Abstract

Tasked with confronting the darker elements of Slovakia’s World War II and communist regimes, the Slovak Nation’s Memory Institute is arguably its most important transitional justice institution. Since its founding head died in 2006, however, political elites have nominated several apologists for the wartime fascist state to lead the Institute. This paper examines how these apologists mythologize the past; why some successfully achieved top positions at the Institute (focusing on the role of government, international, and civil society actors); and the implications of their involvement in public memory, showing that this has supported societal forgetting, which may support further dangerous outcomes.

pdf

Share