Dejan Motl

Biography

Dejan Motl (born 1976 in Prijedor) is a Senior Curator employed at the Public Institution "Donja Gradina Memorial Area" since 2004. He completed his primary and secondary education in Prijedor and graduated with a degree in History in 2003 from the Faculty of Philosophy in Banja Luka. He obtained the professional rank of Curator in 2008 before a commission of the National Museum in Belgrade, while attaining the rank of Senior Curator in 2016 before the commission of the parent museums of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. He is a member of the editorial board of the professional and scientific journal Topola. He is the author and co-author of one book and a significant number of scientific papers dedicated to the history of the Jasenovac concentration camp, the Holocaust, and the culture of remembrance. He has participated in the realization of several exhibitions and documentaries, as well as numerous international seminars and conferences in the fields of history and Holocaust education. He has been a participant in international programs, including projects in cooperation with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM).

Resistance in Camp III Brickworks (Ciglana)

Abstract: Inmates in the largest and longest-running camp within the Jasenovac concentration camp complex offered various forms of resistance. These ranged from daily mutual aid and solidarity, which represented a form of passive resistance, to organized and overt actions opposing the Ustashe regime. The most famous and dramatic act of resistance occurred on April 22, 1945, when the final group of inmates executed a breakout from Camp III Brickworks.

The author’s intention is to use selected examples of passive and active resistance to illustrate the ways in which inmates sought to preserve their dignity, mutual connection, and elementary humanity under conditions of extreme violence and degradation. The paper aims to highlight the complexity of the camp experience and the significance of resistance as a means of survival and opposition to the system of destruction.