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GENOCIDE of the Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia 1944-1948 The Tito partisans appeared
behind the advancing Red Army. By October 6, 1944
the Soviets occupied the Western Banat and by
October 23, 1944 the whole Batschka. During their occupation of
the Banat and Batschka, October/November 1944, the
Russian soldiers rarely wantonly killed Germans,
however, they did commit numerous rapes of German
girls and women and destruction of property. The
first action of the partisans was usually to
establish local "People's Liberation Committees."
Then began the arbitrary detention, brutal
mistreatment, rapes, executions and murders,
particularly of Germans, but also of Magyars
(ethnic Hungarians), loyalist Serbs and other
Slavs. Especially during the first
two months of the partisans' military
administration there was a period of widespread
lawlessness. During this period a great number of
murders of Germans were committed; therefore it was
called "the bloody autumn 1944," of the Wojwodina.
In the Banat and Syrmia
during the bloody autumn 1944, approximately 5,000
and in the Batschka 2,000 Danube Swabians perished.
The analogous losses in Slovenia (Untersteiermark,
Oberkrain, Gottschee) are not included in these
figures. Between 1941 and October 1944, about 1,100
lost their lives due to partisan raids on German
communities. These are conservative figures. Names
and localities are documented on page 1019, volume
IV of the German-language book Leidensweg der
Deutschen im kommunistischen Jugoslawien,
published 1994 (The History of the Ethnic Germans
Tragedy and Sufferings in the Communist
Yugoslavia). Source References: The
identification of the most important localities
where the murders and massacres committed on the
ethnic Germans of Yugoslavia as well as various
murderous acts occurred, are based on statements of
the surviving victims themselves. They were
recorded and published 1990-1995 in four volumes
Leidensweg der Deutschen im kommunistischen
Jugoslawien. The major part of these
first-person reports are located at the Deutsches
Zentralarchiv Koblenz (German Central Archives at
Koblenz). So far, access for the Danube Swabians
and most foreign researchers to the Yugoslav
military archives ("Militärhistorisches
Archiv") at Belgrade has been denied. Also,
according to a statement by the director of the
Yugoslav archives, Miodrag Zecevic in the Belgrade
paper Borba of July 24, 1987, large scale
destruction of archive material took place in the
immediate post-war period. A major difficulty has been
the determination of individual responsibility. The
reports do not always specify which of the various
groups or authorities authorized or carried out the
executions and murders and whether they were based
on individual decisions or on orders from higher
up. The first-person reports
indicated that there were seven authorities or
groups acting as the direct executors of the
killings: invading partisans and spontaneously
organized groups, local private persons, "People's
Liberation Committees," the secret police OZNA,
local revenge groups, military courts and execution
commandos of the "Aktion Intelligenzija." Events in
Slovenia were more complicated, since additional
factors were involved. Occupying partisans and
citizens in some ethnically mixed communities
spontaneously formed groups that engaged in
murderous activities. The worst incident took place
in the Banat village Deutsch-Zerne. After it was
seized, a spontaneously formed group of Serbs,
Russian soldiers and gypsies engaged in pillage and
mass rapes of German girls and women which caused
at least 55 (documented) victims to commit suicide.
Another example is the
tragedy at Palanka in the Batschka where local
gypsies joined an invading group of partisans. This
group executed a number of prominent Germans,
Magyars and Serbs. Some of the latter were executed
just beeause they pleaded on behalf of the Germans.
In Obrowatz, the partisans and local Serbs tortured
and executed 33 Germans, 6 Magyars and 2 Serbs
after Russian troops moved on. At Towarisch, 36 of
the 48 Germans that stayed behind were also killed.
