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GENOCIDE of the Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia 1944-1948 This book deals with a
subject which has largely been kept secret by the
Yugoslav Communist regime and by government
decrees, systematically falsified for school
teachings and publications: the historic truth of
the genocide of the ethnic Germans of Yugoslav
nationality in Yugoslavia during World War II and
particularly thereafter and their flight and
expulsion from their ancestral homes. The events
detailed here took place particularly between fall
1944 and spring 1948. It is, therefore, not
surprising that after 50 years the likelihood that
this crime will be forgotten is great and the false
Yugoslav history version could prevail. At the beginning of World War
II, about 540,000 people whose mothertongue was
German lived within the national boundaries of the
then Yugoslav kingdom. About 510,000 belonged to
the ethnic group of Danube Swabians, which comprise
the ethnic Germans of the West Banat, Batschka,
Belgrade, Serbia, Syrmia, Baranja Triangle,
Slavonia, Croatia and Bosnia. Additional groups
were the Germans (formerly Austrians) of Slovenia,
mainly the German Untersteierer, German Oberkrainer
and the Gottscheer. The Danube Swabians are
descendants of the Southwest Germans and Austrians
who, between 1689 and 1787, were settled in the
Pannonia Basin by the Habsburg emperors after the
liberation of Hungary from Turk rule (which at that
time belonged to the Habsburg empire). The defeat of the Turk armies
at the battle of Kahlenberg (1683) at the end of
the siege of Vienna led to the gradual retreat of
the Osmanic Empire and the liberation of the Danube
region. After 160 years of Turk domination, the
victories of the Imperial Armies, under the
military leadership of Karl of Lorraine, Ludwig of
Baden and Prince Eugene of Savoy, laid the
foundation for the reconstruction of the region.
Vienna proved to be not only
a bastion against the expansion of the Turk
military might, but also a launching pad for the
political, cultural and economic reconstruction of
the Hungarian region. Already in 1689 the Habsburg
decree called for the resettlement of the
depopulated Hungarian Kingdom. In the years 1722 to
1723 the Hungarian representatives to the national
assembly (Landtag) at Pressburg demanded that
"people of all walks of life be recruited and
exempted from all public taxation for a period of 6
years." The Monarch Karl VI was
requested to issue appropriate decrees in the
entire Roman Empire and neighboring countries. The
colonization was carried out in a peaceful manner
and with the consent of the landowners. Among the
settlers from several countries, those of Germanic
origin were an important and preferred group.
During the 18th century over
150,000 immigrants arrived from various German and
Austrian areas and settled in the then historic
Hungarian boundaries. Since many of the settlers
and their descendants were of Swabian origin,
historians later (1922) referred to them
collectively as Danube Swabians ("Donauschwaben").
The immigration which took
place throughout the 18th century reached three
peak periods: 1723 to 1726, 1764 to 1771 and 1784
to 1787. They were called the Swabian treks
("Schwabenzüge"). Instead of the "Promised
Land," touted by the recruiters, they encountered,
particularly during the earlier phases of the
colonization, harsh living conditions in the swampy
lowlands and mines of the mountain regions causing
hardships, epidemics, diseases and many casualties
over several generations. Fittingly, this led them to
coin the phrase "The first encountered death, the
second distress and only the third bread." ("Den
ersten der Tod, den zweiten die Not, erst den
dritten das Brot.") It was due to a well
programmed settlement policy which led to the
creation of many new, attractive villages,
substantial increases in agricultural, commercial
and industrial production and growth of national
prosperity. Thus, the Pannonian lowlands developed,
with considerable contributions by the settlers of
the 18th century and their descendants, into the
"breadbasket of the Danube Monarchy." The Austrian settlement
program must not be interpreted as a tendency of
Germanization, as some adversaries argue. It was
the principles of practicality, trade and national
interests which called for the recruitment of
colonists, merchants, artisans and skilled laborers
from the German and Austrian territories.
