None of us dared say anything

507 Pages·2010·14.44 MB·English

by  Max Bergholz

None of us Dared Say Anything:

Mass Killing in a Bosnian Community during World War Two
and the Postwar Culture of Silence

by

Max Bergholz

A Thesis submitted in conformity with
the requirements
for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Graduate Department of History
University of Toronto

© Copyright by Max Bergholz
2010
Abstract

None of us Dared Say Anything:

Mass Killing in a Bosnian Community during World War Two
and the Postwar Culture of Silence

by

Max Bergholz

Doctor of Philosophy
Graduate Department of History
University of Toronto
2010

This dissertation analyzes the dynamics of mass killing in the Kulen Vakuf region
of Bosnia during 1941 in order to explain why a culture of silence crystallized after the
Second World War about the murder of Muslim civilians by Serb insurgents. The main
argument is that the silence about nearly 2,000 Muslim civilians massacred by Serb
insurgents was rooted in the transformation of many of the perpetrators into members of
the Communist-led Partisan resistance movement. After the war, the Communist
authorities remained silent about the massacres to avoid implicating Partisan fighters as
war criminals, and so too did the Muslim survivors out of fear and a desire to move on.
The dissertation uncovers the emergence of the silence through an analysis of the actions
of the local Communist authorities, the Muslim and Serb communities, and the
interactions among them between the years 1941-1981. It studies the history of the
silence through the categories of those who “were silenced” and those who “were silent,”
concluding that the complicity of nearly all social groups was necessary for the
maintenance of silence about the massacres, which everyone knew about, but almost no
one spoke of publicly.
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Through a detailed study of one Bosnian region over four decades this dissertation
sheds light on the broader subjects of mass violence, remembrance, and national relations
and identification in this part of Europe during the twentieth century. Specifically, it
shows how the German invasion of Yugoslavia—and not widespread ethnic hatred
among neighbors—triggered a small number of local extremists to engage in mass
violence, which quickly cascaded into acts of attempted genocide and civil war. It
illuminates how perpetrators of mass ethnic violence paradoxically were absorbed by
guerrilla forces dedicated to multi-ethnic co-existence. It demonstrates how a
Communist regime, which was explicitly committed to promoting the national equality of
its multi-national population, ended up practicing a war remembrance policy that was
profoundly skewed along national lines, and specifically against Muslims. It shows the
concrete ways in which silence, a subject that historians of remembrance generally pay
lip-service to but have yet to examine carefully, is created and enforced in the aftermath
of mass killing. Finally, it argues that fixed notions of ethnic hatred or inter-ethnic
friendship fail to grasp the highly fluid and situational nature of national relations and
identification in multi-ethnic communities living in the shadow of mass killing.
This dissertation is based on three main sources: previously untapped archival
documents, especially from the Archive of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo and the
Archive of the Una-Sana Canton in Bihać; memoirs and testimonies written by
participants in wartime events, including several unpublished manuscripts never used
before by researchers; and numerous interviews conducted with survivors of mass
killings and their children.

