessary to give priority to the most serious violations of human rights, those that bring the greatest impact on social relations protected by national and international criminal law on human dignity. This requires the pawns of the justice apparatus to be honest about what is possible, making the most appropriate decisions about all types of violations and their victims, i.e. adopting a transparent and accountable decision-making process. Such decisions must be based on human rights principles, including both non-discrimination and a gender-based approach. The experiences examined in this chapter make a strong case for prioritizing violations of the right to life, including disappearances and violations of personal integrity, including rape and other serious forms of sexual violence, torture, and injuries that cause personal disabilities. If these categories are sufficiently covered, other violations of personal freedom such as forced recruitment of children, internment in violation of international humanitarian law, deportation and ethnic cleansing could be included. This implies adopting a different approach from those currently used by the complaints commissions, which have accepted all types of violations, without any basis for prioritization. Treating violations as more than isolated incidents allows for more effective determination of operational or systemic failures that have led to multiple violations of international humanitarian law. This could help to address violations more comprehensively and define adjustments and reforms that could help ensure non-repetition. Furthermore, this approach supports the development of a defined policy by clearly prioritizing categories of victims according to a certain hierarchy of violations in a way that can contribute to the affirmation of the most fundamental values that govern society, emphasizing the importance of reaching poor and marginalized victims. This is particularly important when the limited availability of resources means that some categories of victims will be left out of the reparation effort. Furthermore, if the policy targets certain violations considered to be the most serious, there is no need to add a requirement that the violations be systematic or widespread in nature, which is inappropriate in defining the right to redress. Such an approach would allow all victims of violations to be included, without distinction. In situations where parties to a conflict have committed serious violations, decisions intended to include all types of violations of the same gravity can guarantee that victims of the same violations are included in ex officio programs, which cannot be guaranteed through litigation. Court decisions that grant reparations only to those who end up with successful claims can create resentment among other victims who will feel that they do not have equal access to justice and will consider themselves marginalized from society and the justice system. On the other hand, judicial decisions could prompt political solutions that could lead to agreements or policies addressed to larger groups of people, but even if this is true, the belief that a comprehensive policy will be better than isolated decisions remains incidental and that the latter are useful only in so far as they might lead to the former. Thus, litigation should not be limited but encouraged, in order to obtain the most extensive and impactful results. This is why it is of particular importance to carry out a thorough analysis of legislative violations, through the lens of identifying the specifics of their commission, in relation to the victimizing impact on the target persons. At the same time, it is absolutely necessary to know the personal, social and financial implications of the violations, on the victims, in order to allow the justice system to adopt the best mechanisms in the process of repairing the damages caused.
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The reality of war has changed considerably over time. While most, if not all, armed conflicts were once fought between states, many are now fought within states. Especially since the end of the Cold War, the world has witnessed the outbreak of non-international armed conflicts, often of an ethnic nature. Because the laws of war are still largely based on the concept of classical international armed conflict, it has proven difficult to fit this law into "modern" war crimes trials dealing with crimes committed during non-international armed conflicts. The criminal process therefore "updated" the laws of war. The international criminal judge aligned the realities of modern warfare with the purpose of the laws of war (preventing unnecessary suffering and enforcing "fair play"). International humanitarian law was further developed in war crimes law. This chapter discusses the transition from war crimes law to international criminal law, the concept of state responsibility for individual responsibility for international crimes, and the nature and sources of international criminal law. International responsibility requires compliance with international obligations expressed in the norms and principles of international law, which make up the international legal order. Through the prism of the quality of a complex legal entity, international liability guarantees the effectiveness of international law, fulfilling beyond the particularities of each form of liability, important functions in international law: international legality, guaranteeing the international legal order, establishing international relations, developing international relations.
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The demographic, social and economic development of the Vukovar-Srijem coun-ty during and after the Homeland War occurred under the impact of the wartime demographic losses as well as the longterm demographic, social and economic con-sequences of the war and the long-lasting occupation of two thirds of the county’s territory. On the basis of available data, in this work the direct demographic losses of the Vukovar-Srijem county and their assessed impact on the demographic changes in the county in the „wartime” intercensal period (1991-2001) have been determined and described. Quantitative processing of the available digital database/application of the Croatian Memorial Documentation Centre of the Homeland War in Zagreb has determined that in the Homeland War, 3,636 pre-war inhabitants of Vukovar-Srijem county were either killed or went missing, which in comparison to the pre-war population figures (census 1991) results in an aproximate general war-time mortality rate of 15.72 per mille. Furthermore, through a numerical analysis the spacial, temporal and structural differentiation/selectivness of actual demographic losses in relation to certain parameters such as gender, age, nationality, pre-war residence of victims as well as to their places of death have been determined. The direct demographic losses established are a significant determinant of demographic changes in postwar Vukovar-Srijem county, particularly in the context of the strengthening of the overall and natural depopulation as well as the accelaration of population aging as shown in the postwar censuses (2001, 2011, 2021).
