Lovro Kralj

Junior Fellow (10/2019–08/2020)

Paving the Road to Death. Antisemitism in the Ustaša Movement 1929–1945

Lovro Kralj’s dissertation reinterprets the importance of antisemitism in the Ustaša movement. This dissertation challenges historiographical interpretations that reduce Ustaša antisemitism to a mere imitation of Nazism as well as arguments that the Ustaša only participated in the Holocaust because of German pressure or appeasement. Kralj’s main hypothesis, by contrast, is that antisemitism was adopted by the Ustaše as a key tool in the fascisation of the movement.

The interdependence of antisemitism and fascisation will be examined through a quantitative analysis of Croatian National Socialist, clerical, nationalist, and Ustaša media in the interwar period. The implementation of antisemitic policies in the Independent State of Croatia will be analysed through a comparison of the persecution of Jews in the cities of Križevci, Osijek, and Sarajevo. The case of Križevci undermines the purely top-down approaches to the interpretation of the Holocaust in Croatia, while the cases of Osijek and Sarajevo demonstrate the multifaceted functions of antisemitism in a multi-ethnic setting.

Lovro Kraljs specialises in the fields of fascism, antisemitism, and Holocaust studies, with a geographic focus on Central and South-Eastern Europe. He has participated in and presented at more than twenty international workshops and conferences including the Lessons & Legacies. He has received several fellowships including the Sharon Abramson Research Grant and Saul Kagan Fellowship in Advanced Shoah Study.  

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