Memoricide

Memoricide is the destruction of the memory, extermination of the past of targeted people.^[1] It also refers to destruction of the traces (such as religious buildings or schools) that might recall the former presence of those considered undesirable.^[2]

Memoricide is used in support of ethnic cleansing.^[3] Since memoricide refers to intentional attempts to erase human memory about something, it usually takes the form of destruction of physical property.^[4] The term was coined by Croatian doctor Mirko Grmek in a text published in Le Figaro on 19 December 1991.^[5]

Allegations of memoricide

According to some accounts memoricide was employed by Greece toward Macedonians of Slavic origin.^[6]

The dissident^[7] historian Ilan Pappe deployed the concept of cultural memoricide as systematic attempt of post-1948 Israel in relation to Palestine.^[8] Also, the Spanish historian Jorge Ramos Tolosa has used this term in the context of the Zionist-Israeli practices in Palestine.^[9]

Grmek used the term to describe activities of the rebel Serb forces in Croatia during the first year of the Croatian independence war.^[5]

It has been argued that the burning of the Institute for Sexual Research in 1933 by Nazi students was an act of memoricide.^[10]

See also

• Cultural genocide
• Damnatio memoriae
• List of destroyed heritage
• Yimakh shemo
• Desecration of graves
• Forced assimilation
• Identity cleansing
• Paper genocide