Most of the immigrants in the
Banat mining district were miners, foundry workers,
charcoal burners and forest workers who, shortly
after the retreat of the Turks, were recruited to
reactivate the abandoned copper, silver and iron
mines. It was their efforts, which, in the 19th
century, established the basis for the largest
mining and industrial region of Southeast Europe.
The Danube Swabian poet
Stefan Augsburger-Roney aptly characterized his
countrymen's achievements with the words:
"Conquered not by the sword, but by the plow,
children of peace, heroes of labor." ("Nicht mit
dem Schwert, mit dem Pflugschar erobert, Kinder des
Friedens, Helden der Arbeit.") The 19th century was
highlighted by positive economic growth of the
rural communities. However, adverse circumstances
prevented the Danube Swabians from developing their
individualistic intellectual strata, since the
strengthening Magyar (Hungarian) society attracted
and assimilated the intellectual forces emerging
from the rural peasantry. After the dismantling of
Austria-Hungary in 1918, the community of the
Danube Swabians (numbering 1.5 million at that
time) was dissected and - disregarding President
Wilson's proclamation of self-determination rights
of the people - distributed among the three
successor nations Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia.
As an ethnic entity and "a
people in three fatherlands" it was difficult for
them to find their common identity. They had to
make do and go their own way in their respective
new nations. According to their individual
interests they formed their own different cultural,
political and economic organizations. The majority of the Danube
Swabians, their mother tongue German, became
involuntary Yugoslav national citizens and lived in
Westbanat, Batschka and Baranja, which was
collectively termed Wojwodina. This province never
before belonged to a South-Slavic nation. It's
population was multi-ethnic and none of its
segments had an absolute majority. The composition
of the Westbanat, for example was: 39% Serbs, 33%
Germans, 13% Romanians, 9.5% Hungarians and 5.5%
other minorities. In relation to Yugoslavia as a
nation, the Germans, Romanians and Hungarians were
a relatively small minority. Such comparisons,
however, are misleading since in their former home
territory they represented considerable ethnic
groups. In the 1919 newly created
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed
Yugoslavia in 1929) the Danube Swabian national
minorities accounted for approximately half a
million citizens. As a condition to be
internationally recognized as a nation, at the
Paris (Versailles) peace agreements, Yugoslavia had
to grant contractual minority protection guarantees
which provided for their individual ethnic
development. However, these constitutional
provisions were never carried out and an effective
control system did not exist. Thus, the Serb
authorities largely ignored the minority
guarantees. Nevertheless, during the first two
years the German minority was, temporarily, able to
improve its school system, establish the basis for
a German-language press and, in 1920, establish the
Swabian-German Cultural Association
("Schwäbisch-Deutscher Kulturbund"); in 1922
the German Party ("Partei der Deutschen") and the
very successful German trade union Agraria. These
initial concessions, however, disappeared after a
few years. The restrictive school policy
of Belgrade - it was only in 1940 that Belgrade
permitted the first German-language full grade high
school (Vollgymnasium) - the prohibition of German
societies and other restrictive measures
considerably impaired the ethnic-political
situation of the German community. New restrictive property
legislation made the purchase of real estate within
50 km of the national border subject to
governmental approval. The purpose was to stop the
acquisition of real property by foreigners.
However, this legislation was quickly used to also
make it impossible for Germans of Yugoslav
citizenship to acquire property. This measure was
devised to further limit the economic base of the
ethnic Germans. The situation of the Germans in
Yugoslavia began to improve only in the thirties
after Germany began to strengthen its political
posture. About the middle of 1939 the
old national-conservative cultural respectively
national-liberal society leadership,
(Kulturbundführung), was replaced by
representatives of the national-radical Renewal
Movement (Erneuerungsbewegung) which was supported
by the German government. Its leadership consisted
of a handful of young intellectuals. Dr. Sepp Janko, its leader,
was elected in 1939 upon strong pressure brought
about by the German government Office for Germans
Living Abroad (Auslandsdeutsche). For him the
principal idea of "Nationalsozialismus" was the
total unity of the ethnic group, rooted in the same
blood. He was convinced that the blood relationship
with the German Nationals (Reichsdeutsche)
necessarily united them all. The destiny of Germany
would also become the destiny of the Danube
Swabians. Similar developments took
place in Hungary as well, where in 1938 the
"Volksbund der Deutschen in Ungarn" ("Alliance of
the Ethnic Germans in Hungary") was established.
