NACIFIKACIJA OPŠTEG JUGOSLOVENSKOG BANKARSKOG DRUŠTVA A.D.
THE NAZIFICATION OF THE YUGOSLAV GENERAL BANKING SOCIETY

Summary/Abstract: Foreign capital played a deciding role not only on the Yugoslav financial market but also in the country’s industry. Industrial concerns, which consisted of several industrial companies, depended for their equity and credits on the banks or rather on the foreign capital on which the banks relied. Large industrial companies in Yugoslavia formed without exception part of banking establishments in which foreign capital was dominant (Czech, French, Belgian, British, etc.). This placed German banks before the difficult task of reaching such companies through the right choice of „national” bank and by simultaneously weakening, and subsequently eliminating, the imposing presence of Jewish capital (domestic and foreign) in Yugoslavia’s economy. The fact that the choice fell on the General Yugoslav Banking Society indicates that the Germans had devised a precise and thorough plan for attaining their objective. The new owners of this bank, which prior to 1939 had been the main source of financing for both domestic and foreign Jewish industrial and trade companies, determined a new business policy adjusted to fit Germany’s military and economic plans. These changes gave the bank a historical role. Despite the fact that before World War Two it had been divided into two sister-banks, its role and its administration was identical in the occupied parts of Yugoslavia. In addition to serving as a means for the organized confiscation of Jewish capital, the bank was used to drain the country economically, thus reinforcing the German military and economic occupation of Yugoslavia.

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