Abstract
War has a way of etching itself into the long-term memory of a nation, leaving permanent scars that serve to remind members of the nation of their past wounds, their past defeats, their past victories, and sometimes of missed opportunities. World War Two, as the bloodiest war in European history, has left scars in every nation it touched — some deeper, some more painful, but everywhere scars, which affect not only those who lived through it, but also their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren. One of the reasons why these scars won’t go away is that, six-and-a-half decades after the end of the war, there continue to be debates in many European countries concerning the war. Leaving aside John Charmley’s pointed criticism of Winston Churchill and praise for Neville Chamberlain1 — which go against conventional wisdom about the comparative merits of these two British prime ministers — the debates have been the most lively in those states in which Axis-collaborationist regimes functioned during the war years. Whether one thinks of Norway2 or France3 or Croatia4 or Hungary5 or Romania,6 one can find debates about the role played by the local ‘quisling’, the incarceration and extermination of Jews (and, in the Croatian case, also of Serbs), the role played by the Churches (especially the leading religious institution in each country), and the question as to whether the Axis satellite may be considered to have been an authentic national state or not and, if not, whether it should be understood as a betrayal of the national tradition.
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Notes
See John Charmley, Chamberlain and the Lost Peace (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1989); and John Charmley, Churchill: The End of Glory (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1993).
For useful treatments of Norway in World War Two, see: Samuel Abrahamsen, Norway’s Response to the Holocaust (New York: Holocaust Library, 1991); Torleiv Austad, Kirkens grunn. Analyse av en kirkelig bekjennelse fra okkupasjonstiden 1940–45 (Oslo: Luther, 1974);Torleiv Austad, Kirkelig motstand. Dokumenter fra den norske Kirkekamp under okkupasjonen 1940–45 (Kristiansand: Høyskeforlaget, 2005); Pål A. Berg, Kirke i krig: Den norske kirke under 2. verdenskrig (Kjeller: Genesis Forlag, 1999); Nils Christie, Fangevoktere i konsentrasjonsleire: En sosiologisk undersøkelse av norske fangevoktere i ‘serberleirene’ i Nord-Norge i 1942–43 (Oslo: Pax, 1972); Hans Fredrik Dahl, Quisling. En norsk tragedie (Oslo: Aschehoug, 2004); Paul M. Hayes, Quisling: The Career and Political Ideas of Vidkun Quisling, 1887–1945 (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1971); Oddvar K. H0idal, Quisling: A Study in Treason, rev. ed. (Oslo: Orion Forlag, 2002); Per Ole Johansen, Oss selv nærmest. Norge og jødene, 1914–1943 (Oslo: Gyldendal, 1984); Stein Ugelvik Larsen et al. (eds), Who were the Fascists? Social Roots of European Fascism (Bergen: Universitetsforlaget, 1980); Stein Ugelvik Larsen (ed.), I krigens kjølvann. Nye sider ved norsk krigshistorie og etterkrigstid (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget); Oskar Mendelsohn, The Persecution of the Norwegian Jews in WW II (Oslo: Norges Hjemmefrontmuseum, 1991);and Magne Skodvin, Krig og okkupsasjon, 1939–1945 (Oslo: Norske samlaget, 1990).
