Open this publication in new window or tab >>2023 (English)In: Comparative Legal History/ Hart Publishing, Oxford, ISSN 2049-677X, E-ISSN 2049-6788, Vol. 11, no 2, p. 226-255Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
This article examines the establishment of the legal framework that led to the destruction and elimination of Jewish communities in Croatia and Romania during World War II. It argues that both regimes, supported by domestic fascist ideologies, evolving antisemitism, and inspired by the Nazi regime, promulgated anti-Jewish legal norms to present and establish new political, ideological, and social values and categories to their citizens. This article employs the theoretical framework of norms developed by Paul Morrow, whereby norms are seen as practical prescriptions, permissions or prohibitions. We argue that these destructive norms served as guidelines for individuals within the fascist new worldview and new reality. As such, these norms received state authorisation and implementation, serving as the ‘legal’ basis for the institutional destruction of unwanted citizens. This gave local and state actors a ‘legal’ pretext for the persecution and murder of Jews, who were stripped of their rights, assets, properties and right to life. The article concludes that the two legal frameworks enacted the process by which Jewish communities in Croatia and Romania faced a devastation of unseen proportions, which testifies to the importance and impact of legal norms on individuals, be they victims, bystanders or perpetrators.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis Group, 2023
Keywords
Holocaust, antisemitism, legal norms, Croatia, Romania, fascism
National Category
History
Research subject
History; Legal History and Sociology of Law
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-515100 (URN)10.1080/2049677X.2023.2270390 (DOI)001089608100001 ()
Projects
The Unwanted Citizens: The Holocaust and the Aryanization of Jewish Property in Romania and the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), 1940-1945
Funder
Wallenberg Foundations, MAW2018.0033
2023-10-262023-10-262024-05-13Bibliographically approved