Sarajevo, 1941–1945: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Hitler's Europe

by Emily Greble

On April 15, 1941, Sarajevo fell to Germany's 16th Motorized Infantry Division. The city, along with the rest of Bosnia, was incorporated into the Independent State of Croatia, one of the most brutal of Nazi satellite states run by the ultranationalist Croat Ustasha regime. The occupation posed an extraordinary set of challenges to Sarajevo's famously cosmopolitan culture and its civic consciousness; these challenges included humanitarian and political crises and tensions of national identity. As detailed for the first time in Emily Greble's book, the city s complex mosaic of confessions (Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish) and ethnicities (Croat, Serb, Jew, Bosnian Muslim, Roma, and various other national minorities) began to fracture under the Ustasha regime s violent assault on "Serbs, Jews, and Roma" contested categories of identity in this multiconfessional space tearing at the city s most basic traditions. Nor was there unanimity within the various ethnic and confessional groups: some Catholic Croats detested the Ustasha regime while others rode to power within it; Muslims quarreled about how best to position themselves for the postwar world, and some cast their lot with Hitler and joined the ill-fated Muslim Waffen SS.

In time, these centripetal forces were complicated by the Yugoslav civil war, a multisided civil conflict fought among Communist Partisans, Chetniks (Serb nationalists), Ustashas, and a host of other smaller groups. The absence of military conflict in Sarajevo allows Greble to explore the different sides of civil conflict, shedding light on the ways that humanitarian crises contributed to civil tensions and the ways that marginalized groups sought political power within the shifting political system. There is much drama in these pages: In the late days of the war, the Ustasha leaders, realizing that their game was up, turned the city into a slaughterhouse before fleeing abroad. The arrival of the Communist Partisans in April 1945 ushered in a new revolutionary era, one met with caution by the townspeople. Greble tells this complex story with remarkable clarity. Throughout, she emphasizes the measures that the city s leaders took to preserve against staggering odds the cultural and religious pluralism that had long enabled the city s diverse populations to thrive together."

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction

296 pages, Hardcover

First published February 25, 2011

About the author

Emily Greble specializes in the history of modern Eastern Europe and the Balkans, particularly the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Her research and teaching focus on questions of Islam in Europe, civil war, social transformation, and the nature of the post-Ottoman era. Her first book, Sarajevo, 1941-1945: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Hitler's Europe, examined the multicultural city Sarajevo during the Second World War. She currently is at work on two book projects. In Muslims on the Edge of Europe: the Making of a "European" Islam in the Balkans, 1878–1946,Greble analyzes Muslim life, politics, law, and culture in the post-Ottoman Balkans. Specifically, she is exploring the relationship between faith and citizenship;the integration of Sharia law and Sharia courts into European liberal state structures;the right of return for Muslim migrants and refugees;the nature of the public sphere;and the meaning of the "Muslim world" for Muslims living in post-Ottoman Europe. Her second book project, Europe's Forgotten Civil War: Yugoslavia and the Early Cold War (1946-1949),uncovers the hidden story of a civil war in early socialist Yugoslavia and its place in early Cold War politics. In reconstructing the story of the war, Greble analyzes the complicated web of armed insurgencies and militias, urban dissident networks, underground schools, and religious humanitarian missions that used food, health care, and social services to undermine the socialist government.

Professor Greble has held fellowships at the Remarque Institute at New York University, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, part of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies in Washington, D.C. She also has won numerous grants, including from Fulbright-Hays, ACLS, Mellon foundation, IREX, and the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH). In spring 2016, she will be a Fulbright scholar in Serbia.

In 2015, Professor Greble won the President's Award for Outstanding Faculty Service at the City College of New York.

Reviews

[Grahambo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very difficult book to read about a very complicated, but fascinating topic. Due to an editing choice that does not tell the story in a linear historical timeline, the subject matter can become even more confusing than it is. Despite that, worth the time to understand the multi-faceted local politics of survival during Nazi German and Ustasha (Nazi Puppet Croat) occupation. The author rejects the dichotomous logic of "opposition or collaboration" during WW2 to find deeper answers to the nuanced questions of survival during the Nazi occupation.

[Jason S · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is really excellent. Argues persuasively for a more complex story of WW2 occupation in Sarajevo and carefully examines the wartime cultural and religious situation, and how it defies traditional understandings of WW2 history. Important to connect the multifaith cooperation back to Ottoman times in the city. A compelling story of continuity in history where it is so easy to overfocus on the change.

[Andrii Nekrasov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Цікаве дослідження про долю та людей, мабуть, найбільш мультикультурного міста старої Європи під час другої світової. Теза про важливість громадянського суспільства на місцях та про опір зовнішньому цікава, хоча як на мене й релевантна лише для перших років хорватського режиму.

[Yunis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarajevo in world War 2 is story that shows the different stages of the War and the conflicts that occurred within society. The impact of the War changed the city that exists for more 400 in such dramatic way that one could grasp the devastation of war in culture of Europe.