Heroes and Criminals: On the Construction of Croatian War Criminals as National Heroes

This paper is a study of three emblematic cases of Croatian officers tried for war crimes in the period of seventeen years (2001-2018) when Croatia's cooperation with the ICTY became effective and trials before domestic courts began. These cases indicate the effect of judicial sentences on the collective memory, the social evolution of the figure of the perpetrator and the process of consolidation of the dominant narrative surrounding Croatians accused and / or convicted of war crimes. The social production of memory in two dimensions is analyzed: 1) the official - the place of the perpetrators in the historical narrative, 2) the public - the reactions of society and media coverage. Also, where appropriate, the individual is offered- the representation of the figure of the perpetrators by themselves. Since war crimes trials focus on the figure of the perpetrator, in the Croatian case they enter into tension with the social memory that revolves around the victims and the victorious defense of the country. The effect of such tension and conflict results in a memory denying crimes and the heroization of the perpetrators.