Editing Bosnia and Herzegovina (section)

===World War II (1941–45)===
{{Main|History of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1941–1945)}}
[[File:Neretva most.jpg|thumb|left|The railway bridge over the [[Neretva]] River in [[Jablanica, Bosnia and Herzegovina|Jablanica]], twice destroyed during the 1943 [[Case White]] offensive]]

Once the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was conquered by German forces in [[World War II]], all of Bosnia and Herzegovina was ceded to the Nazi puppet regime, the [[Independent State of Croatia]] (NDH) led by the [[Ustaše]]. The NDH leaders embarked on a [[Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia|campaign of extermination]] of Serbs, Jews, [[Romani people|Romani]] as well as dissident Croats, and, later, [[Josip Broz Tito]]'s [[Yugoslav Partisans|Partisans]] by setting up a number of [[Jasenovac concentration camp|death camps]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4479837.stm|title=Balkan 'Auschwitz' haunts Croatia|work=BBC News|date=25 April 2005|access-date=21 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120809132401/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4479837.stm|archive-date=9 August 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> The regime systematically and brutally massacred Serbs in villages in the countryside, using a variety of tools.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Yeomans |first1=Rory |title=Visions of Annihilation: The Ustasha Regime and the Cultural Politics of Fascism, 1941–1945 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yxv4-iqVe2wC&pg=PA17 |date=2012 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |isbn=978-0822977933 |page=17 |access-date=2 November 2020 |archive-date=14 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414084801/https://books.google.com/books?id=Yxv4-iqVe2wC&pg=PA17 |url-status=live }}</ref> The scale of the violence meant that approximately every sixth Serb living in Bosnia and Herzegovina was the victim of a massacre and virtually every Serb had a family member that was killed in the war, mostly by the Ustaše. The experience had a profound impact in the collective memory of Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pavković |first1=Aleksandar |title=The Fragmentation of Yugoslavia: Nationalism in a Multinational State |date=1996 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-23037-567-3 |page=43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YPaADAAAQBAJ&pg=PA43 |access-date=2 November 2020 |archive-date=22 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922184137/https://books.google.com/books?id=YPaADAAAQBAJ&pg=PA43 |url-status=live }}</ref> An estimated 209,000 Serbs or 16.9% of its Bosnia population were killed on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogel |first1=Carole |title=The Breakup of Yugoslavia and the War in Bosnia |date=1998 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-3132-9918-6 |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GPQKYuWisi0C&pg=PA48 |access-date=2 November 2020 |archive-date=14 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414135938/https://books.google.com/books?id=GPQKYuWisi0C&pg=PA48 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Ustaše recognized both Catholicism and Islam as the national religions, but held the position [[Eastern Orthodox Church]], as a symbol of Serb identity, was their greatest foe.<ref name="Ramet, p. 118">Ramet (2006), pgg. 118.</ref> Although Croats were by far the largest ethnic group to constitute the Ustaše, the Vice President of the NDH and leader of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization [[Džafer Kulenović]] was a Muslim, and Muslims in total constituted nearly 12% of the Ustaše military and civil service authority.{{sfn|Velikonja|2003|p=179}}

[[File:Vječna vatra in 2019.jpg|thumb|[[Eternal flame (Sarajevo)|Eternal flame]] memorial to military and civilian [[World War II]] victims in Sarajevo]]

Many Serbs themselves took up arms and joined the Chetniks, a Serb nationalist movement with the aim of establishing an ethnically homogeneous '[[Greater Serbia]]n' state<ref>{{cite book|last=Ramet|first=Sabrina P.|date=2006|title=The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918–2005|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington|isbn=978-0-253-34656-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FTw3lEqi2-oC|page=145|access-date=16 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150331202813/http://books.google.com/books?id=FTw3lEqi2-oC&printsec=frontcover|archive-date=31 March 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Chetniks, in turn, pursued a [[Chetnik war crimes in World War II|genocidal campaign]] against ethnic Muslims and Croats, as well as persecuting a large number of [[Communism|communist]] Serbs and other Communist sympathizers, with the Muslim populations of Bosnia, Herzegovina and [[Sandžak]] being a primary target.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tomasevich|first=Jozo|author-link=Jozo Tomasevich|date=1975|title=War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: The Chetniks|publisher=Stanford University Press|location=Stanford|isbn=978-0-8047-0857-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yoCaAAAAIAAJ|pages=256–261|access-date=16 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150416041231/http://books.google.com/books?id=yoCaAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover|archive-date=16 April 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> Once captured, Muslim villagers were systematically massacred by the Chetniks.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hoare|first=Marko Attila|author-link=Marko Attila Hoare|date=2006|title=Genocide and Resistance in Hitler's Bosnia: The Partisans and the Chetniks 1941–1943|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-19-726380-8|page=13}}</ref> Of the 75,000 Muslims who died in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war,<ref name="Cohen">{{cite book|author=Philip J. Cohen|date=1996|title=Serbia's Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of History|url=https://archive.org/details/serbiassecretwar0000cohe/page/109|url-access=registration|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|location=College Station|isbn=978-0-89096-760-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/serbiassecretwar0000cohe/page/109 109–10]}}</ref> approximately 30,000 (mostly civilians) were killed by the Chetniks.<ref name="Geiger">{{cite journal|first=Vladimir|last=Geiger|publisher=Croatian Institute of History|title=Human Losses of the Croats in World War II and the Immediate Post-War Period Caused by the Chetniks (Yugoslav Army in the Fatherand) and the Partisans (People's Liberation Army and the Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia/Yugoslav Army) and the Communist Authorities: Numerical Indicators |journal=Review of Croatian History |volume=VIII |issue=1 |date=2012 |url=http://hrcak.srce.hr/103223?lang=en|pages=85–87|access-date=25 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117064114/http://hrcak.srce.hr/103223?lang=en|archive-date=17 November 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> Massacres against Croats were smaller in scale but similar in action.{{sfn|Tomasevich|1975|p=259}} Between 64,000 and 79,000 Bosnian Croats were killed between April 1941 to May 1945.<ref name="Cohen"/> Of these, about 18,000 were killed by the Chetniks.<ref name="Geiger"/>