Personal revenge was also a
motive for the murder of individual Germans. A
tragic example is what happened at Homolitz. When
the males between 14 and 70 years were led away for
execution, the Serbs decided to spare the locksmith
Kudjer since he was deemed to be useful. His young
son, also in the group pleaded: "Father, don't
leave me." He replied, "Son, I stay with you." The
son would have also been released because of his
young age, but as eyewitnesses testified, a young
Serb of the same age objected because the two boys
had a previous quarrel. So he also had to die; a
revenge for a quarrel among children. Some local People's
Liberation Committee (NOO=Narodno Oslobodilacki
Odbor) took a liberal interpretation of the
Declaration of Jajee as an opportunity to liquidate
influential Germans without formal court action by
branding them "Enemies of the People," "Fascists"
or "Supporters of the Occupation." At India, Syrmia, on November
11, 1944 nine men were executed. The following day
an additional 64 persons, among them children, were
killed with a hand grenade or beaten to death with
hatchets. The names of the torturers and murderers
are registered in the India chronicle. At Sombor, Batschka, November
5, 1944, 52 men from Kolut were taken to the OZNA
jail. They all perished there. Serbian revenge groups in the
part of the Batschka, which was occupied by Hungary
during the war, took revenge on the Magyars for
executions committed by the Hungarian military
during a 1942 raid. The Serbs from Schajkasch and
Tschurug are reported to have personally asked Tito
for permission to take revenge on the Hungarians,
which was granted. (Reported by the Hungarian
historian Enikö A. Sajti.) The ethnic Germans,
who had nothing to do with the Hungarian military
actions, were nevertheless included in the
orgiastic murders. The "People's Court" for the
areas of Batschka, Banat and Baranja instructed the
partisans to collect several thousand men, mainly
Hungarians and Germans but also Serbian
intellectuals and trucked 2,500 of them at night to
the forest near the Danube where they were shot and
dumped into mass graves. This massacre is also
documented by Hungarian sources. Beginning 1945 the Communist
leaders stopped the actions against ethnic
Hungarians due to political reasons: Hungary had to
be considered a "socialistic brother country." The
barbarous extermination of the ethnic Germans,
however, continued until1948. Immediately after conquering
an area, the partisans declared martial law and
court-martialed important German personalities. The
most striking example was the case of Dr. Philipp
Popp, Bishop of the German Protestant Church of
Yugoslavia. On the pretext that he was a
collaborator, he was sentenced to death and shot on
June 29, 1945. It was evident that the
military courts and prisons of the partisans' army
served the power-grab strategy of the partisan
regime. They were used according to their policy to
achieve their "political cleansing." In the
Batschka, former German soldiers and members of the
Schwäbisch-Deutscher Kulturbund (Swabian
German Cultural Society) were picked up and shipped
to the military prison at Sombor. The Germans in cities and
county seats were particularly targeted for murder
by the OZNA (acronym for Office for the Protection
of the People), the secret police of the partisan
movement. It was established in 1944 by the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ). The head of
the national OZNA was Alexander Rankovic. He was
simultaneously Secretary of the KPJ. All heads of
the regions (Republics) were important
functionaries and simultaneously members of the
regional KP (political arm of the Communist party).
The regional OZNA organizations selected their
victims rather arbitrarily and according to their
own criteria. They arrested well-known ethnic
German citizens, members of the "Deutsche
Mannschaft" and alleged saboteurs. Particularly
notorious was the OZNA central prison at Sombor
(Batschka). Generally speaking, the OZNA
was the main instrument of the Communists
power-grab strategy and served to carry out the
"political cleansing" in the conquered territories.
Beginning about the middle of
October 1944, mobile execution commandos in the
Banat and Batschka began entering the communities
and arresting leading, respected and well-off
Germans - sometimes against the objections of local
Slavic citizens. The victims were later cruelly
tortured and murdered. Targeted were also "leading
heads" of the communities, occasionally also Slavic
followers of the previous monarchy, former leaders
of the bourgeois-Serbian parties, industrialists,
well-off trades people, rich farmers,
professionals, clergy and intellectuals. All
persons that were categorized as "capitalists,"
"class enemies" and potential
"counter-revolutionaries." Most were males. The
selection of these persons indicates their
liquidation was carried out according to the
Stalinistic pattern. Evidently, the purpose of
these actions was to remove the leadership,
intimidate the people and make them obedient.
The first six groups that
carried out the executions and murders of the
ethnic Germans operated during the reign of the
partisan military administration. The leadership,
with the active support of Tito, allowed the OZNA,
local committees, "People's Courts" and individuals
to wantonly persecute alleged "Enemies of the
People," "Fascists" and "Supporters of the
Occupiers." The Aktion Intelligenzija was
obviously planned, organized and directed by the
fanatic Stalinist communists Moscha Pijade and
Alexander Rankovic. But also here, Tito is mainly
responsible since nothing could be done without the
"highest authority's" consent. Other fully responsible top
leaders were Edward Kardelj and Ivan Ribar.