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Review of: Jakub Gałęziowski, Niedopowiedziane biografie. Polskie dzieci urodzone z powodu wojny, Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, Warszawa 2022, ss. 512.
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This article is a personal account of the author's experience as a prisoner in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during the Holocaust. She describes the horrors of the transport, the arrival, the tattooing, the shaving, the clothing, and the realization that she was in a death camp. She compares the camp to the mythical Medusa, whose gaze turned people into stone. She reflects on the loss of her identity, her dignity, and her former life. She also provides some historical background on the fate of the Theresienstadt ghetto and the so-called family camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
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In the presented article, an attempt was made to fill in the information about a well-known person in our republic, a dancer, choreographer, writer and leader of the Roma social movement, this is Pavel Andreichenko. New facts and testimonies found on the pages of the republican press testify to the versatility of the talent of this outstanding representative of the Roma people. Many years ago we wrote about P. Andreichenko as the author of one book – “Ten notebooks in the squares”, which told about the difficult fate of the entire gypsy people, who experienced humiliation and deprivation for many centuries, and in the XXth century experienced a real genocide. Pavel Andreichenko entered the history of the Roma people living in the Republic of Moldova by the fact that he was one of the first to appeal to the local authorities for help in creating a gypsy theater, opening gypsy schools, and an interest club for children and youth. In addition, Pavel Andreichenko was one of the first to speak in an interview about the mass execution of gypsies in Chisinau (near the districte “Old Post Office”). It was here, on this spot, he wanted to erect a monument to Roma children and adults, the victims who fell during the Second World War. It seems to us that the experience of social activity of the “Space Gypsy Pasha”, as Emil Loteanu once called him, can serve as an example for his followers, young activists and leaders of the Roma social movement, who have taken on the noble mission of making the dreams and aspirations of Pavel Andreichenko come true.
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Using five testimonies from Japanese war criminals tried at the Shanghai Military Tribunal, I argue that the testimonies commonly reflect three facts. First, Japanese war crimes in China during World War II can be classified into four types: murder, rape, destruction of private property, and "academic espionage"— reporting on China's political and socio-economic conditions to assist and facilitate Japan's invasion of China. Second, although the perpetrators did confess their crimes, their apologies could not be judged as entirely sincere, for some used the Japanese Emperor or the imperial system as a scapegoat and an excuse for committing the crimes. Finally, the variety of crimes which the Japanese witnesses admitted and their use of the Japanese emperor and Japanese imperialism as excuses to justify their engagement in such crimes demonstrates the necessity of further research into the extent of Japan's war crimes and a corresponding acknowledgement and an official apology from the Japanese Government.
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The process of administering justice is absolutely necessary to give priority to the most serious violations of human rights, those that bring the greatest impact on social relations protected by national and international criminal law on human dignity. This requires the pawns of the justice apparatus to be honest about what is possible, making the most appropriate decisions about all types of violations and their victims, ie adopting a transparent and accountable decision-making process. Such decisions must be based on human rights principles, including both non- discrimination and a gender-based approach. The experiences examined in this chapter make a strong case for prioritizing violations of the right to life, including disappearances and violations of personal integrity, including rape and other serious forms of sexual violence, torture, and injuries that cause personal disabilities. If these categories are sufficiently covered, other violations of personal freedom such as forced recruitment of children, internment in violation of international humanitarian law, deportation and ethnic cleansing could be included. This implies adopting a different approach from those currently used by the complaints commissions, which have accepted all types of violations, without any basis for prioritization. Treating violations as more than isolated incidents allows for more effective determination of operational or systemic failures that have led to multiple violations of international humanitarian law. This could help to address violations more comprehensively and define adjustments and reforms that could help ensure non-repetition. Furthermore, this approach supports the development of a defined policy by clearly prioritizing categories of victims according to a certain hierarchy of violations in a way that can contribute to the affirmation of the most fundamental values that govern society, emphasizing the importance of reaching poor and marginalized victims. This is particularly important when the limited availability of resources means that some categories of victims will be left out of the reparation effort. Furthermore, if the policy targets certain violations considered to be the most serious, there is no need to add a requirement that the violations be systematic or widespread in nature, which is inappropriate in defining the right to redress. Such an approach would allow all victims of violations to be included, without distinction. In situations where parties to a conflict have committed serious violations, decisions intended to include all types of violations of the same gravity can guarantee that victims of the same violations are included in ex officio programs, which cannot be guaranteed through litigation. Court decisions that grant reparations only to those who end up with successful claims can create resentment among other victims who will feel that they do not have equal access to justice and will consider themselves marginalized from society and the justice system. On the other hand, judicial decisions could prompt political solutions that could lead to agreements or policies addressed to larger groups of people, but even if this is true, the belief that a comprehensive policy will be better than isolated decisions remains incidental. And that the latter are useful only in so far as they might lead to the former. Thus, litigation should not be limited but encouraged, in order to obtain the most extensive and impactful results. This is why it is of particular importance to carry out a thorough analysis of legislative violations, through the lens of identifying the specifics of their commission, in relation to the victimizing impact on the target persons. At the same time, it is absolutely necessary to know the personal, social and financial implications of the violations, on the victims, in order to allow the justice system to adopt the best mechanisms in the process of repairing the damages caused.
