Крв међу браћом: писање колаборационистичке штампе о криминалу у селима окупиране Србије 1941. године

English title: Blood Among Brothers: Collaborationist Press Writing on Crime in the Villages of Occupied Serbia in 1941

This article examines collaborationist press writing on crime in the villages of occupied Serbia in 1941. Rather than reconstructing individual criminal cases as police or court records, the article analyzes how newspapers reported, framed and interpreted rural violence, theft, banditry, family conflicts and social disorder under conditions of occupation, censorship and ideological control.

The article starts from the assumption that criminal behavior was not an exception created solely by war and occupation. It existed in all historical periods, and in the Serbian countryside it was connected with the long duration of poverty, weak institutional authority, cultures of violence, property disputes, family conflicts and traditional forms of self-will. Occupation made these phenomena more visible, but it did not create them by itself.

The particular value of the article lies in its analysis of the discrepancy between the propaganda idealization of the Serbian peasant and the reality presented by the newspapers themselves. Collaborationist ideology sought to present the village as a moral and national foundation, while crime reports revealed that rural everyday life was not harmonious, disciplined and morally exemplary, but filled with older tensions, poverty, violence and conflicts.

The article also shows that the collaborationist press did not construct a clear and consistent propaganda figure of the “negative hero” when writing about rural crime. Unlike reports on political enemies, especially communists and partisans, rural criminals were not always transformed into ideological enemies. Reports were often short, factual and sensationalized, but without broader interpretation and without systematic suggestions for social solutions.

The article is therefore important not only as a contribution to the history of crime, but also as a study of the limits of propaganda. It shows that a controlled press, even when serving the occupation and collaborationist order, could transmit content that did not fully fit the official ideological model. Through reports on villages, crime and violence, deeper social structures of occupied Serbia, inherited cultural norms and the fragility of public order become visible.