For useful treatments of France in World War Two, see: Nicholas Atkin, ‘The Challenge to Laicite: Church, State and Schools in Vichy France, 1940–1944’, The Historical Journal, vol. 35, no. 1 (March 1992), pp. 151–169; Jean-Pierre Azéma and Olivier Wieviorka, Vichy, 1940–1944 (Paris: Perrin, 2000); Marc Olivier Baruch, ‘Charisma and Hybrid Legitimacy in Pétain’s État français (1940–44)’, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, vol. 7, no. 2 (June 2006), pp. 215–224; Michèle Cointet, Pétain et les Français: 1940–1951 (Paris: Perrin, 2002); Eric Conan and Henry Rousso, Vichy: An Ever-Present Past, trans. from French by Nathan Bracher (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1998); Peter Davies, France and the Second World War: Occupation, Collaboration, and Resistance (London and New York: Routledge, 2001); István Deák and Tony Judt (eds), The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and Its Aftermath (Princeton University Press, 2000); Robert Gildea, Olivier Wieviorka, and Anette Warring (eds), Surviving Hitler and Mussolini: Daily Life in Occupied Europe (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2006); Bertram M. Gordon, Collaborationism in France during the Second World War (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006); W. D. Halls, Politics, Society and Christianity in Vichy France (Oxford: Providence, 1995); John Hellman, The Knight-Monks of Vichy France: Uriage, 1940–1945 (Montreal and Buffalo: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1993); Michael R. Marrus and Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France and the Jews (New York: Basic Books, 1981); Robert Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001); Renée Poznański, Jews in France during World War II (Boston: Brandeis University Press, 2001); Adam Rayski, The Choice of the Jews under Vichy: Between Submission and Resistance, trans. from French by Will Sayers (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005); Henry Rousso, The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France since 1944, trans. from French by Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991); Charles Williams, Pétain: How the Hero of France Became a Convicted Traitor and Changed the Course of History (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005); and Nancy Wood, Vectors of Memory: Legacies of Trauma in Postwar Europe (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1999).
For useful treatments of Croatia in World War Two, see: Nikica Barić, Ustroj kopnene vojske domobranstva Nezavisne Države Hrvatske, 1941.–1945. (Zagreb: Hrvatski institut za povijest, 2003), O. Aleksa Benigar, Alojzije Stepinac. Hrvatski Kardinal (Rome: Ziral, 1974); Ferdo Ćulinović, Okupatorska podjela Jugoslavije (Belgrade: Vojnoizdavački zavod, 1970);Ivo Goldstein, ‘Ante Pavelić, Charisma and National Mission in Wartime Croatia’, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, vol. 7, no. 2 (June 2006), pp. 225–234; Ivo Goldstein with Slavko Goldstein, Holokaust u Zagrebu (Zagreb: Novi Liber & Židovska općina Zagreb, 2001); Ladislaus Hory and Martin Broszat, Der kroatische Ustascha-Staat, 1941–1945 (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1964); Mario Jareb, Ustaško-domobranski pokret. Od nastanka do travnja 1941., 2nd ed. (Zagreb: Školska knjiga, 2007); Fikreta Jelić-Butić, Četnici u Hrvatskoj 1941–1945. (Zagreb: Globus, 1986); Fikreta Jelić-Butić, Ustaše i NDH (Zagreb: S. N. Liber & Školska knjiga, 1977); Nada Kisić Kolanović, Mladen Lorković, ministar urotnik (Zagreb: Golden Marketing, Hrvatski državni arhiv, 1998); Nada Kisić-Kolanović, NDH i Italija. Političke veze i diplomatski odnosi (Zagreb: Ljevak, 2001);Nada Kisić Kolanović, Muslimani i hrvatski nacionalizam 1941.–1945. (Zagreb: Školska knjiga, 2009); Bogdan Krizman, Ustaše i Treći Reich, 2 vols (Zagreb: Globus, 1983); Ivan Mužić, Pavelić i Stepinac (Split: Logos, 1991); Sabrina P. Ramet (ed.), The Independent State of Croatia, 1941–45 (London: Routledge, 2007); Enver Redžić, Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Second World War, trans. from Bosnian by Aida Vidan (London and New York: Frank Cass, 2005); Menachem Shelah, ‘The Catholic Church in Croatia, the Vatican and the Murder of the Croatian Jews’, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, vol. 4, no. 3 (1989); Holm Sundhaussen, ‘Der Ustascha-Staat: Anatomie eines Herrschaftssystems’, Österreichische Osthefte, vol. 37, no. 2 (1995); Holm Sundhaussen, ‘Zur Geschichte der Waffen-SS in Kroatien 1941–1945’, Südost-Forschungen (Munich), vol. 30 (1971), pp. 176–196; and Jozo Tomasevich, War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration (Stanford University Press, 2001).
