The Spomenik ("Monument") website is a project that looks at the notion of the stories places tell in the context of mass graves spread throughout Slovenia. In 1945, the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia set upon a program of purges of political opponents and undesirables at the end of World War II, resulting in over to 400 known mass grave sites holding tens of thousands of victims.

Slowly, over 10 years later and 60 years after the fact, the stories are starting to come out, and some little acknowledgment of the injustice and horror that took place, but not enough. “Spomenik” seeks to answer and address this. Most importantly, “Spomenik” is not to place blame, but rather a call for recognition and reconciliation.

Spomenik is a monument or memorial as well as an archive. Right now, it is an online archive that has the records of over 21,000 victims of the massacres. This archive has been compiled over the past 50 or more years by volunteers from across the globe. However, the archive is incomplete, and a lot of the stories that go with these people are unknown, or are scattered across the globe with all the people who fled.

Future

 
 

The goal of “Spomenik” is to create a monument to the victims of 1945 in Slovenia, and to tell the almost forgotten stories literally buried in the ground. Furthermore, the goal of this project is enable the victims and their survivors to build this themselves with the most powerful thing they have, their stories. Due to the sensitive nature of this in the former Yugoslavia, as well as in the former communist bloc in general, the other and perhaps, more important component of Spomenik is that it can be built from the bottom up, that is, not having to rely on bureaucratic approval or funding which may never come. Spomenik in its realization doesn't require concrete and bronze, but can be relatively easily deployed, and deployed in versions, is scalable, and reasonably cheap.

The fundamental notion of Spomenik is "Here = There". What it does is take the map of all of these mass grave sites scattered throughout Slovenia and shrinks it to overlay on the center of Ljubljana, the capital and most populous city of Slovenia. Each of these transposed 'places' around the city center would be accessible via mobile phone, with which one could experience the story of one of the victims of that particular 'place'. For instance, the corner of Trubarjeva cesta and Precna ulica (46° 3'9.92"N, 14°30'30.32"E) would correspond to the location of the mass grave of Teharje (46° 13' 49N, 15° 18' 8E). That spot on the corner of Trubarjeva cesta and Precna ulica would have a marker or sign indicating 'where' it is, and instructions how to access the story of that spot (in this case Teharje) on a mobile phone.

Although the initial context is that of Slovenia and the rest of ex-Yugoslavia, it doesn't end there by any means. The same killing fields and inhumanity because of ideology are sadly common stories worldwide. We could do the same for Ukraine in the 30's or Darfur today, everywhere where there are forgotten stories that we must remember.

For more information contact info@spomenik.org.