Between Victors and Vanquished: Wehrmacht Prisoners of War in Yugoslavia

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhen Yugoslav strongman Josip Broz Tito secured power at the end of World War II, he used violence as a key mechanism in that quest. Owing to the contested nature of politics in Yugoslav territories, these acts of violence were diverse and focused on a number of different peoples, including prisoners of war. While scholarship has covered Tito’s use of viciousness at places such as Bleiburg, this article would like to suggest that violence was not ubiquitous. Documents at the Archive of Yugoslavia tell a story of how a small group of German prisoners of war fared under Tito’s regime, which I argue show that ideology trumped other aspects of early postwar politics. Various documents focus on Wehrmacht Battalion 999 and how this episode should inform our broader understanding of violence, ideology, and political control in the aftermath of World War II.