An opposition against the
Renewal Movement was started by a Catholic Action
(Katholische Aktion) under the leadership of the
priest Pfarrer Adam Brenz. From 1935 to 1944 he
conducted an intense ideological battle against the
anti-Christian excesses and abuse in his weekly
periodical "Die Donau" (The Danube). The ethnic German group
leaders (Volksgruppenführer) began adopting
organizational and image models, patterned after
those of Germany. Thus, after the "April War" of
1941 which led to the first partition of
Yugoslavia, organizations such as "Deutsche
Mannschaft" (German Team), "Deutsche Jugend"
(German Youth), and "Deutsche Frauenschaft" (German
Women's Group) became established. In the
independent Croatia, "Arbeitsdienst" (Work Team
Service) and "Winterhilfswerk" (Winter Aid Society)
were also founded. The group leaders had
idealistic conceptions of Germany's
"Nationalsozialismus." They had great hopes such
joint common cultural and socially strengthened
groups together with the interchange of the larger
Germanic cultural community could give them a real
chance to ensure a continuation of their own
identity in this multi-ethnic and multi-cultural
Southeastern Europe. Until well into the course of
the war they held those idealistic notions of the
Nationalsozialismus and the merits of the fight
against Bolshevism of which the German propaganda
projected a dramatic image. There was another opposition
group to the Nationalsozialismus which was rooted
in political, ideological and religious doctrines.
It included mainly the Catholics and Protestans of
the middle and western Batschka and had the belief
that one could also be a good German if you had
other role models other than the national
socialistic one. The majority of the Danube
Swabians were, in general, non-political. The
renewed strength of Germany after 1933 increased
her esteem in middle-eastern Europe. It kindled the
hope of the Danube Swabians that Germany's
influence would bring an end to the discrimination
of the German-speaking people in Yugoslavia and
give them a cultural autonomy. Both the Yugoslav government
of Prime Minister Dragisa Cvetkovic and the German
government were interested in preventing an
expansion of the war in the Balkan. (World War II
began September 1939.) Cvetkovic wanted to protect
Yugoslavia from territorial claims by Italy and
Hungary. Hitler was preparing his attack on Russia
and did not care to tie up his military forces in
the Balkans. He also wanted to ensure a peaceful
Yugoslavia. Given those circumstances, Cvetkovic's
government accepted the invitation to join the Axis
Powers (Germany, Italy and Japan), particularly
since his neighboring countries Hungary, Romania
and Bulgaria had already done so and the conditions
were favorable for Yugoslavia (no commitment on the
part of Yugoslavia to participate in the Axis war
or to permit transit of foreign military forces).
The pact was signed on March
25, 1941. However, two days later, a military coup
in Belgrade, led by General Dusan Simovic toppled
the Cvetkovic government and thus prevented the
ratifications of the pact. Anti-German slogans and
an agreement with Russia indicated a change of
Yugoslavia's political direction. The participants
of the coup were mainly members of the Serbian
general staff. Documents of their secret
negotiations with the Allies fell into German hands
during her war with France. The reasons for Hitler's
quick decision to attack Yugoslavia was his concern
of the creation of a southern front by the Allies
and his desire to protect his flanks during the
planned attack on Russia. The simultaneous attack
on Greece was to support the Italian army which
became bogged down. The Yugoslav war began on April
6, 1941 and ended on April 18 with the
unconditional surrender of the entire Yugoslav
army. Contrary to some reports, the
conduct of the ethnic Germans was that of loyalty
to their home country Yugoslavia. Eighty to ninety
percent of those subject to draft followed the
call, compared to only sixty to seventy percent of
the Slavic population. Accusations that members of
the ethnic German group acted as a "Fifth Column"
against their home country are without merit.
