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COME: COntroversial MEmory Together - Exploring Politics of Memory in Bleiburg/Pliberk

2022-1-AT01-KA152-YOU-0000592392022Mobility of young peoplefinalized
Countries: AT|HR|SI · Grant: €20,714
Preventing racism and discriminationPreventing radicalisationDemocracy and inclusive democratic participation

Objectives

Young people today are affected by the growth of right-wing populism and discrimination everywhere in Europe. Populist parties are mobilizing more and more voters. Aspects used by right wing populist parties in Europe is the revisionism of history, glorification or downplaying of Nazi-fascist regimes and the denial of crimes against minorities. With this project we wanted to uncover and analyze one example of how historical revisionism is used by the right-wing in order to connect and build up certain narratives as well as relativize the atrocities committed by the Nazi-fascist regimes. Concretely, we have analyzed the extreme right ‘commemoration practice’ in the town of Bleiburg/Pliberk (Carinthia, Austria) that has been organized for many years in May up until it was officially banned in 2022. It was remembering the myth of the so-called “Massacre of Bleiburg/Pliberk”. The myth claims that in May 1945, shortly after the capitulation of Nazi-Germany, Ustaša soldiers and their supporters were allegedly killed in a massacre under the eyes of the British army right at the Loibacher Feld/Libuško polje near Bleiburg/Pliberk. This is historically incorrect: What happened was that the British army, who was present at the Loibacher Feld/Libuško polje in May 1945, did not accept the surrender of the Ustaša and their supporters, who tried to flee from the Yugoslavian Liberation Army. The Ustaša and their sympathizers were then disarmed and sent back to Yugoslavia, where many of them were killed on the way. In Austria, the ‘commemoration’ of this myth – which meant commemorating as well as glorifying fascist regimes and war criminals – started in the 1950s and throughout the years, it evolved into a gathering of (Neo-)Nazis, fascists, many Croatian and also Austrian right-wing politicians, conservatives and church representatives. It became one of the biggest gatherings of the extreme right in Europe, with a number of 30.000 people attending in 2015. The involved groups of people all shared a consensus of historical revisionism. In November 2021, a working group, which was asked by the Austrian government to assess the case, concluded that the yearly gathering in Bleiburg/Pliberk should be forbidden. The main objectives of this project were to promote young people’s active citizenship and increase their participation in society and politics through their active engagement. With this project we wanted to include young people facing discriminations and foster their activism. The project especially concentrated on fostering mutual understanding and solidarity between young people in Croatia, Austria and Slovenia. With this youth exchange we hoped to create space for young people to critically reflect on right wing populism in Europe, raise awareness of this relevant issue and allow youth people to contribute to the elimination of gatherings that downplay the horrors of National Socialism as well as related fascist regimes – and thus contribute to the promotion of European values and fight for human rights. We wanted to enhance creativity among youth as a way of dealing with and eliminating stereotypes and discrimination, promote Erasmus+ as an opportunity for the participants, create new long-lasting partnerships between organizations dealing with causes and consequences of National Socialism and its crimes and promote European values of democracy, equality human rights and non-violence.

Project partners (4)