Reinterpretation of 7 July: From the Day When the First Insurgent Rifle Fired to the Day of the Outbreak of the Civil War

Abstract

The article examines the history of memory of 7 July 1941 in the context of the politics of memory on the Second World War in Serbia. Although a rather small-scale event, what happened in Bela Crkva on 7 July has been deemed signiϐicant in both socialist Yugoslavia and post-Yugoslav Serbia. However, its interpretation has changed and has always reϐlected the hegemonic historical narratives about the Second World War and their transformations. The meanings and values ascribed to the event of 7 July and its main actors are in the focus of the paper that takes the diachronic approach to memory with the emphasis on the post-Yugoslav period.

Keywords

• memory politics
• the Second World War
• Yugoslavia
• 1941 Uprising