Dr Alexander Korb

October 2012 – September 2013
Mail ak368(at)leicester.ac(dot)uk

Alexander Korb was a fellow at the Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena from October 2012 to September 2013. He is lecturer in modern European History at the University of Leicester, and deputy director of the university's Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Before taking up his appointment in 2010, he was doctoral student at Humboldt University Berlin, where he received his PhD with a study on mass violence in the Balkans during World War Two. His book Im Schatten des Weltkriegs (forthcoming with Hamburger Edition, January 2013)was awarded numerous prizes, amongst others the Fraenkel Prize Contemporary History (2011). In 2004, Alexander graduated at Technische Universität Berlin in contemporary and medieval history and at and Humboldt Universität Berlin in Gender studies. He also studied History, Russian and Baltic studies at Charles University Prague, State University Voronezh, Université d'Aix-Marseille, and Ludwigs Maximilian Universität München.

Research project at the Kolleg

During his one-year-tenure at the Kolleg, Alexander will continue to design a collaborative comparative research project "Disentangling Populations" that will look at how Eastern and Southeastern European states aimed to ethnically homogenise their territories between 1929 and 1950. Focusing on a number of regional case studies in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, he will examine the various manifestations of ethnic homogenisation in the longue durée. By studying what local and mid-level "disentanglers" did before and after 1945, I also aim to challenge the perception of the year 1945 as dividing line. As the significance of the year 1945 is still highly disputed between Western and Eastern Europe, and as it is a test case for what European identity is, I hope to contribute to this debate, by bridging the gap of 1945.
Besides, I will work on the final revisions of his recent book manuscript, as well as on a number of related projects.

Main areas of research

Holocaust Dtudies and Comparative Genocide Studies
History of Violence with a focus on Eastern and Southeastern Europe
History of Ethnic and Social Engineering
Historical Geography

Positions and Memberships

Alexander Korb is on the editorial board of Humanities - Sozial und Kulturgeschichte (H-Soz-u-Kult)
Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands (VHD)
German History Society (GHS) I
International Network of Genocide Scholars (INoGS)
Arbeitskreis Historische Friedensforschung (AKHF)
Arbeitskreis Militärgeschichte e. V.

Monographs

Im Schatten des Weltkriegs. Massengewalt der Ustaša gegen Serben, Juden und Roma in Kroatien, 1941-1945. Hamburg 2013.
Reaktionen der deutschen Bevölkerung auf die Novemberpogrome. Saarbrücken, 2008.

Edited Volumes

Nationalsozialistische Lager. Neue Beiträge zur Verfolgungs- und Vernichtungspolitik und zur Pädagogik in Gedenkstätten, Münster 2006.

Articles

Mass Violence against Gypsies in Croatia, 1941/42," in Anton Weiss-Wendt (Hg.), The Nazi Genocide of the Gypsies: Reevaluation and Commemoration (New York, Oxford: Berghahn) (War and genocide) (forthcoming)

Der Unabhängige Staat Kroatien 1941 - 1945. Eine integrierte Gewaltgeschichte des Raumes, in Radu Harald Dinu et al. (eds.): Herrschaft in Südosteuropa. Kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Perspektiven, Göttingen 2012, pp. 195-224.

Understanding Ustasha Violence, Journal of Genocide Research, 2010 12, Nr. 1/2, pp. 1-18.

Integrated Anti-Partisan Warfare? The Germans and the Ustasha Massacres. Syrmia 1942, in Ben Shepherd, Juliette Pattinson (ed.): War in a Twilight World: Partisan and Anti-partisan Warfare, 1939-1945, Basingstoke 2010, pp. 210-232.

An Interpronged Attack. Ustaša Persecution of Serbs, Jews, and Roma in Wartime Croatia, in Anton Weiss-Wendt (ed.): Eradicating Differences: The Treatment of Minority Groups in Nazi-Dominated Europe, Newcastle upon Tyne 2010, pp. 145-164.

Le fascisme de l'Oustacha, in Trajan Sandu (ed.): Vers un profil convergent des fascismes. "Nouveau consensus" et religion politique en Europe centrale, Paris 2010, pp. 159-175.

More information on Alexander Korb and his complete list of publications can be found on the website of the University of Leicester.