Perceptions

TRANSGENERATIONAL MEMORY refers to the transmission of historical experiences, traumas, and narratives from one generation to the next. It encompasses how individuals, families, communities, and societies pass on the meanings and consequences of past events, whether through education, storytelling, cultural practices, media, or institutional frameworks. More than just remembering, transgenerational memory shapes how history is understood, and either confronted or denied over time. It plays an important role in forming collective identity, influencing intergenerational relationships, and shaping how societies address injustice, conflict, and responsibility.

As we mark thirty years since the genocide in Srebrenica, we find ourselves facing three generations, each shaped by a distinct relationship to this history. The first generation is those who lived through the war and still confront a legacy of unresolved justice and contested truth. The second generation is those born at the end of the war in 1995, now turning thirty, who were raised in a society that often denied or distorted the facts about the war and its consequences. Many grew up without access to reliable information about the fall of Yugoslavia or were taught narratives that minimise or relativise war crimes and the genocide in Srebrenica. The arrival of a third generation, those to be born in 2025, offers both a challenge and an opportunity. What this generation will come to know in thirty years, and how they come to learn it, will depend on how we define, structure, and prioritise transgenerational memory.

This section brings together 24 prominent figures from the former Yugoslavia, each responding to five carefully curated questions designed to elicit diverse insights and perspectives on transgenerational memory. Academics, journalists, artists, intellectuals, activists, and historians reflect the complex relationship between personal experience, public discourse, and historical accountability.

Five Questions, Five Answers, One Mirror of Time

At the heart of this section lies a shared inquiry: How does memory translate across generations, what conditions shape its transmission, and in what ways does it influence contemporary society? This editorial framework was intended not only to shape their perceptions but also to serve as a mirror of regional consciousness, spanning from 1995 to 2025 and beyond.

Generation of Lived History

This question invites reflection on how the generation that experienced the war has processed and shaped what we now understand as lived history. It examines how they contributed to the formation of collective memory through media, education, cultural expression, and commemorative practices, and how their lived experience continues to influence transgenerational memory today.

Generation Born into History

Born in the year of the Srebrenica genocide, this generation has come of age amid politically manipulated narratives and competing versions of recent history. Without direct experience of the war, they have inherited its consequences, social, political, and emotional, which continue to shape their relationship to identity, memory, and responsibility. By focusing on their perspective, we seek to understand how this generation interprets the legacy they were born into and how they carry the truth forward for future generations.

The Dynamics of Transgenerational Memory (1995–2025)

This theme explores whether the generation that lived through the war and the generation born in its aftermath have developed shared understandings of the past, or whether a disconnect in memory, experience, and meaning continues to divide them. It raises questions about how memory is communicated, contested, or silenced within families, institutions, and public discourse, and what that reveals about our collective ability to confront the past with truth and responsibility.

Regional Future: Memory, Legacy, or Trauma (2025–2055)

Looking ahead, this question considers how political, social, educational, and cultural developments across the former Yugoslavia may shape the trajectory of transgenerational memory over the next thirty years. Will the region foster conditions that preserve and deepen historical understanding, or will memory continue to be fragmented, reinterpreted, or erased? The perceptions will reveal not only how the past is treated, but whether future generations inherit a legacy of truth or a burden of unresolved trauma.

Global Future: Memory, Indifference, or Revisionism (2025–2055)

In a rapidly shifting global landscape, this perspective examines how shifts in geopolitics, international norms, and historical discourse may influence the future of memory across borders. As political interests increasingly influence which histories are amplified, distorted, or ignored, the question arises: Will the memory of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Srebrenica genocide be upheld as a warning, revised to serve new global agendas, or gradually displaced by global indifference? The way this history is remembered, or forgotten, will speak volumes about the values future generations are taught to carry forward.

Taken together, these reflections do not seek consensus but offer a cross-section of how memory lives, shifts, and is challenged across time. They reveal both fractures and continuities, reminding us that what is remembered, and what is not, is always shaped by power, place, and generation. In doing so, they open space for new questions, new responsibilities, and a deeper understanding of the past as it moves forward.

We extend our sincere thanks to the authors who responded to our theme, 'Transgenerational Memory: Thirty Years On,' for sharing their reflections, views, and perspectives, shaped by personal experiences, knowledge, and integrity. Their contributions offer a mirror of society and time, while also mapping out possible directions this region might take in confronting the past, caught between memory, silence, and the search for understanding. We publish these perceptions to encourage reflection and open space for diverse perspectives on the topic of transgenerational memory in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the wider region.