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Im Schatten des Weltkriegs. Massengewalt der Ustaša gegen Serben, Juden und Roma in Kroatien, 1941-45

This 173000-word book, exploring the dynamics of mass violence in the Balkans during WWII on 510 pages, derives from 6-years' research using 23 archives in 10 countries including Germany, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia: some were difficult to access (Belgrade’s Military Archives); many were uncatalogued, including new interviews, survivor testimonies, diplomatic/humanitarian records, sources produced by warlords/militias, plus archives of the German and Italian occupiers. This complex, multilingual, multi-perspective approach and lengthy period of data collection has produced critical insights and new arguments on the modern history of the Balkans, and has occupied 85% of Korb's research time in the REF period.

This book examines the role of the fascist Croatian Ustaša, demonstrating that this movement and the “Independent Croatian State” was not a German “puppet”. Its agenda differed from Nazi plans in many respects, and it played a key role in mass violence. Using transnational and multi-focal perspectives, it examines why and when violence escalated, analysing roles of local actors, eg: Ustaša, Chetniks, Communist partisans, German/Italian occupation forces. It disentangles levels of mass violence by analysing where and why these forms of violence were committed by various perpetrators, showing for example that the Holocaust and local massacres of Serbs were linked.