A percentage of Muslims served in Nazi [[13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian)|''Waffen-SS'']] units.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rPZmAAAAMAAJ&q=lepre+george|title=Himmler's Bosnian Division: The Waffen-SS Handschar Division 1943–1945|last=Lepre|first=George|publisher=Schiffer Publishing|date=1997|isbn=0-7643-0134-9|ref=Lepre_1997|access-date=16 June 2015|archive-date=5 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805011359/https://books.google.com/books?id=rPZmAAAAMAAJ&q=lepre+george|url-status=live}}</ref> These units were responsible for massacres of Serbs in northwest and eastern Bosnia, most notably in [[Vlasenica]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burg |first1=Steven L. |last2=Shoup |first2=Paul |title=The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Ethnic Conflict and International Intervention |date=1999 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-1-5632-4308-0 |page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SopQbK_nAxgC&pg=PA38 |access-date=2 November 2020 |archive-date=14 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414085102/https://books.google.com/books?id=SopQbK_nAxgC&pg=PA38 |url-status=live }}</ref> On 12 October 1941, a group of 108 prominent Sarajevan Muslims signed the [[Resolution of Sarajevo Muslims]] by which they condemned the persecution of Serbs organized by the Ustaše, made distinction between Muslims who participated in such persecutions and the Muslim population as a whole, presented information about the persecutions of Muslims by Serbs, and requested security for all citizens of the country, regardless of their identity.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hadžijahić|first=Muhamed|title=Istorija Naroda Bosne i Hercegovine|date=1973|publisher=Institut za istoriju radničkog pokreta|location=Sarajevo|language=sh|page=277|chapter=Muslimanske rezolucije iz 1941 godine [Muslim resolutions of 1941]|chapter-url=https://www.scribd.com/document/47323922/Muhamed-Hadzijahic-Muslimanske-rezolucije-1941|access-date=2 January 2022|archive-date=2 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220102160609/https://www.scribd.com/document/47323922/Muhamed-Hadzijahic-Muslimanske-rezolucije-1941|url-status=live}}</ref>

Starting in 1941, Yugoslav communists under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito organized their own multi-ethnic resistance group, the Partisans, who fought against both [[Axis powers|Axis]] and Chetnik forces. On 29 November 1943, the [[Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia]] (AVNOJ) with Tito at its helm held a founding conference in [[Jajce]] where Bosnia and Herzegovina was reestablished as a republic within the Yugoslav federation in its Habsburg borders.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Redžić |first1=Enver |title=Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Second World War |date=2005 |publisher=Frank Cass |location=London |pages=225–227}}</ref> During the entire course of [[World War II in Yugoslavia]], 64.1% of all Bosnian Partisans were Serbs, 23% were Muslims and 8.8% Croats.<ref name="anubih.ba-Hoare">{{cite web |author1=Marko Attila Hoare |author1-link=Marko Attila Hoare |title=The Great Serbian threat, ZAVNOBiH and Muslim Bosniak entry into the People's Liberation Movement |url=https://publications.anubih.ba/bitstream/handle/123456789/52/Zbornik%20ZAVNOBiH%20sve%2015-04-2019-4-115-130.pdf?sequence=7&isAllowed=y |website=anubih.ba |publisher=Posebna izdanja ANUBiH |access-date=21 December 2020 |pages=123 |language=en |archive-date=1 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201071114/https://publications.anubih.ba/bitstream/handle/123456789/52/Zbornik%20ZAVNOBiH%20sve%2015-04-2019-4-115-130.pdf?sequence=7&isAllowed=y |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Military success eventually prompted the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] to support the Partisans, resulting in the successful [[Maclean Mission]], but Tito declined their offer to help and relied on his own forces instead. All the major military offensives by the antifascist movement of Yugoslavia against Nazis and their local supporters were conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its peoples bore the brunt of the fighting. More than 300,000 people died in Bosnia and Herzegovina in World War II, or more than 10% of the population.<ref>{{cite book|last=Žerjavić|first=Vladimir|title=Yugoslavia manipulations with the number Second World War victims|year=1993|publisher=Croatian Information Centre|isbn=0-919817-32-7|url=http://www.hic.hr/books/manipulations/index.htm|access-date=12 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303230428/http://www.hic.hr/books/manipulations/index.htm|archive-date=3 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> At the end of the war, the establishment of the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]], with the [[1946 Yugoslav Constitution|constitution of 1946]], officially made Bosnia and Herzegovina one of six constituent republics in the new state.{{sfn|Malcolm|2002}}