This summer, 11 Students and two faculty members are traveling to Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia to learn about the 20th-century history of the countries formerly known as Yugoslavia and begin to unravel the complex reverberations of Conflict. Please enjoy this blog post below from Lyla ’26 and Joanna ’26 as they share how they explored Zagreb’s complex history through war memorials, museums, and powerful discussions on identity, conflict, and reconciliation, while also finding time to enjoy the city’s vibrant culture and cuisine.
Our group started with a 8a.m wake up to go on a walking tour of Zagreb. Zagreb is a city full of graffiti (with a wall covered with gum), colorful buildings, and blue trams rushing through the streets. Everything here embodies peacefulness that seems oddly distant from its past, with roughly only 30 years since the Yugoslav Wars–or as our tour guide Diana says, “Homeland War.”
Diana brought us to the statue of Stjepan Radic, the Tunnel Gric, and a bunker used during the war which reflected different topics of ethnic, religious, and political tensions within Yugoslavia including the re-emergence of labor camps during Tito’s regime. In the bunker, we observed propaganda posters, watched a 20 minute documentary that covered the casualities between the Croats and the Serbians, and Operation Storm and Flash. The group then visited the Zagreb Bombing Memorial Museum which explored the bombing of the Ban’s Court targeted towards Croatian President Banski Dvori in further detail. The museum featured old footage, news reports, shrapnels used for the bombs, and remnants of a couch that was damaged. The group reflected upon the information learned today through an open discussion about the importance of identity within Yugolsavia. One conversation surrounded the strong disagreements over Operation Flash in 1995, specifically around its purpose, how it played out, and the perspectives between the Serbs and the Croats. While the Croats believed it to be a reasonable solution to win back territory taken by the minority-Serbian militia, the Serbs viewed this operation as an attempt of displacement and genocide. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) determined that the operation was not intended as ethnic cleansing, but had the effect of pushing Serbs out.
Another museum the group explored was the Museum of Broken Relationships, where we viewed a variety of artifacts that reflected the stories of familial, platonic, and romantic relationships, and how they were broken– death, cheating, sickness, or abandonment all were options. After learning about those stories after dinner, the group discussed the message and intention of donating their artifacts to the museum.
During the trip, the group also enjoyed a quick lunch on the food street, ice cream, and pizza for dinner. Stay tuned for Albert ’26 and Tim ’27’s reviews on the instagram account @BalkanBigBacks. Watch us reflect on our trip to Jasenovac and Sarajevo and our exploration of the role of Bosnia and Herzegovina within the war.