As a result of the
partitioning of Yugoslavia following the April War,
the ethnic Germans became subjects of the
independent nations Croatia (Syrmia and Slavonia),
Hungary (Batschka and Baranya) and the
German-occupied Serbia (West Banat). The Germans of
Lower-Styria became citizens of Germany (Austria),
since their homeland was annexed by Germany.
Because the homeland of the Gottscheer was given to
Italy, they were resettled to Lower Styria.
The partitioning of
Yugoslavia created complex international and
constitutional situations. In addition, the
infighting among the Tschetnics, Communist
partisans, and Croatian Ustaschas was leading to
civil war-like conditions. The German and Italian
occupation forces and Hungarian government were
further power factors in the former kingdom. On
July 8, 1941 Germany and Italy declared that
Yugoslavia had ceased to be a nation due to its
unconditional surrender, even though the exiled
king and his government-in-exile, which had fled to
London, claimed the continuation of the country's
existence. Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria
and the newly created independent nation Croatia
(USK) which had joined the Axis powers adopted the
same position. The legal consequences were that the
inhabitants of the annexed areas, including the
Danube Swabians, became national citizens of these
countries, subject to their laws and compulsory
military service. It was beyond their political
understanding that they could, therefore, be
considered traitors to the kingdom or the
terroristic partisans "liberation" movement.
The National-Serbian
Tschetnics led by the Chief of the General Staff
Dragoljub-Draza Mihajlovic did not recognize the
unconditional surrender. For them the kingdom did
not cease to exist as a legal entity. Accordingly,
the government-in-exile appointed Mihajlovic
Secretary of Defense and Commander-in-Chief of the
Yugoslav Army in the home territory. He considered
himself the Commander of the surviving armed
forces, continuing the fight. In reality, the
Tschetnics carried on a gang-like war. His
objectives were: In 1939 the illegal Communist
party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) numbered only about 2,000
members. A tightly organized underground group of
several hundred persons was already active since
the end of the twenties. They had an influential
following among students and intellectuals and were
able to infiltrate the government apparatus. In
1937 the Croat Josip Broz became Secretary General
of the Central Committee of the KPJ. When Germany attacked the
Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the Komintern
(International Communist Committee) called upon all
Communist parties of Europe to rise up. As a
national section of the Komintern the KPJ also did
its duty in the service of the "world revolution."
On the same day the central committee of the KPJ
issued a proclamation calling for the Proletariat
of Yugoslavia to come to the defense of the Soviet
Union, "the beloved socialistic Fatherland." On
July 4, Tito, as Josip Broz now called himself,
issued the call for the KPJ to rise up against the
occupational forces. The same month German officers
and soldiers were ambushed and killed, the railline
Belgrade-Agram sabotaged and Communists were
liberated from prisons, including Alexander
Rankovic, who later became Tito's Minister of the
Interior and chief of the notorious secret police
OZNA. As far as the German military
was concerned and according to the International
Convention on the Conduct of War (International
Law), neither the National Serbian Tschetnics nor
the ethnically mixed partisans had the status of
"combatants" (soldiers). They were considered
"guerrillas" or gangs. According to the Convention
only combatants are authorized to carry out acts of
war. The ambush and murder of
German soldiers, which started on July 7, 1941 led
on August 11 to a new appeal in the Serbian
newspapers by the German military to cooperate with
the occupying forces. The same appeal was made in
public posters. The disregard of these appeals by
the partisans led to the notorious order #888/41 of
the German Army Command (OKW) of September 16, 1941
which ordered the execution of 100 hostages for
each murdered German soldier and 50 hostages for
each wounded soldier. The express purpose was of
deterrent nature. This action was purposefully
provoked by the partisans as admitted by Serbian
historians. The German retribution, however, far
exceeded the principle of "adequate numbers," as
provided by the Convention. The strategy of the
partisans, however, was to provoke the occupation
forces to retaliatory actions against the civilian
population and threatened summary executions of
hostages. It induced many to seek refuge with the
partisans in the forests. During the course of the
civil war, the creation of a Communist Yugoslavia
became an increasingly greater objective of the
Communist Party's central committee. For tactical
reasons, however, it was necessary to expand the
war and not make it appear to be a fight of the
unpopular and, by the government-in-exile,
unrecognized Communist party but a national
"Revolutionary War" of the Yugoslav people, for the
liberation from the Fascist occupiers and their
collaborators. Hence the slogan "Death to Fascism -
Freedom to the People." This slogan became the
"signature" of the Tito-movement. This
popular-front image was the concept for the
realization of a Communistic Yugoslavia in order
not to scare away non-Communists but rather to
induce them to join and fight with them.
