Research on former Yugoslavia has proven repeatedly that the South Slav state was exceptional, and this volume continues in that tradition. Overall, this book does a nice job of capturing the variance of experience among ethnic Germans in northern Yugoslavia from the 1930s until the end of World War II. Mirna Zakić carefully notes the variability in how Donauschwaben responded first to Nazi overtures and then to outright control when the community found itself tenuously in charge of what amounted to an autonomous province of occupied Serbia. The ethnic German community, though, like others throughout Eastern Europe (and arguably inside the Reich) found itself abused and subjected to the whims of the hardline ideologues in the Nazi Party, especially after the Wehrmacht victory over the Yugoslav Army in April 1941. Ethnic Germans never enjoyed true privilege; following Hitler's rise to power in Berlin, Germans in Yugoslavia saw gains in national autonomy but also heightened levels of mistrust because neither the Yugoslavs nor the Reichsdeutsche were convinced of their allegiance. The onset of war brought to light the full brunt of the Nazi racist, antisemitic agenda and encouraged, coerced, or brutalized Volksdeutsche in Yugoslavia into participating in Nazi-inspired horror. In short, this book effectively portrays how the community of ethnic Germans, who had lived for almost two centuries alongside other peoples—principally Hungarians, Roma, Serbs, Croats, and Romanians—dealt with conflict between national identity and political ideology.
Zakić shows in detail—sometimes overlapping across chapters—the nuanced narrative and avoids the blanket generalizations that have crept into other works on this topic, such as assertions over the intense hatreds between peoples in the region. Just as not all Germans mistreated and brutalized their non-German neighbors, owing to the “mixed evidence of popular enthusiasm in the Banat” for the German administration, Yugoslavs likewise did not treat all Germans the same upon their victory toward the end of the war (98). This book successfully treats the story in a holistic way and recognizes the norms and the exceptions, which emphasize a functionalist approach toward violence (163). This reviewer's own research reaffirms the nuanced realities of this history as seen by Wehrmacht prisoners in Yugoslavia; when it came to a shared Marxist ideological viewpoint the Yugoslavs could look past national identity, especially if it could be used to further Tito's ideal of helping recreate Europe in the wake of the German defeat. Just as with the Nazi penetration of Yugoslavia's ethnic Germans, political ideology for the victorious Communists competed with nationalism and created strange bedfellows. Similar to how ethnic Germans worked with some Serbs and Hungarians during the Nazi period, Tito's ideology could gloss over ethnic differences—after all, while Tito's overtures were mostly rhetorical a few Germans did fight in anti-Fascist Partisan units while others never embraced Nazism. Overall, their life on the frontier and peasant lifestyle led to Nazi misgivings over their reliability while their complicity during the war, and their German identity prevented them from participating in Tito's refashioning of the Yugoslav space.
If we return to one of the main contributions of this book—the notion of how nationalism and ideology intersected for ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia—then this volume really sheds light on how difficult it was for Europeans in the twentieth century more broadly. Nationalism among Volksdeutsche (i.e., concepts of Heimat and importance of culture) was fluid and constructed depending on a host of factors (190). Zakić shows how Reichsdeutsche abused notions of nationalism in general; specifically, for the Nazis, it seems clear that true believers in Nazism were anything but dynamic. Mussolini's Doctrine of Fascism reminds us that Fascism for the state was an absolute, while for individuals and groups it was relative because it represented the so-called spirit of the nation. This is what Nazi leaders furthered by holding their cause supreme and using individuals and groups such as Volksdeutsche in Yugoslavia as tools; all of this helps us understand just how a regime acting in the so-called interests of national self-determination could pervert its own coethnics throughout Europe and derail a war effort through preferential adherence to a destructive ideology. Even the most intrepid of characters that Zakić introduces the readers to, such as the leader of the Kulturbund Sepp Janko, had no idea about the dedication to the Nazi agenda among those in Berlin and could only ape behaviors that would prove damning to the entire community at war's end.
Outside of the positive traits that this book has to offer, I could have envisioned a slightly revised organizational structure for the book. In particular, there was a pattern of repetition over some events, which seemed at times to be overbearing. For instance, in the outset of the introduction the reader is told that the book will proceed chronologically, and while that technically might be correct, it slipped back and forth at times to repeat things already established or went forward in time. This can remind the reader of the main line of argumentation, but this technique appeared throughout the text instead of simply forming pieces of the introductions and conclusions of each chapter. Nonetheless, this minor issue should not detract from the fine contribution that this book provides. Overall, this reviewer found the volume informative and well researched. Scholars interested in World War II, especially in the dynamic and brutal front that spanned all Eastern Europe, will benefit by understanding some of the intricacies of Nazi control and better recognizing the intersection of political ideology and nationalism.
