Институт за савремену историју

Institute for Contemporary History was founded on the 31st of January 1969 through the fusion of the Department of Historical Sciences of the Institute for Social Sciences and the Department for History of the Yugoslav Workers’ Movement of the Institute of the Workers Movement. This fusion was expressing a need to establish a scholarly research center which would bridge the gap between the studies of the “history of bourgeoisie” and the “history the workers movement” through the institutionalization of interests for contemporary history. Institute was placed on the fourth floor of the former building of the Privileged Agrarian Bank, where it is situated today as well.

Library of the institute for contemporary history contains a unique fond of over 37.000 books and over 2800 journals and magazines, primarily from the fields for contemporary history. The library contains rare collections of volumes published in the former Yugoslavia during the Second World War. Apart from its fond, the library has bibliographical catalogs and their informational tools for studying the history of the 20th century.

The institute also has a documentation center, contain rare collection such as original sets of documents of the State Security, collection of prisoners form the penitentiary of Sremska Mitrovica and the collection of microfilms form the National Archive in Washington.

Some of the microfilms at the Institute are relevant for Holocaust research; such as the microfilms of the National Archives in Washington (T-75, for example is very important for Jewish property in Serbia).