With the authorization of the
VOMI German government, the group leadership under
Dr. Sepp Janko moved to the West Banat, which
belonged to German-occupied Serbia and was
permitted to establish an official autonomous
self-administration of the ethnic German group. The
Banat model was supposed to show that a peaceful
coexistence of different ethnic nationalities in
the same living space was entirely possible. It was
also supposed to prove the Pannonian lowlands
could, when properly managed, deliver extraordinary
economic results. After the German attack on
the Soviet Union, the Tito-Partisans also began
their terrorist attacks in the Banat. This action
in itself made it clear that the Tito-movement
considered the Danube Swabians collectively as
allies of the German enemy. Dr. Janko reported that
during the fighting which led to the retreat of the
partisans from their temporarily established "Uzice
Republic," the "Resolution of the Executive
Committee" of the "Anti-Fascist Front" was seized.
It prescribed the manner in which the ethnic German
group was to be destroyed. After the "punishment of
the culprits," all others were to be dispersed
among all areas of the country and integrated into
the Slavic population. According to Dr. Janko,
after this resolution became known, the leadership
in the Banat came to the conclusion that there was
no other alternative for the ethnic Germans in
Yugoslavia than to put their trust into Germany's
support and protection. At any rate, the ordinary
person had to feel that his fate was that of all
Germans. The conviction that only Germany could
protect them, was the major reason for strongly
defending themselves against the actions of the
partisans. Aside from the obvious
genocidal intentions, the partisans also
jeopardized public safety and order, which an
occupying force, according to the International Law
on the Conduct of War, was obligated to uphold
regardless whether such occupation of a country was
legal or not. According to this international law,
partisans can be executed. As the terror actions of the
partisans increased, the group leadership decided
to organize a home guard regiment, named Prinz
Eugen, consisting of Banat citizens, for the sole
purpose of the defense of the Banat. This was
entirely legal according to the Haag Convention on
the Conduct of War (HLKO). In April 1942, however,
Hitler ordered the formation of the "SS-Volunteer
Mountain Division Prinz Eugen" instead of the home
guard regiment. The service became compulsory for
all ethnic Germans since there were only very few
volunteers. The Division had a German-national
leadership, German-national officers, and, against
the original intent of the ethnic German
leadership, was deployed against the Communist Tito
partisans outside of the Banat. Sepp Janko, leader of the
ethnic German group was concerned about this turn
of events and argued with the SS headquarters that
such deployment of Banat Germans was against the
laws of the HLKO. However, he had to yield to the
SS pressure. Based on this fact, the Danube
Swabians had to reject the later accusations of
treason. This Waffen-SS division (SS =
acronym for "Schutz Staffel," was a German military
organization parallel to but independent of the
main army called "Wehrmacht"), however, did not
cooperate with the Ustascha units (Croatian
military units) which tried to exterminate the
orthodox Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia. After the incorporation of
the Batschka and the Baranja into Hungary, the
Schwäbisch-Deutsche Kulturbund (Swabian-German
Cultural Alliance) became affiliated with the
Volksbund der Deutschen in Ungarn (Alliance of the
Germans in Hungary). The latter was established on
November 26, 1938. Its founder Dr. Franz Basch now
also became the leader of the Germans in the
Batschka and Baranja. His program included, in
addition to the legal recognition of the ethnic
group, the establishment of schools and church
services in the German mother-tongue. At the Vienna meeting, on
August 30, 1940, the German and Hungarian
governments, without the participation of the
ethnic Germans, agreed upon the following status of
the ethnic German group in Hungary: The Vienna agreement,
however, did not grant the Alliance a legal status.