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For my mother and father

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Acknowledgments

The general subject of this dissertation began to emerge on a hot summer evening
during 2003 in a café located in the Dorćol neighborhood of Belgrade. I was sitting with
my friend Marija Ilić, a researcher in the Balkanological Institute at the Serbian Academy
of Arts and Sciences. At the time, I was in Serbia spending my days going from institute
to institute, from professor to professor, searching for a thesis topic. Marija took great
pleasure in shooting down my various ideas, often rolling her eyes and simply saying,
“boring!” in response to my latest proposals for future research. On this evening she was
particularly annoyed with what I had to say, and finally exclaimed: “Why don’t you
research something important to us, something from history that still has relevance and
divides us today, like the remembrance of the Second World War?” In retrospect, her
challenge to research this complex and divisive topic marked the beginning of the long
journey to this thesis. And this anecdote exemplifies how the direction of my work has
been shaped by the input and support of friends, colleagues, and family, some of whom I
would like to thank in the following pages.
To begin with, I am grateful to my supervisor, Professor Lynne Viola, and my
committee members, Professor Derek Penslar and Professor Jeffrey Kopstein, for
supporting me during the past eight years while I have pursued my doctoral studies at the
University of Toronto. Professor Viola deserves special thanks for offering critical
support when I encountered serious problems during my first semester at Toronto. I am
thankful for her exceptional generosity, goodwill, and professionalism. Professor
Kopstein also deserves special thanks for agreeing to serve as the main reader for my
comprehensive exam in 2004.
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I am grateful to the scholars whom I had the good fortune to work with while
completing my B.A. and M.A. studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Professors Neal
Galpern, Orysia Karapinka, Alexander Orbach, William Chase, and Alejandro de la
Fuente taught me how to read, write, think, and speak. The late Dennison Rusinow
deserves special thanks for introducing me to the history of Yugoslavia in a course that
he taught on the disintegration of that country in the spring of 1997. Professor Michael F.
Jiménez was the most awe-inspiring intellectual I have ever met, and my encounter with
him in an honors seminar during the fall of 1997 was of decisive importance in my choice
to pursue a doctorate in history. His early death to cancer in 2001 was a tragedy not only
for his family, friends, and colleagues, but also for all the students who will never have
the chance to have their worlds transformed by his amazing intellect. I am deeply
grateful for the opportunity to have been taught by him.
My years of research in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia were supported
by a number of fellowships and grants. I am thankful to the following organizations and
institutions for support while I was doing field work and writing this thesis: the
International and Research Exchanges Board (IREX), American Councils for
International Education (ACTR-ACCELS), Fulbright (International Institute for
Education—IIE), the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the American
Historical Association (AHA), and the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges, and
Universities. At the University of Toronto I am grateful for the support given to me by
the Department of History, the School of Graduate Studies, and the Centre for European,
Russian, and Eurasian Studies. Finally, the Jackman Humanities Institute deserves
thanks for awarding me a dissertation writing fellowship during my final years of work.
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Anyone who has done research in Bosnia knows that success depends on the
goodwill of friends and others willing to offer assistance. It is no exaggeration to say that
I would never have completed this thesis without the group of people that helped me
chase down the necessary materials. In Bihać, I am deeply grateful to Asija Filan of the
Archive of the Una-Sana Canton. Without her phenomenal goodwill and willingness to
drive boxes of dusty documents from the depot outside of town to the local museum, I
would not have seen a single document of the rich collection in Bihać. I am grateful to
the director of the archive, Mr. Fikret Midžić, who initially did everything in his power to
block my research. He eventually became helpful, but I am thankful for his
obstructionism, as it forced me to learn more about local Bosnian politics and life than I
would have otherwise. I also met many wonderful people in Bihać as a result of his
attempt to prevent me from conducting archival research. I am grateful to the director of
the Museum of the Una-Sana Canton, Mr. Nijaza Maslak, who allowed me to read
documents in his building. While working in Bihać I had the good fortune to encounter a
fantastic group of people at the University Library. The director of the library, Alija
Mesić, deserves thanks for making me feel at home while I conducted research. For
generous assistance in finding materials, long coffee breaks, and friendship, I am
extremely grateful to Enisa Keča, Dženita and Hana Halilagić, and Mehmed Dervišević.
Finally, I owe a huge thank you to my friend Amela Mujagić, who offered support and
friendship, especially during my struggle to gain access to the archive in Bihać.
In Sarajevo, I wish to thank Zoran Bibanović for agreeing to share with me his
father’s unpublished manuscript about the wartime history of Kulen Vakuf. His trust and
