Mastering the Balkans: German, Italian, and Endogenous Population Policies 1941–43

After the Axis war against Yugoslavia and Greece in 1941, a demarcation line of 1,000 miles divided South East Europe. It separated the German and the Italian “empires” and cut across several countries, among them Croatia.  The newly found “condominium” of German, Italian, and Croatian power, the Independent State of Croatia, was a heterogeneous and multi-ethnic state. In order to create ethnic homogeneity, the fascist Ustaša leadership and the Axis powers embarked upon extensive resettlement projects, which displaced almost one million people during World War II.
This paper seeks to explain the relationship between the various displacements taking place during the war: Slovenes were resettled from Slovenia to Croatia, Serbs expulsed from Croatia to Serbia, and Jews deported from Croatia to Auschwitz. First, I compare and contrast these different population transfers. Secondly, I explore the ways in which the three parties influenced one another, when and where they supported or obstructed one another. Finally, I analyze how the various paradigms of orderly resettlements were transformed into mass expulsion and violence. As my paper will show, each power pursued its own ethno-political program seeking the colonization of annexed territories and the forced creation of ethnically homogeneous nation-states. Yet each Axis partner attributed a different “spatial valence” to the Balkans: While the area was of minor importance to the Germans, it was central to Italy’s aspiration to enlarge its spazio vitale (living space). Nonetheless, the Third Reich succeeded in implementing a more efficient occupation policy than Fascist Italy, leading to an ever growing rivalry between the Axis partners. In due course, German and Italian competition in controlling the population resulted in a civil war; both Germany and Italy lost control over the situation.