Nevertheless, it succeeded to establish 300 local
chapters with about 50,000 members. After the
second Vienna agreement, following the
incorporation of North Transylvania and Sathmar
into Hungary, the membership increased to 97,000
and the incorporation of the Batschka and Baranja,
as a result of Yugoslavia's partition, added
another 100,000. The leadership of the German
army and lawyers of the German State Department
took the position that according to the Haag
Convention, the German army could not legally
recruit soldiers in the allied nations Hungary,
Romania and Slovakia and let them fight outside
their own borders. Thus, the ethnic Germans in the
Banat should not have been deployed outside their
home territory. The SS leadership, however,
and its leader Heinrich Himmler insisted on the
overriding concept of "Volksrecht" (Right of the
People) and the "blood brotherhood." - "Same
ethnicity same people," as it was called at that
time, meant the same destiny and the same
obligation of military service, regardless of
nationality. Therefore, Himmler considered his
actions in the Banat justified. After the start of Germany's
war against the Soviet Union, the Waffen-SS needed
additional soldiers to make up for its losses.
Himmler saw in the ethnic Southeast Germans a
welcome human resource and decreed in summer, 1942
that, while there was no legal requirement for the
ethnic Germans living outside of Germany to fulfill
military service in the German armed forces, there
was a moral requirement based on ethnicity. The
governments of Hungary, Croatia and Romania were
put under pressure to enter into an agreement with
Germany and allow Germany to draft their
able-bodied ethnic Germans into the German Army,
preferably into the Waffen-SS. To stay within international
law, the SS leadership declared the recruitment to
be of a voluntary nature. Furthermore, the drafted
ethnics serving in German military forces
automatically received the German citizenship. This
made them German soldiers, in accordance with the
HLKO Convention. The agreements which served
as the legal basis for the drafting of able-bodied
Germans were made without participation of the
respective ethnic German leadership. However, the
task to direct the draftees to the induction
centers was given to the ethnic organizations, thus
absolving the respective governments from taking
legal actions against those not complying with the
draft notices. In the third agreement
regarding the Waffen-SS action, the Hungarian
government transferred the military service
jurisdiction over its ethnic Germans to Germany and
required them to serve their military service in
Germany's armed forces. Simultaneously it reversed
its earlier cancellation of the Hungarian
citizenship of the German-Hungarians, serving in
the German armed forces. Therefore, the
German-Hungarians drafted in 1944 into the
Waffen-SS were neither volunteers nor formal German
citizens. During WWII, about 93,000
Danube Swabians of the former Yugoslavia served as
soldiers in various national armies. One in four,
26,000, did not return. There are no records of any
war crime trials of ethnic Germans of Yugoslavia,
serving in the Waffen-SS. The "German Croatians,"
referred to here collectively as definition for all
Danube Swabians living at that time in the various
regions of the independent nation Croatia (USK),
which included Syrmia, Slavonia, Croatia and
Bosnia, did not consider themselves any longer
citizens of the partitioned Yugoslavia, whose
government-in-exile was in London, but citizens of
the newly created nation Croatia and subject to its
jurisdiction. The "German Croatians" led by
Branimir Altgayer, were given legal status of
ethnic citizens and enjoyed considerable cultural
autonomy. As members of a recognized ethnic group,
they enjoyed equal rights in education. The central
issue of cultural autonomy was schooling in its
mother-tongue to a degree not imaginable in the
former kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Tito-partisans were
operating mainly in Krajina, Bosnia, Syrmia and
Slavonia, areas which belonged since the April war
of 1941 to the now independent nation Croatia. The
Croatian Ustascha regime was allied with Germany
and persecuted the Serbs living within its
territory. This caused many of them to join the
Tito-partisans who fought a cruel and bitter war
against the Croats and to some extent against the
Muslims as well. For the National-Fascist Ustascha
it was an ethnic-motivated civil war. For the
Tito-partisans it was primarily a war leading to
the Communist take-over. Thus, the partisans
considered the Danube Swabians of Croatia also
their enemies. In view of the growing hatred
and cruel actions of the Tito-partisans against
everything German, the leadership of the ethnic
Germans considered their own fate inadvertently and
unavoidably intertwined with that of Germany. This
led the leadership and majority of the Danube
Swabians to conclude that their survival as an
ethnic entity was only guaranteed by a peace
favorable to Germany. The widely scattered Danube
Swabian settlements in Bosnia and West-Slavonia
became a major problem for the ethnic German
leadership. With the beginning of the partisan
activities in summer 1941, it already became
evident, particularly in Bosnia, that the German
settlements could not be sufficiently protected.