For useful treatments of Hungary in World War Two, see: Sándor Balogh, Die Stellung der Intelligenz in Ungarn während des Horthy-Regimes (Halle-Wittenberg: Martin-Luther-Universität, 1967); Randolph L. Braham (ed.), The Treatment of the Holocaust in Hungary and Romania during the Post-Communist Era (Boulder, Colo.: East European Monographs, 2004); Randolph L. Braham and Brewster S. Chamberlin (eds), The Holocaust in Hungary: Sixty Years Later (Boulder, Colo.: East European Monographs, 2006); István Deák, ‘A Fatal Compromise? The Debate over Collaboration and Resistance in Hungary’, in István Deák, Jan T. Gross, and Tony Judt (eds), The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and its Aftermath (Princeton University Press, 2000), pp. 39–52; Nándor F. Dreisziger (ed.), Hungary in the Age of Total War (1938–1948) (Boulder, Colo.: East European Monographs, 1998); Cecil D. Eby, Hungary at War: Civilians and Soldiers in World War II (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998); Mario D. Fenyo, Hitler, Horthy, and Hungary: German-Hungarian Relations, 1941–1944 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1972); Peter Gosztony, Miklós von Horthy: Admiral u. Reichsverweser (Göttingen, Zürich, and Frankfurt: Musterschmidt, 1973); Paul A. Hanebrink, In Defense of Christian Hungary: Religion, Nationalism, and Antisemitism, 1890–1944 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006); Miklós Horthy, The Confidential Papers of Admiral Horthy (Budapest: Corvina, 1965); Miklós Lackó, Arrow-Cross Men, National Socialists, 1935–1944 (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1969); Raphael Patai, The Jews of Hungary: History, Culture, Psychology (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1996); Thomas L. Sakmyster, Hungary’s Admiral on Horseback: Miklós Horthy, 1918–1944 (Boulder, Colo.: East European Monographs, 1994); István Szent-Miklosy, With the Hungarian Independence Movement, 1943–1947: An Eye-Witness Account (New York: Praeger, 1988); and Ernod Szép, The Smell of Humans: A Memoir of the Holocaust in Hungary, trans. from Hungarian by John Bátki (Budapest: Central European University Press, 1994).
For useful treatments of Romania in World War Two, see: Matatias Carp, Holocaust in Romania: Facts and Documents on the Annihilation of Romania’s Jews, 1940–1944, ed. Andrew L. Simon, trans. Sean Murphy (Safety Harbor, Fl.: Simon Publications, 2000); Dennis Deletant, Hitler’s Forgotten Ally: Ion Antonescu and his Regime — Romania, 1940–44 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); Julius Evola, La tragedia della Guardia di ferro (Rome: Fondazione Julius Evola, 1996); Armin Heinen, Die Legion ‘Erzengel Michael’ in Rumänien. Soziale Bewegung und politische Organisation (Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1986); Armin Heinen, Rumänien, der Holocaust und die Logik der Gewalt (Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2007); Ewald Hibbein, Codreanu und die Eiserne Garde (Siegen: Im Selbstverlag der J. G. Herder-Bibliothek Siegerland e.V., 1984); Radu Ioanid, The Holocaust in Romania: The Destruction of Jews and Gypsies under the Antonescu Regime, 1940–1944 (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2000); Constantin Iordachi, Charisma, Politics and Violence: The Legion of the ‘Archangel Michael’ in Inter-War Romania 1956 (Trondheim: Trondheim Studies on East European Cultures and Societies, 2004); Dov B. Lungu, Romania and the Great Powers, 1933–1940 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1989); Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1970); and Alexander F. C. Webster, The Romanian Legionary Movement: An Orthodox Christian Assessment of Anti-Semitism (Pittsburgh: Center for Russian and East European Studies, 1986).
