How did World War II affect the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina?

During World War II, Bosnia and Herzegovina suffered immense devastation following the 1941 Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, after which the territory was absorbed into the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state ruled by the fascist Ustaša movement.1

The war in the region was characterized by extreme violence and complexity, involving a brutal civil war between two primary resistance movements: the communist Partisans led by Josip Broz Tito and the Serbian royalist Chetniks. The Ustaša regime carried out systematic genocide, exterminating most of the region's 14,000 Jews and massacring tens of thousands of Serbs in death camps. Additionally, royalist forces committed atrocities against Bosnian Muslims, while some Muslims joined an SS division that targeted the local Serb population.1

The human cost was catastrophic. It is estimated that 164,000 Serbs, 75,000 Muslims, and 64,000 Croats died in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the conflict. The war concluded with the Partisans liberating Sarajevo in April 1945 and establishing a communist government.1