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During armed conflicts in some countries, it became a common practice for fighters to force women to serve as wives. Although there is usually no official conclusion of marriage, in this way a relationship is created that is in many ways similar to a conjugal relationship. In a forced marriage, “wives” were expected to maintain regular sexual relations with their “husbands”, but also to perform housework, get pregnant, take care of born children and their “husbands”. Having this practice in mind, the Prosecutor before the Special Court for Sierra Leone determined this behavior as forced marriage and qualified it as other inhuman acts within the framework of crimes against humanity. This opened the door for a lot of legal problems related to the “new” crime. Namely, the question arose as to what the criminal act of forced marriage entails, i.e. what is the actus reus of this criminal act. Then, what is the difference between forced marriage and some other acts of crimes against humanity that are similar to it, such as, for example, sexual slavery. And finally, is forced marriage an act that is similar in its character to other acts of crime against humanity, so that it could be classified as other inhumane acts. The paper analyzes the etiological-phenomenological dimension of forced marriages in Cambodia, Sierra Leone and Uganda. After that, decisions of Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Special Court for Sierra Leone and permanent International Criminal Court are analyzed regarding all disputed issues related to forced marriage: the status of this act in international criminal law, the relationship with other similar international criminal offenses and the concept of forced marriage. Finally, proposals de lege ferenda are presented regarding the definition of forced marriage and its explicit prescription in international criminal law.
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Review of: Mark A. Wolfgram, Antigone’s Ghosts: The Long Legacy of War and Genocide in Five Countries Bucknell University Press, 2019, 304 pp.
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As for the nature and scope of the research, we emphasize that it included: the nature of the objects used in cases involving homicide; crime scene; family relationships between the perpetrator and the victim; measures taken by state authorities; analysis of the causes of depriving family members of their lives; the number of suicides following the cases of homicide, and types of homicides. The methods used include primarily the statistical method, at the level of descriptive statistics; case study method; content analysis method, and formal-logical method. It has been found that the application of the pre-crime concept gives certain positive results that are related to our research problem. They are reflected in the reduced number of victims deprived of their lives as a result of domestic violence. On the other hand, however, we notice a negative tendency of an increased number of homicides in the events involving perpetrators/repeat offenders who were previously reported due to domestic violence, which may bring into question the effectiveness in the acting of the competent state authorities.
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Civic activity, i.e. voluntary action for the benefit of social interest, is regarded as the basis for the existence of civil society. Civic activity is expressed, among other things, in the giving of time, labor, energy, knowledge or money, that is, in the giving of one’s own resources for the benefit of others – for someone else’s benefit, but also for one’s own benefit. The type of activity in question is characterized by two properties. First, it is a purposeful activity, and it is based on the fact that man is a dynamic, acting being. Specific actions are directed toward something, and therefore are not a direct reaction resulting from the appearance of certain external factors, but are the result of a cognitive analysis of the situation. The type of activity in question refers to actions taken by an individual alone or together with others, with an intention aimed at the welfare of members of his own community. Every, even individually implemented action for the benefit of others contains a social context. Then “social” does not mean “group”, but “undertaken for the benefit of the community. The article examines in detail not only the essence of civic activity, also civic education, “civic organizations” and paying taxes.
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Stalking is a cause of psychological damage, a form of victimization, and a warning for future violence. As a criminal offense, it was introduced in the Penal Code of the Republic of Croatia, in force since 2013, but there are still problems with defining it precisely. Given that the victims of stalking in most cases are women, the fact that this crime is not gender specific is often overlooked. Although studies have shown that female stalkers do not differ significantly from male ones, gender bias often leads to an underestimation of women’s potential for violence. The aim of this study is to determine whether there is gender equality in penal policy towards stalking in Croatia. To answer this question, the authors analyzed the court judgements from various courts in the Republic of Croatia and paired it with a survey to get an insight into the citizen’s perception of stalking.
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