Robbery of Jewish property in Yugoslavia (1940)/1941 - 1945. A comparative analysis of the German occupied Serbia and the Independent State of Croatia

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hannes Grandits
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 426339885

This research project investigates the robbery of Jewish property in Serbia, occupied by the German Reich, and in the fascist Independent State of Croatia (1940)/1941 to 1945. This region in southeastern Europe has been multi-ethnic and multiconfessional for centuries, which is why a multi-perspective comparative analysis is decisive for this research project. This approach is the best way to analyze the diversity of power in the often interconnected robbery processes. In a transnational perspective, different spaces - large cities such as Zagreb, Sarajevo in the USK and Belgrade in Serbia, smaller cities such as Osijek in the USK and Šabac as well as Gross-Betschkerek in Serbia – will be researched with regard to three central questions: firstly, the various bureaucratic and openly violent forms of robbery, secondly, the different actors involved, and thirdly, the history of the memory of the robbery of Jewish property in former Yugoslavia after 1945, respectively after independence in the republics of Croatia and Serbia. The project has been approved by the DFG with two half-time post-doc positions from January 2020 to December 2022. Due to the massive restrictions on research opportunities caused by the covid19 pandemic, an extension of the two positions by twelve months each until the end of December 2023 is requested.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Michael Wildt