The German Bosnians suffered considerable
casualties inflicted by the raids of the partisans.
The local home guard was simply too weak to protect
the scattered settlements. In late fall 1941 and in
cooperation with the Croatian government, all
endangered German settlements were evacuated. The
18,360 residents were shipped to various camps
inside Germany and Austria. In 1943, the situation in
Slavonia became increasingly critical due to the
frequent partisan raids on the scattered German
settlements, particularly in West-Slavonia. It was
therefore decided to resettle the German
inhabitants of fifty communities. They were moved
to the area between Essegg, Vinkovci and Vukovar.
In total 20,206 persons had to leave their homes.
Some of the partisans used
the following strategy. They operated only at
night, while at daytime pretended to be peaceful
citizens pursuing their normal activities. These
"night-partisans" were particularly successful in
West- and East-Slavonia as well as in Syrmia.
However, when Croatian or
German forces were further away, regular partisan
units settled down in the conquered villages and
coordinated their activities with the
night-partisans. "Settling the score" with
non-Communists, particularly government-loyal
Croats and Germans were daily occurrences.
When Soviet forces approached
towards the end of September 1944, the order of the
German military to evacuate the Danube Swabians in
the Banat and Batschka came too late. Hence only
relatively few from the West-Banat, in some of the
Batschka villages only one percent, in others up to
ninety percent, fled by the time the Red Army and
the partisans were getting ready to cross the
Theiss River. Major reasons for this tragic
evacuation delay were the tactical and political
dilemma of Germany's leadership. The evacuation of
the Danube Swabians was tantamount to admitting
that large areas of Hungary and Croatia were
considered lost, risking that the Hungarians would
immediately capitulate and the Croats lose their
willingness to continue the fight. On the other
hand, if one did not evacuate the ethnic Germans,
one risked the loss of "German blood" which again
was contrary to the philosophy of Germany's
Nationalism. It is known that Colonel General
Alexander Löhr (equivalent to a US 4-star
general) pleaded for a timely evacuation. A few
days after Romania's capitulation (August 23, 1944)
in a meeting with ethnic German leaders at Belgrade
he said: "If you want to save German blood in this
region, we have to do it immediately." Beginning October 1944, the
German military began a systematic evacuation of
the Danube Swabians in Croatia, mostly by rail and
horse-drawn wagons. The evacuees, loaded onto open
railroad cars tried to protect themselves from rain
and cold with wooden boards and tarps. The
horse-drawn wagons were traveling for weeks. The
search for fodder for the horses and lodging for
the nights were daily struggles. Some of them had
to travel over 1,000 km (621.4 miles) to reach
their allocated destinations. By fall 1944 almost 225,000
Danube Swabians fled or were evacuated. Several
thousands returned to Yugoslavia under great
difficulties and were immediately forced into
internment camps. Between October 1944 and May 1945
weIl over 200,000 civilians, whose mother-tongue
was German, fell into the hands of the partisans.
