Interpretive Analysis
There are many layers to this particular folktale not least of which is the veracity of the stories, some documented previously in the "Folk Tale" page of this site. I will seek to explain why certain elements in these accounts are seen independently of one another and what makes the stories so incendiary. Below we will analyze some of these elements through a functional and psychoanalytic approach to discover deeper meaning behind this specific genre of folktale.
Gender
Of particular interest to Black in her work, was the specific attention that Swabians and Karasek paid to the Female Partisan. Females were most susceptible to the Partisan Fever and the most ruthless of Tito's fighting guerillas. This transformed these fighters to a god-like status similar to an army of Furies. Battlefield reports indicating castration and mutilation also played into German fears that females were the most fierce of the Partisans and the liminal nature of lurking in the woods.
Religion
Religion also plays a key part in the transmission of the this lore. Overwhelmingly, Europe at this time was Christian and the Swabians were recognizably Catholic. Thus elements of reconciliation and corporeal communion are impossible to miss in the importance of this tale (Bruckner and Wedgwood, 1968). Vampires themselves posed a threat to the Christian, coming for their blood or Christ's blood and their soul. The local origin of the Vampire being in the Balkans it was then easy to insert this element into the existing Partisan folklore.
Guilt
It is important to recognize the functional elements of the Partisan Vampire folklore as essential to the post-war German reckoning of the atrocities they carried out. Sims and Stephens outline Bascom's theory of the essential function of folklore; that it maintains the stability of culture. Those Swabians that went from peacetime, to oppressor, and then to villian had to justify their cruelty in a world that no longer existed. This particular example of folklore does not seek to absolve but to paint the enemy as worse than the German. This folklore also did not extend to the Swabians across the world who immigrated before World War II which would indicate a connection to the guilt of those who participated in the conflict.
Blood
Blood plays a central role in this story not least of which is the thirst for German blood. While ethnic concerns were not especially consequential to the pre-war Swabians it was to the editors and collectors of these stories like Karasek who most likely inserted the ethnic element into the lore. It also had the added element that the Partisans themselves circulated stories that "in the time of battle, the Partisans drink no water, no wine or schnapps, only blood!" This aspect of blood to the German purists was central to their National Socialism worldview and validation for the persecution of those they viewed as less than.