Zagreb’s anti-fascist legacy remains alive and strong in the face of revisionist attacks from the right. In 2015, the Network of Anti-fascist Women of Zagreb (MAZ) reignited the tradition of marking Liberation Day by lighting bonfires at the place where partisan units entered the city in 1945. Since then, increasing numbers of people have shown up at the event to pay tribute to the many women and men members of the National Liberation Army and local resistance movement who freed the city from the fascist Ustaša regime and Nazi occupiers.
MAZ reminded the thousands of participants at the central event on Saturday, May 6, that the bonfires remain a symbol of the city’s collective victory at a time when the legacy of the anti-fascist struggle is under attack. “With the symbolic act of lighting the bonfires, we show that we will not forget our anti-fascist past, that we are fighting, and will fight, for its future,” the organizers said.
This year, in addition to the central mobilization, Liberation Day in the city included other events, such as tours of the lesser known, ‘unconquered Zagreb,’ consisting of the locations which played a key role in building the resistance movement.
The bonfires are organized in spite of opposition and pressure from right-wing groups. A handful of right-wing party members scheduled a press conference at the spot where this year’s central event was taking place. They were soon driven away amid the booing of the crowd and drum rolls of the musical collectives present there.
On the other hand, Zagreb’s Liberation Day has been embraced by political parties closer to the left. Since last year, the city’s mayor Tomislav Tomašević (Možemo!) has formally supported and attended the event. This year, both he and the president of the local council where the bonfires are lit, Dubravka Canjko, gave speeches in which they made clear that the anti-fascist struggle represents a part of Zagreb’s history of which its citizens should be proud.
The fact that the people of Zagreb liberated the city, just as people in other parts of Yugoslavia strove to do the same in their own towns and villages, should indeed represent a reason for pride, noted the organizers. “Let us not forget our Yugoslav past, in which the ideas of universal equality and solidarity were dominant. Let’s not forget anti-fascism and anti-fascist ideas despite and precisely because there is a systematic attempt to erase them from history textbooks. Let’s not forget our anti-fascist past because it must be our future,” said the organizers as the bonfires lit up.