good faith are most appreciated. I am grateful to Gina Zorabdić, the head librarian at the
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Institute for History in Sarajevo, for helping me find books and periodicals, and allowing
me to copy them. Many thanks to the helpful staff of the Bosniak Institute who assisted
me in locating a number of very important sources in their collection. I benefited
enormously from the goodwill and professionalism of the staff of the State Archive of
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Special thanks are due to the archive’s director, Mr. Šaban
Zahirović, who extended to me every courtesy, and bent rules to allow me to examine the
exceptionally rich collection for the League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
I am also deeply grateful to the archivist Mina Kujović, and librarian Fahrudin
Kulenović, whose immense knowledge of sources on the history of Bosnia was
astonishing and of great help in my research. Special thanks to Boro Jurišić and Sandra
Biletić, whose generous day-to-day assistance in my research was truly remarkable.
Sandra deserves a huge thank you not only for her assistance in the archive, but also for
friendship and the many hours we spent watching DM Sat.
In Kulen Vakuf, and in the nearby villages of Klisa, Ostrovica, and Martin Brod, I
met many remarkable people who were willing to discuss with me some of the most
painful moments of their lives. I am not sure how I would have responded had someone
showed up one day, as I did in these places, and began asking questions about extremely
sensitive topics. I am deeply grateful for the willingness of nearly everyone I met in the
region to speak about what they lived through. Special thanks are due to Muhamed
Handžić, whom I met the first day I traveled to Kulen Vakuf in October 2006. He put me
in contact with many people in the region, and conversations with them were of great use
in the writing of this dissertation. My deepest thanks are due to Nataša “Džina” Kadić,
moja “stara i zločesta” prijateljica, who took an interest in my research and offered a
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huge amount of assistance in helping me puzzle through the local nuances of the history
of Kulen Vakuf. Finally, I am grateful to Derviš Dervišević of Klisa, a survivor of the
1941 massacres, for speaking with me on several occasions about his experiences, and for
showing me how to eat canned meat with a large knife.
Other individuals in the wider region sustained me with friendship and support
during my long, and, at times, lonely and difficult period of field work. Saša Glamočak
is the person most responsible for teaching me to read, write, and speak the local
languages and, since our meeting in Novi Sad during the summer of 2002, has been my
best friend. His intelligence, knowledge of the politics and history of the region, and
friendship have been an inspiration to me over the years. Profesore, moramo jednog
dana na onu tvrđavu u Smederevu! Saša Ilić is a great friend and marvelous story teller
and writer. His interest in my work, and his knowledge of the region, has been a huge
support to me. Druže, nema kraja dok borba traje! Jovan Pešalj and I spent an
unforgettable summer together in 2003 exploring the intellectual terrain of Belgrade.
Since then, we have remained close friends and he offered me an exceptional amount of
support throughout my work on this dissertation. Kolega, šta to znači ‘jugoslovenstvo!?’
Meeting Nermina Delić in early October 2008 was a magical experience. Ako nisi znala,
neizmjerno sam sretan što si me čekala tog dana na stanici u Vakufu.
For friendship, advice, and support, I am grateful to Jasna Karaula, Magdalena
Popović, Jasmina Midžić, Alma Leka, Ivana Jugović, Nikica Barić, Maja Novicki,
Branislava Vojnović-Mutavdžić, Jelena Stefanović, Lada Stevanović, Nada Rajić, Sanja
Ignjatović, Professor Ljubodrag Dimić, and, finally, the wonderful staff of the Archive of
Yugoslavia in Belgrade, especially Marina, Dragana, Mićo, Zorica, Sandra, and Suzana.
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I wrote this dissertation in Toronto, primarily in cafes in my neighborhood and in
libraries on the campus of the University of Toronto. I am grateful to those who work in
Luna, Ezra’s Pound (on Dundas), Clafouti, Lettieri (in Yorkville), and El Almacen for
putting up with me, my documents and books, and my laptop. I also wish to thank the
staff of Robarts Library and Gerstein Science Information Centre.
The amazing music scene in Toronto sustained me during the most demanding
period of writing. I am grateful to my friend Jen Polk, and Colin and Jay of the 84.85, for
being my unofficial guides to this world. Thanks to Wrongbar and the Drake
(Underground) for all the fantastic, sweaty dance parties, and to Claire, Mike, Matt,
Stefan, and Mirko for making sure that a PhD candidate like me got in for free and
bypassed all those annoying lines.
I wish to thank my friends Janani Shanmuganathan, Dave Gerlach, Petra Strašek,
and Sheri Lullo for our conversations over the past years.
Ayla Khosroshahi appeared on a summer night in 2009 and brought joy, and
especially infectious laughter and wonderful energy into my world. No matter what you
say, YOU are the suburbs!
I am grateful to Aisha Jamal for love and support between the years 2003 to 2006,
but not after.
I grew up in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) and two individuals from that city deserve
special mention: Andy Sheehan and Sue Van Doeren. Both came into my life at crucial
moments and helped me to keep walking through the darkness until, one day, the sun
finally broke through. That I am finishing this dissertation is in no small part due to
them.
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