Local Dimensions of the Second World War in Southeastern Europe

This book deals with the Second World War in Southeastern Europe from the perspective of conditions on the ground during the conflict. The focus is on the reshaping of ethnic and religious groups in wartime, on the "top-down" and "bottom-up" dynamics of mass violence, and on the local dimensions of the Holocaust. The approach breaks with the national narratives and "top-down" political and military histories that continue to be the predominant paradigms forthe Second World Warin this part of Europe.

List of ContributorsList of mapsList of figuresAcknowledgementsINTRODUCTIONLocal Approaches to the Second World War in Southeastern Europe: An IntroductionXavier Bougarel, Hannes Grandits, Marija VulesicaPART I – GROUP-MAKING AS A PROCESSChapter 1 – Heirs of the Roman Empire? Aromanians and the Fascist Occupation of Greece (1941-1943)Paolo FonziChapter 2 – "The Task of the Century:" Local Dimensions of the Policy of Forced Conversion in the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1942)Daniela SimonChapter 3 – Forced Identities: The Use of the Category "Yugoslav" to Classify Inmates in the Mauthausen, Buchenwald and Dachau Nazi Concentration Camps (1941-1945)Thomas PorenaPART II – LOCAL DYNAMICS OF VIOLENCEChapter 4 – Controlling Space and People: War, Territoriality and Population Engineering in Greece during the 1940sPolymeris VoglisChapter 5 – Spatial and Temporal Logics of Violence: The Independent State of Croatia in the Districts of Glina and Vrginmost (April 1941-January 1942)Drago RoksandicChapter 6 – Dynamics of Unrestrained Violence: The Massacre of Distomo (10 June 1944)Janis NalbadidacisPART III – LOCAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE HOLOCAUSTChapter 7 – The Madding Clocks of Local Persecution: Anti-Jewish Policies under Bulgarian Occupation (1941-1943)Nadège RagaruChapter 8 – Resistance or Collaboration? The Greek Christian Elites of Thessaloniki facing the Holocaust (1941-1943)Leon SaltielChapter 9 – Being a Jew in Zagreb in 1941: Life and Death of Lovoslav SchickMarija VulesicaPART IV – EVERYDAY LIFE UNDER OCCUPATIONChapter 10 – Escape into Normality: Entertainment and Propaganda in Belgrade during the Occupation (1941-1944)Dejan ZecEPILOGUE(Re-)Scaling the Second World War: Regimes of Historicity and the Legacies of the Cold War in EuropeSabine RutarIndex

Xavier Bougarel is Researcher at the Centre d’études turques, ottomanes, balkaniques et centrasiatiques (CETOBaC), CNRS, Paris, France.Hannes Grandits is Professor of Southeast European History, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.Marija Vulesica is Researcher at the Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany.