Guard against the oblivion: a role of public health in war

Not to remember means to side with the executioners againstits victims; not to remember means to kill the victims a secondtime; not to remember means to become an accomplice of the enemy.On the other hand, to remember means to feel compassion forthe victims of all persecutions.

(Elie Wiesel, excerpt from the Miami Beach Holocaust Memorialdedication, 4 February 1990) In 1991, Croatia entered the list of world's crisis areas ravagedby armed conflicts. The scenes of war, once thought to be safelyburied in the textbooks of European history, resurrected beforethe eyes of shocked nations. As if all the tragic lessons ofprevious wars were forgotten,