Commander of the Military Administration in the
Banat 1944/45 was Jovan Beljanski ("Lala"). Toma
Granfil was Politkommissar. Commander of the
Military Administration of the Batschka was Ivan
Rukavina. Secretary of the communist party for the
province of Wojvodina was Jovan Veselinov Zarko.
The OZNA chief Vid Dodik was commander of all
concentration camps in Wojwodina. The following are just a few
examples out of many similar gruesome events that
took place during the "Bloody Autumn" of 1944.
In most of the reports on the
events the handwriting of the OZNA and Aktion
Intelligenzija was evident. As a rule, a few days
after occupying the communities, the victims
selected for execution were taken from the
communities to the county headquarters, tortured
for days and then murdered. Occasionally, mass
executions also took place in the individual
villages. Most of the inhumane atrocities were
committed against the Danube Swabians in
Deutsch-Zerne. After the retreat of the
German armed forces, a spontaneously organized
group of Serbs, Russian soldiers and gypsies turned
into a psychotic victory and hate orgy, resulting
initially in mass rapes of German women and girls
and looting. At least 55 persons (documented by
names) committed suicide out of despair and sense
of shame. The local report describes the following
sequence of events: "On October 5, 1944, at 2 p.m.,
the first Russian troops appear. Already at 3 p.m.
the first German men, including Father Franz Brunet
are beaten to death or shot to death. At the same
time, a large number of German men are already
locked up in the Serbian town hall. On October 6,
Peter Schweininger with his horse-drawn wagon has
to report to the town hall (where all crimes were
committed) and is beaten to death. A drunken
soldier starts shooting wildly in the cellar,
killing five and wounding four people. Margareta
Themare, according to her own testimony, and two
other women, have to report to the town hall;
eleven women are already there. The first corpse is
brought out and thrown onto the wagon. A young Serb
and a gypsy command the women to start singing
otherwise they would be shot too. They sing till
all the dead are on the wagon, then they have to
run behind the wagon, clapping their hands... At
the 'Schinderplatz' (knacker's yard), a gang of
gypsies with shovels is already waiting. The women
have to take the wagon of the murdered owner back
and are then released into the town hall...
"On October 24, 1944, around
4 p.m., the first group of men and women, all from
Deutsch-Zerne, tied in pairs by wire to a rope, are
led to the 'Schinderplatz.' Young Serbs and gypsies
with clubs escort the column and commit excesses at
will. Those collapsing during the march are clubbed
and dragged along. The 'column of death' is flanked
by Serbian men and boys with cow bells. Church
bells are ringing also. "On this day three groups are
being executed. Head executioner of all three
groups is the female partisan leader Ljubica from
the Batschka, who lives in the Catholic rectory.
All the victims have to undress; those unable to do
so are undressed by the gypsies. In groups of five
to six, they have to stand before the grave and are
executed with machine guns. Meanwhile several
hundred Serbs have congregated as spectators. The
next group of victims always has to push down the
bodies of the previously shot who did not fall into
the hole. There are some in the pit who are not yet
dead and their death struggles evoke laughter from
the spectators. The bodies are not covered with
soil to leave space for the next two groups. At
dusk the second group is not quite finished yet and
the third is disposed of by moonlight. Towards 9
p.m., having completed the executions, the
partisans return singing to the village."
Already on October 7, one day
after the occupation of the town
Gross-Kikinda (30,000 inhabitants, 6,000
ethnic Germans) in the Nordbanat, a prison was set
up for German men. The first mass executions took
place on October 7 or 8, 1944. Twenty eight Germans
were murdered on this first day. Starting October
10 the Milchhalle (milk hall) initially became the
annihilation station for the Kikinda district and
then the central civilian camp for the Germans of
the entire northern Banat. For days, those imprisoned
were subjected to inhuman, sadistic tortures. The
ones that did not succumb were shot do death.
Wantonly the partisans pulled out some Germans.
Before killing them, they were usually horribly
tortured, then beaten to death or butchered with
knives like pigs. They first killed the wealthy
Germans of the entire district so the partisans did
not have to account for the stolen property. Among
the first victims were also the intellectuals and
Father Michael Rotten of Kikinda. German men from
the North Banat and the Modosch district were
concentrated in the Milchhalle and there tortured
to death. November 5, 1944 became a bloody Sunday.
