Project

A City Apart: Sarajevo in the Second World War

Program

Fellowships for Postdoctoral Research in East European Studies

Department

Belfer Center for Science and International Affair

Abstract

This project is a history of Sarajevo during the Second World War. Beginning with a sketch of the city on the eve of war—when Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox Serbs, and Jews lived and worked together—it traces how these communities interacted with one another through various stages of occupation and civil conflict. It examines the city’s clash with German occupation and racial ideologies, the Ustasha regime and extreme Croatian nationalism, and civil war and the triumph of the Communists. While an in-depth study of a single city, this work sheds light on larger issues of identity, social transformation, and the legacies of the Ottoman Empire in Europe.