The escapees and surviving
Danube Swabian prisoners who could not go back
totalled about 300,000. Thus, Yugoslavia achieved a
first "ethnic cleansing" of more than half of its
540,000 citizens of German deseent. The German Untersteirer are
the former inhabitants of the Untersteiermark
(Lower Styria) which, since 1147, for over 770
years, belonged to the Styria duchy. In 1910 the
population was 74,000. For hundreds of years they
were dominant in cultural life, trade, industry and
mining. At the peace treaty of St. Germain, the
Lower Styria was separated from the Styria which
belonged to Austria and was made part of the newly
created Slovenia which in turn was incorporated
into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians
(renamed Yugoslavia in 1929). After the
partitioning of Yugoslavia (1941) the
Untersteiermark was joined with the old Steiermark
and both were attached to Germany. "By Hitler's orders," the
entire historic Steiermark was to be "Germanized."
All 10,000 South-Slavs who immigrated into the
Untersteiermark after 1918, and about 20,000
Slovenians, who openly opposed the Germanization,
were expelled. The former were moved to what was
left of Serbia and the latter to the "German
Reich." In their place the Gottscheer
and the resettled ethnic Germans from Bukovina and
South Tyrol were transferred to the southeast of
the historic Steiermark, which now belonged to the
"German Reich." It is not surprising that
these measures disappointed not only the Slovenes
who had put their trust into the Germans but also
incited the hatred of the Slovenian Nationalists
which led to the partisan uprising. The "Slovenian
Liberation Movement" was created April 27, 1941.
Initially, it consisted mainly of Communists and
radical Nationalists who soon were joined by
desperate citizens. The partisans' actions were
brutal. Resorting to executions and torching farms,
they forced the farmers to feed and support them.
German countermeasures were equally brutal but
could no longer contain the fire they had ignited.
Understandably, the
Deutsch-Untersteier were initially enthusiastic
about their incorporation into the "German Reich."
However, their disappointment came rather quickly
as they found out that they had no voice whatsoever
in the administration of the territory. Many warned
against the expulsions, executions of hostages and
forced political re-education; but they were told
that the nature of the war required such measures
and were given glorious post-war promises.
Since their fate was
intertwined with that of Germany, they had no
choice but to support the German administration.
Even as the course of the war
tumed more menacing and eventually hopeless, with
few exceptions, people were not permitted to leave.
About 4,300 ethnic German-Slovenian civilians
perished as a result of the partisan war, mostly by
executions, torture and starvation in the camps at
the end of the war; adding about 1,000 Gottschee
civilians, a total of about 3,300
Deutsch-Untersteierer became victims of the
genocide. Approximately 90% of the surviving
Deutsch-Untersteierer found a new home in Austria.
Since 1948 they are organized in a "Hilfsverein"
(an Aid Society) with its headquarters in Graz.
The "Gottscheer" are
inhabitants of the German speaking language enclave
"Gottschee," situated in the former Habsburg crown
land Krain. It was established in 1330, about 660
years ago, by German settlers from Carinthia and
East-Tyrol, due to an initiative of the Carinthian
counts of Ortenburg. In 1918, the naturally
developed language enclave, numbered 18,000
inhabitants, living in 25 communities and 172
villages. At the peace treaty of St. Germain,
(September 10, 1919), it became part of Slovenia
and the newly created Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats
and Slovenians. After the collapse and
partitioning of Yugoslavia in 1941, Gottschee
became Italian territory and the Gottscheer (about
11,200), were moved to the Southeast
Untersteiermark (Lower Styria). Like the Germans in
Slovenia, they too initially were forbidden to
leave when the Russians approached. The order to
evacuate was issued only beginning May 1945, which
for most was too late. While the exact number of
those who perished during the flight or in camps is
not known, estimates of the casualties including
those of soldiers, run around 1,000. A large number
of Gottscheer found a new home in Austria; however,
other significant groups emigrated to the USA and
Canada. |