Episode 9. John Paul Newman: Yugoslavia's Disabled Veterans as a Social Minority

In this episode, John Paul Newman, Associate Professor in Twentieth-century European History at Maynooth, National University of Ireland, discusses his ongoing research into the lives and experiences of physically disabled military veterans in the Former Yugoslavia during the inter-war and Cold War eras. Despite receiving official and public praise for their sacrifices in the First and Second World Wars, former soldiers often struggled to reintegrate into civilian life, frequently coupled with inadequate state welfare provision. This, in turn, gave rise to a partial sense of social identity among disabled veterans, one with the potential to transcend ethnic and historical divisions. "Eastern Europe's Minorities in a Century of Change", a podcast series on the history of minorities and minority experiences in twentieth-century Central and Eastern Europe prepared by the BASEES Study Group for Minority History to mark the Institute for Historical Research’s centenary. The co-conveners of the Study Group are Olena Palko (Birkbeck) and Samuel Foster (University of East Anglia)