Jože Dežman (born 26 September 1955) is a

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

n historian, museum curator, philosopher and editor. He served as the director of the National Museum of Contemporary History in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

. Since March 2012, he has been the director of the Archives of Slovenia, where he had replaced Dragan Matić. Matić characterised the replacement as politically motivated and pointed out that Dežman is not an

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist can cons ...

. Dežman was born in the

Upper Carniola Upper Carniola ( ; ; ) is a traditional region of Slovenia, the northern mountainous part of the larger Carniola region. The largest town in the region is Kranj, and other urban centers include Kamnik, Jesenice, Jesenice, Jesenice, Domžale and ...

n town of

Lesce Lesce () is a town in the Municipality of Radovljica in the Upper Carniola region of Slovenia. It is an industrial and tourist centre. It is one of the earliest-mentioned settlements in the region, first noted in a document from 1004 together w ...

. He studied history and philosophy at the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana (, , ), abbreviated UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 38,000 enrolled students. The university has 23 faculties and three art academies with approximately 4,000 teaching and re ...

and finished his studies in 1997. For twenty years, he actively participated in the

League of Communists of Slovenia The League of Communists of Slovenia (, ZKS; ) was the Slovenian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1990. It was established in April 1937 as the Communist Party of Slovenia and was ...

and other Communist political organisations. In the 1990s, he was an active member of the liberal party

Liberal Democracy of Slovenia Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (, LDS) is a social-liberal political party in Slovenia. Between 1992 and 2004, it (and its main predecessor, the Liberal Democratic Party) was the largest (and ruling) party in the country. In the 2011 Slovenian pa ...

. He later turned to more conservative positions. Since the mid-2000s, he has advocated the inclusion of

anti-Communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...

perspectives in Slovenian historiography. Dežman described the fundamental characteristics of the crimes following the Second World War as follows: Dežman was the first chairman of the Commission on Concealed Mass Graves in Slovenia. He contributed to the European Public Hearing on "Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes" organized by Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(January–June 2008) and the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

by writing the chapter "Communist Repression and Transitional Justice in Slovenia" for the report.European Public Hearing on "Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes”
Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (January–June 2008) and the European Commission, pp. 197–205.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dezman, Joze 20th-century Slovenian historians People from the Municipality of Radovljica 1955 births Living people Contemporary history of Slovenia Slovenian government officials University of Ljubljana alumni 21st-century Slovenian historians

See also

References