Can Croatia Confront Its Past?

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Can Croatia confront its wartime past? In July 2025, over 500,000 people gathered in Zagreb for a massive concert by Marko Perković, known as Thompson—a singer long associated with Croatian nationalism. The event, hailed as the largest paid concert in history, made headlines when parts of the crowd began chanting the Ustaše-era slogan “Za dom spremni” and giving fascist salutes. While Croatian officials downplayed the incident, critics at home and abroad—including the EU and Holocaust remembrance organisations—viewed it as a troubling sign that Croatia still hasn’t fully confronted its fascist past. The controversy reignited debates over how the country remembers the Second World War and the wartime Independent State of Croatia.

This video explores Croatia’s complex historical legacy, from the creation of Yugoslavia to the rise and fall of the Ustaše regime, the brutality of Jasenovac, and the long shadow these events have cast over the Croatian War of Independence. It asks whether Croatia has truly reckoned with its past or if symbols of fascism are being quietly rehabilitated in popular culture and public life. In a Europe facing a rise in far-right sentiment, the Thompson concert serves as a powerful case study in how history, nationalism, and politics continue to intersect in deeply unsettling ways.

*VIDEO CHAPTERS*
00:00 Introduction and Titles
00:51 Facing the Past: Croatia and Fascism
01:58 Croatia: Location and Population
02:28 The Croats, Austria-Hungary and Pan-Slavism
03:45 Croatia and Yugoslavia, 1918-1945
05:21 Croatia Within Socialist Yugoslavia, 1945-1991
07:30 The Ustaše Legacy in Croatia
08:57 Why the July 2025 Thompson Concert Matters
11:21 Facing the Fascist Legacy in Croatia

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