Silence Enshrined: Memorializing Intercommunal Violence in a Land of Brotherhood and Unity

Abstract

Abstract: Why do silences about intercommunal violence emerge and does their subsequent breaking lead to reconciliation in divided communities? By telling two stories of monuments built in northwest Bosnia after World War II, and the radical changes made to them since the war of 1992–95, this local history poses a question of global significance: Can memorials to the violent past ever create a "just memory," whereby they recall both our humanity and inhumanity, as well as both the humanity and inhumanity of "others" whom we may still see as enemies?