About 100 men were selected and murdered that
day. "On November 3, 1944 I was an
eye-witness of the first slaughter of a larger
group of men. Individual people were already
previously liquidated. This group of 22 men, among
them two I knew from our neighboring village, were
fiendishly murdered. First, the men were disrobed,
had to lie down, their hands tied behind their
back. Then they were subjected to a terrible
lashing with whips. Then, strips of flesh were cut
from their bodies. Some had their noses, tongues,
ears or genitals cut off. Their eyes were cut out
and in between, the beatings continued. I could
witness all these terrible atrocities since I was
at that time, together with another female prisoner
in a room on the ground floor. The victims
screamed, convulsing in pain. This went on for
about an hour, then the screams became weaker and
eventually ceased. Even on the next day, when we
walked across the yard, one could find tongues,
eyes, ears and other human body parts lying all
over and the entire yard was covered with blood."
The three sister communities
Charleville, Soltur, and St. Hubert
with 3,300 inhabitants, of which 3,050 were ethnic
Germans were almost exclusively German settlements.
On October 6, 1944 the Russian troops entered
without resistance. Indescribable scenes of rape by
the Soviet soldiers and partisans and looting, in
which civilian Serbs and gypsies from the
surrounding villages participated, took place. From
October till mid-December 1944, 180 Germans
(documented by name) were murdered. Most of them
were shipped previously to the Milchhalle
Gross-Kikinda. On October 11, 1944 Adam
Weissmann, a well-known farmer, was immediately
tortured to death. The next day five additional men
and two 15-year old youths were arrested and locked
in the town hall. After a drinking bout, the
partisans began a gruesome torture process. The
victims were burned behind their ears with red-hot
phosphorous rods and their soles beaten with
bullwhips. Their screams were heard in all the
surrounding houses. On October 17 they were taken
to Gross-Kikinda where they disappeared without a
trace. During the night of October
31, 1944 the partisans surrounded the three
villages, gathered in St. Hubert all the men they
could capture including those working at the
railroad and took them to Milchhalle Gross-
Kikinda. Altogether there were about 70 men from
Charleville, 93 from St. Hubert and 76 from Soltur.
Their executions lasted until the end of November
1944. The Catholic priest Anton Adam was among
them. Dr. Wilhelm Neuner who served
as presiding judge during the war period reported
the gruesome events at Grossbetschkerek
(35,000 inhabitants, of which 7,500 were ethnic
Germans). The town's name was later changed to
Zrenjanin. "On the day the Russians
came, a local Serbian government formed which,
however, was changed on October 10 when Communist
partisan troops from Syrmia arrived and took over
control. Already on their first day after assuming
control they closed off in the western part of the
city those streets that had mainly ethnic Germans.
Groups of partisans, including women in partisan
uniforms moved from house to house and classified
all their occupants. Where they found a German man
or youth they chased him out of the house. The only
question he had to answer was: 'Are you German?'
When he answered in the affirmative, the short
order issued was: 'tie-up and execute.' End of
interrogation. "Then all these ethnic German
civilians, about 300, were beaten, tortured and
dragged to the Serbian part of town. In the court
yard of one of the houses they had to undress and
were chased, in groups of ten, into the street and
to a long brick wall. There they had to kneel and
were shot from behind. Then the partisans brought
some wagons onto which they tossed the murdered
victims. At the end of the town where the partisans
had already dug a pit they dumped the bodies."
In October 1994, a partisan
unit appeared at the South Banat town of
Karlsdorf/Banatski Karlovac (3,600
inhabitants, 250 of different nationalities) and
requested a number of Germans to be executed. The
local Serbs, however, refused to hand any over,
stating that there were no guilty ones. Thereupon a
new unit appeared on November 4, arrested a number
of prominent ethnic Germans and tortured them in
the city hall. There were 28 males age 22-71 and 6
women 19-38 including the pregnant Maria Pursch.
Among the men, the priest Peter Weber, two
physicians and the attorney Dr. Jozo Rogitsch who
served as Minister for Sport and Physical Education
in the Stojadinovic government were included. The
detained were placed on horse-drawn wagons and
taken to the county seat Weisskirchen. During the trip Maria Pursch
went into labor. She was taken off the wagon, shot
in the militia building of Jasenovo and buried
there. It was a double-murder. At Weisskirchen the
other prisoners were tortured and executed November
8 or 11, 1944. The partisan rule in
Kubin/Kovin, a community of 8,000 (2,300
ethnic Germans) was particularly cruel. They
occupied the mixed ethnic community on October 2,
1944. According to the report of Johann Fischer,
the first arrests and torture of leading
personalities, including the mayor Sava Gulubic,
started already the next day. During the
persecutions that begun by the middle of October,
one girl was hung with wire slings in a doorframe
and split in half with a butcher hatchet. Fischer
also states that he was an eyewitness when Hilde
Kucht, leader of a women's society, had her breasts
cut open and pieces of flesh cut from her abdomen.
