Bulgarian Crimes against Civilians in Occupied Serbia during the First World War

Abstract

Since sufferings of civilian populations during the First World War in Europe, especially war crimes perpetrated against civilians, have – unlike the political and military history of the Great War – only recently become an object of scholarly interest, there still are considerable gaps in our knowledge, the Balkans being a salient example. Therefore, suggesting a methodology that involves a comparative approach, the use of all available sources, cooperation among scholars from different countries and attention to the historical background, the paper seeks to open some questions and start filling lacunae in our knowledge of the war crimes perpetrated against Serb civilians as part of the policy of Bulgarization in the portions of Serbia under Bulgarian military occupation.