Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: April 10, 2021 at 1:52:22 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-TGS]: Kranjc on Mezger, 'Forging Germans: Youth, > Nation, and the National Socialist Mobilization of Ethnic Germans in > Yugoslavia, 1918-1944' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Caroline Mezger. Forging Germans: Youth, Nation, and the National > Socialist Mobilization of Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia, 1918-1944. > Studies in German History Series. Oxford Oxford University Press, > 2020. Illustrations, maps. 360 pp. $85.00 (cloth), ISBN > 978-0-19-885016-8. > > Reviewed by Gregor Kranjc (Brock University) > Published on H-TGS (April, 2021) > Commissioned by Benjamin Bryce > > Forging Germans in Yugoslavia > > Caroline Mezger's _Forging Germans: Youth, Nation, and the National > Socialist Mobilization of Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia, 1918-1944_ is > a welcome addition to the paucity of English-language works on the > interwar and World War II history of the _Donauschwaben_ (Danube > Swabians) minority of Yugoslavia's Batschka (Bačka) and Western > Banat regions, joining Mirna Zakić's recent book _Ethnic Germans and > National Socialism in World War II_ (2017), which despite its title > focuses primarily on the Banat. Mezger offers us a well-researched > exploration of how the _Donauschwaben_ youth became crucial agents of > accepting and spreading an exclusivist Nazi racial understanding of > "Germanness." This is accomplished, in part, by her chronological > framework, which covers not only the years of Nazi and Axis > occupation of Yugoslavia (1941-45) but also the longer interwar era > (1918-41), which witnessed the _Donauschwaben_'s increasing > "nationalization" into a more strident German national identity, > replacing the comparatively nationally amorphous localized identities > that they had had under Habsburg/Hungarian control before 1918. > Mezger's comparison of the Western Banat and the Batschka, which fell > under German and Hungarian occupation respectively during World War > II, acts as an additional analytical tool, revealing how the impact > of different ruling regimes could promote or act as a soft brake on > the Nazification of the _Donauschwaben_. Mezger intersperses her > thoughtful analysis with the voices of eighteen elderly > _Donauschwaben_, who opened up (or in some cases did not) about their > interwar and wartime experiences in interviews that Mezger conducted > over the past decade. > > After detailing her study's theoretical and methodological frameworks > in her concise introduction, including a sophisticated understanding > of youth as historical actors and agents rather than only the passive > victims of historical processes, Mezger launches into the first of > three parts of her work. By sheer volume, Mezger's study puts more > emphasis on the period of Axis occupation (parts 2 and 3) than the > preceding interwar era (part 1). Part 1, unlike parts 2 and 3, treats > the Batschka and the Western Banat together, as both regions came > under the rule of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after World War I. > Keeping her primary focus on _Donauschwaben _youth, the two chapters > in part 1 deal with the fight over the language and curriculum of > _Donauschwaben _minority schools in Yugoslavia, and the proliferation > of a variety of interwar _Donauschwaben_ youth groups that competed > over the loyalties of the community's young people. Mezger's analysis > of the struggle over minority schools is a fascinating study of the > interplay between individual, regional, national, and international > actors. German minority education in the 1920s was under assault by > the Yugoslav government's education policies and its privileging of > the Serbo-Croatian language. These policies contributed to a marked > decline in the proficiency of German among some _Donauschwaben_ > youth. However, the intercession of Weimar Germany in support of > Germans abroad (_Auslandsdeutsche_) in the late 1920s--a process that > accelerated after 1933--resulted in a remarkable reversal in the > fortunes of German minority education in the Batschka and Banat. > > The struggle over education highlighted the religious and ideological > fault lines among the _Donauschwaben_ in the Batschka and Banat, > schisms that also revealed themselves in the extracurricular youth > groups that sprouted across Europe in the interwar era. > _Donauschwaben _youth and sporting groups cleaved along Catholic, > Lutheran, and Calvinist Christian denominations. With the rise of > Nazi Germany, rivalry developed between the youth groups associated > with the established conservative Kulturbund that was founded in 1920 > to represent the ethnic Germans of Yugoslavia but that professed > loyalty to the Yugoslav state, and those fostered by the > _Erneuerungsbewegung_ (renewal movement) in the 