For useful treatments of Serbia in World War Two, see: Milan Borković, Kontrarevolucija u Srbiji: Kvislinška uprava 1941.–1944., 2 vols (Belgrade: Sloboda, 1979); Milan Borković, Milan Nedić (Zagreb: Centar za Informacije i Publicitet, 1985); Jovan Byford, Denial and Repression of Antisemitism: Post-Communist Remembrance of the Serbian Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović (Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2008); Philip J. Cohen, Serbia’s Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of History (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1996); Čulinović, Okupatorska podjela Jugoslavije [note 4]; Zdravko Dizdar and Mihael Sobolevski, Prešučivani Četnicki zločini u Hrvatskoj i u Bosni i Hercegovini 1941.–1945. (Zagreb: Hrvatski institut za povijest & Dom i svijet, 1999); Marko Attila Hoare, ‘The Bosnian Serb Identity and the Chetnik-Partisan Conflict’, South Slav Journal, vol. 21, nos 3–4 (Autumn–Winter 2000), pp. 7–17; Marko Hoare, ‘Whose is the Partisan Movement? Serbs, Croats and the Legacy of a Shared Resistance’, Journal of Slavic Military Studies, vol. 15, no. 4 (December 2002), pp. 24–41; Mario Jareb, ‘How the West was Won: Jugoslavenska izbjeglička vlada i legenda o Draži Mihailoviću’, Časopis za suvremenu povijest, vol. 38, no. 3 (January 2007), pp. 1039–1056; Žarko Jovanović, Kolaboracija u Srbiji 1941–1945 (Belgrade: INIS, 2001); Branko Latas (compiler), Saradnja četnika Draže Mihailovića sa okupatorima i ustašama, 1941.–1945. (Belgrade: Društvo za istinu o antifašističkoj narodnooslobodilačkoj borbi 1941.–1945., 1999);Branko Latas and Milovan Dželebdžić, Četnićki pokret Draže Mihailovića 1941.–1945. (Belgrade: Beogradski izdavačko-grafički zavod, 1979); Cseslaw Madajczyk, ‘“Restserbien” unter Deutscher Militärverwaltung’, in The Third Reich and Yugoslavia 1933–1945 (Belgrade: Institute for Contemporary History and Narodna knjiga, 1977);Walter Manoschek, ‘Serbien ist judenfrei’. Militärische Besatzungspolitik und Judenvernichtung in Serbien 1941/42 (Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1995); Matteo J. Milazzo, The Chetnik Movement and the Yugoslav Resistance (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975);Nikola Milovanović, Draža Mihailović (Zagreb: Centar za Informacije i Publicitet, 1985); Hermann Neubacher, Sonderauftrag Südost. Bericht eines fliegenden Diplomaten, 2nd ed. (Göttingen: Musterschmidt Verlag, 1957); Branko Petranović, Srbija u drugom svetskom ratu 1939–1945 (Belgrade: Vojnoizdavački i novinski centar, 1992); Milan Ristović, ‘General M. Nedić — Diktatur, Kollaboration und die patriarchalische Gesellschaft Serbiens 1941–1944’, in Erwin Oberländer (ed.), Autoritäre Regime in Ostmittel- und Südosteuropa 1919–1944 (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2001); Milan Ristović, ‘Rural “anti-utopia” in the Ideology of Serbian Collaborationsts in the Second World War’, European Review of History: Revue européenne d’histoire, vol. 15, no. 2 (April 2008); Walter R. Roberts, Tito, Mihailović and the Allies, 1941–1945 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1973); Nusret Sehić, Četništvo u Bosni i Hercegovini (1918–1941) (Sarajevo: Akademija Nauka i Umjetnosti Bosne i Hercegovine, 1971); Jozo Tomasevich, War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: The Chetniks (Stanford University Press, 1975); and Jozo Tomasevich, War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration (Stanford University Press, 2001).
Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology, trans. from French by Hazel E. Barnes (New York: Philosophical Library, 1956), p. 68 (punctuation modified slightly).
Ibid., p. 68 (my emphasis).
Sabrina P. Ramet, The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918–2005 (Washington DC and Bloomington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Indiana University Press, 2006), p. 138.
Vladimir Žerjavić, Gubici stanovništva Jugoslavije u drugom svjetskom ratu (Zagreb: Jugoslavensko Viktimološko Društvo, 1989), pp. 61–66.
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Ramet, S.P. (2011). Introduction. In: Ramet, S.P., Listhaug, O. (eds) Serbia and the Serbs in World War Two. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230347816_1
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