The Bosnian Muslims in the Second World War

Bosnian Muslims played a significant role in the outcome of World War II, which impacted their position within the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, yet most studies either overlook or fail to account accurately for their historical involvement. Marko Hoare provides the first, comprehensive history of Bosnian Muslims in World War II, based on extensive research in the archives of Bosnia-Hercegovina, Serbia, and Croatia. He traces the history of Bosnia and its Muslims from the Nazi German and Fascist Italian occupation of Yugoslavia in 1941 to the Yugoslav civil war, concluding with the Communists' establishment of a new Yugoslav state. Hoare reveals Bosnian Muslim's opposition to the new Nazi and Fascist order, detailing the different reasons behind and forms of their resistance. He describes how the Yugoslav Communists harnessed Muslim opposition to support their own resistance movement, which fundamentally decided the character and outcome of the Communist revolution. Yet despite this aid, the victorious Communists turned their back on their Muslim allies as they consolidated their power, setting the scene for future conflicts over the political and social place of Yugoslavia's Muslims.