1930s, which aimed to > "realize the '_Volk_-based, social and biological demands of National > Socialism'" among the _Donauschwaben _(p. 62). Overlaying all of > these competing factions was mandatory membership (after 1934) for > all _Donauschwaben_ youth in the state-sponsored pan- and > pro-Yugoslav Sokol (Falcon) youth organization. While membership in > religious youth organizations steadily declined (most obviously among > Lutherans and Calvinists, less so among Catholics), the Erneuerer > infiltrated and took over the Kulturbund leadership in the late > 1930s. Its establishment of the Deutsche Jugend youth group in 1939, > to which most of the _Donauschwaben_ youth now flocked in their > required black and white uniforms that "offer[ed] a unified image > externally," was indicative of the homogenizing trend toward National > Socialist affiliation among the German minority of the Batschka and > the Banat (p. 113). The nexus between National Socialist-supported > minority education and youth groups was also soldered together by > shared interwar experiences and cooperation between _Reichsdeutsche_ > and _Donauschwaben_ (such as the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the > resettlement of two hundred thousand ethnic Germans from Romania to > Germany via Yugoslavia). Indeed, as Mezger reveals at the conclusion > of part 1, by the time the Axis forces occupied Yugoslavia in April > 1941 it appeared to have laid the groundwork for "the 'unification' > of all of Yugoslavia's _Donauschwaben_ children and youth under the > _Kulturbund_'s umbrella" (p. 119). > > The unification of all _Donauschwaben_ youth into a National > Socialist worldview and its associated organizations, which seemed so > apparent in the final months before the Axis occupation of > Yugoslavia, was frustrated by international politics as the Batschka > was reunified with Hungary, while only the Western Banat remained > under German occupation. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on the > German-occupied Banat and the unique power that the pro-Nazi > _Donauschwaben_ leadership had in monopolizing the administration of > the region once the German occupational troops were withdrawn after > the capitulation of Yugoslavia. This included, as Mezger details, > assisting in the genocide of the Banat's Jewish population > (Batschka's German minority also assisted in the somewhat delayed > deportation of Batschka's Jews to the death camps in 1944), as well > as the violent suppression of Partisan activity. What had been fairly > robust Reich-supported minority education immediately before the > invasion of Yugoslavia now became the foundation for an expanded > effort at Germanizing the Germans and reversing what was seen as the > damage done from two decades of Yugoslav curricula and > denationalization efforts. As part of this process, the anticlerical > thrust of National Socialism was revealed, and the various churches > "shrunk to the peripheries of the Western Banat's _Donauschwaben_ > societies" (p. 150). This marginalization of the once powerful > influence of the Christian churches was confirmed by Mezger's oral > interviewees, a helpful interplay between oral and archival research. > > The full-throttle Nazification of the Banat's education, > administration, and youth groups was not replicated in the Batschka, > where the _Donauschwaben_ found themselves again in the familiar > place of a national minority. Mezger does an admirable job at > navigating the fraught tensions when "Hungarian nation-building meets > German imperialism," a phrase she uses in the subtitle for her > section on the Batschka's education policies under Hungarian rule in > chapter 5 (p. 218). The dual (and dueling) pressures of the Hungarian > and German national projects were revealed, on the one hand, by the > extension of Magyarizing educational and administrative policies in > the newly "returned" regions of Hungary, although Mezger reminds us > that Hungary's minority school policies "did in fact allow for > German-language education" (p. 221). On the other hand, Nazi Germany > continued to financially support the Batschka's German-language > minority schools, including recruiting Reich German teachers for > these schools to replace "the exodus of German teachers from the > Batschka" (p. 224)--a result, in part, of Hungarian-language > requirements. The Batschka became a battleground not only for > Hungarian nation-building measures and Germanizing counterefforts > from these two ostensible Axis allies but also for the competing > identities of the insurgent National Socialist-orientated and the > traditional Catholic-orientated _Donauschwaben_, the latter of which > were able to carve out a far more significant role in a more > Catholic-friendly Hungary than in the Banat, with which they launched > "one final, forceful, and fraught attempt to salvage the religious > self-identification of the _Donauschwaben _youth" (p. 240). Indeed, > in the Batschka this divide in identities led to a virtual civil war > between the pro-Nazi "Browns" (_Braune_) and the pro-Hungarian, > pro-Catholic "Blacks" (_Schwarze_). Its ugliest phase came after the > German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, which made all of the > Batschka's ethnic German men between the ages of seventeen and > sixty-two eligible for mobilization into the German armed forces. > Mezger details how a number of those who attempted to evade > mobilization had their hiding places revealed and were denounced as > members of the "black front" by their "_Braune_" neighbors (p. 299). > Mezger ends her comparative surveys of both the Banat and the > Batschka under Axis occupation with the Nazis's last desperate > military mobilizations of remnant _Donauschwaben_ manpower in 1944, a > fitting end as the almost decade-long Nazi commitment to the > "_Umvolkung_" (ethnic conversion) of the _Donauschwaben_ was > ultimately predicated upon converting them into expendable human > resources for the Reich's use, a project made all the more tragic > because so many _Donauschwaben _voluntarily and enthusiastically > contributed to it. > > At times Mezger's ardent focus on the _Donauschwaben _conceals the > extent to which the _Donauschwaben_ coexisted within a multiethnic > society of Serbs and Hungarians, as well as smaller minorities such > as the Jews. The unavoidable requirements and compromises of living > in a multiethnic society was revealed, in part, by the lack of > proficiency of some young _Donauschwaben_ in the use of the German > language, as well as by their polyglotism. While the multiethnic > character of the Western Banat and Batschka is less apparent in > Mezger's chapters on the interwar era, as she tackles the process by > which the _Donauschwaben_ attempted to disentangle themselves from > the denationalizing efforts of the Yugoslav state and its education, > it becomes more of an issue during Mezger's analysis of the > occupation, as the Serbs in particular only enter the narrative as > occasional targets of oppression as well as lurking, along with the > Partisans, as the nemesis that will have its revenge upon the Germans > in the fall of 1944. That the _Donauschwaben _are only rarely viewed > through "Serbian eyes" may have something to do with the fact that > the work contains no Serbian-language sources. > > I also had some initial concern over the ages of the oral > interviewees that Mezger relies on in her research, as over a quarter > of the interviewees would have been no older than four years old when > Yugoslavia was occupied in 1941 and no older than seven years old > when they fled or were expelled from Yugoslavia beginning in 1944, > with the youngest interviewee only born in 1943. The question of how > such young eyewitnesses could possibly offer any reliable insight > into the events they experienced is somewhat resolved by Mezger's > thoughtful introductory reflections on using oral history interviews, > noting that their "aim was not to gain 'facts' in a classic empirical > sense ... [but rather to seek] 'truths' on a different > epistemological plane." The interviews were "inherently dialogic" (p. > 21). Mezger did find "a surprising degree of correlation between oral > and archival accounts," and her sprinkling of intimate and > idiosyncratic excerpts from her interviews within the work add a > valuable and revealing human element to her study, in line with her > view that the most dynamic history writing occurs when "the 'from > above' and the 'from below' are mutually constitutive and responsive" > (pp. 22, 23). > > Mezger's fluidly and accessibly written study will surely become one > of the authoritative English-language sources for specialists and > non-specialists alike on the interwar and wartime history of > Yugoslavia's _Donauschwaben_ community of the Batschka and the > Western Banat and the role that its youth played in actively shaping > the transformation of their community during this era. _Forging > Germans_ is also an important, broader meditation on the homogenizing > impact of modern European nationalism, as ethnic diversity--and the > multiplicity of identities within ethnicities--was to be flattened > and repurposed for the interests of the predatory nationalizing > state, and for the communities and individuals that helped define and > serve it. > > Citation: Gregor Kranjc. Review of Mezger, Caroline, _Forging > Germans: Youth, Nation, and the National Socialist Mobilization of > Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia, 1918-1944_. H-TGS, H-Net Reviews. > April, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56412 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#7882): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/7882 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/81999033/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