Several people were tarred, bound together in a
group and set aflame. Such burnings were also
carried out on barges which then floated as flaming
torches down the Danube. The 54-year old Jakob
Filtschek was sawed apart alive. One hundred and
eight murdered victims of Kubin are documented by
name in volume IV of the document Series
Leidensweg. Ernsthausen (Personal
experiences of Ladislaus Schag and his daughter
Elisabeth Flassak, née Schag.) In the first few days, 24
succumbed to the terrible tortures and lack of
nourishment. The camp was also known as a "death
mill" and the dead were taken away by the
cart-loads. Later on those about to die were
shipped out of the camp and into the surrounding
villages. One week before Christmas,
Ladislaus Schag was one of them, together with 38
other victims, who were taken to Ernsthausen.
They were completely
exhausted, their skin covered with sores and dirt
from all the beatings. They were too weak to step
down from the wagon and village dwellers had to
assist them. One of these unfortunate fell down and
could not get up. A partisan shoved his rifle into
his stomach and the man made one more attempt, fell
back and died. After the few weeks at the
Betschkerek death camp, Ladislaus Schag became so
disfigured that his own daughter did not recognize
him. She found him among the rags and wrapped in
the inner linings of his coat, shriveled to a
skeleton but still alive. The local commander
allowed her to take him home; all others, including
the two Modosch villagers Ernst Wabersinke and
Mathias Fuderer, were thrown into the Schlitter
Inn. The partisans began getting
drunk. During the night they brought the prisoners
out to the bowling alley, one at a time. They had
to bend over and received axe blows to their back.
The mortally struck bodies convulsed while the
partisans erupted in sadistic laughter. The
apparently lifeless bodies were then hacked into
pieces to be buried in the neighborhood manure
piles. This, however was not possible since
everything was frozen. The next morning some old
men from the neighborhood were chased out to load
the dismembered pieces onto a horse-drawn wagon and
taken to the cemetery. It took three wagons,
dripping with blood to complete the transport,
watched by the horrified inhabitants. A young partisan from a
Hungarian neighborhood village was standing guard
and watched the whole event. He was still in shock
when he reported the occurrence to Elisabeth Schag.
The inn was covered with splattered blood, pieces
of human hair and bloody axes. Some of the old men,
before they died, also told their wives.
Glogon is a community
belonging to the district of Pantschowa. It had a
population of about 2,500, mostly ethnic Germans.
One hundred and fourteen citizens, recorded by
name, were murdered. Innkeeper Anton Scherer
relates the following events: "One day the village drummer
announced that everybody had to report for work at
the airport. The second day the workers were herded
together into a group. Some were released but the
rest, about 160, were tied together and chased to
Opovo. There they were driven into the marsh and
shot. Among them were two of my brothers, Ignaz and
Martin. At home the partisans went from house to
house. Each was accompanied by a Romanian who
showed them where Germans lived. Thus they
collected all the men between 15-72 years of age.
The partisans came from Syrmia and were much
dreaded. On that day many men were murdered
including the Catholic village priest." Homolitz in the county
of Pantschowa had about 5,200 residents, over half
ethnic Germans. On October 3, 1944 Serbs and
gypsies took over the administration of the town.
Overnight, local Serbs became partisans, however,
it was the mobs that were the rulers. Russians and
partisans raped women and girls. One girl, only 14
years old, was raped at gunpoint in front of her
parents by five Russian soldiers. On October 27, an
execution squad of the Sremska brigade appeared and
surrounded the village. The partisans of the
brigade, led by locals, went from house to house
and arrested all male German youths and men between
14-70. They took them to an inn and wrote down
their names and occupations. Fifteen to twenty
craftsmen were sorted out for later use and the
rest taken to a tile shed at Donauried. There they
had to strip and stand in front of a previously dug
pit. Machine gun bursts ended the lives of 173
youths and men. Up to the end of the year 1944, 49
additional men and women of Homolitz were murdered.
Mramorak in the Kubin
district had a population of about 5,200, half
ethnic Germans. One week before the October 6
occupation, the partisans had already murdered
mayor Johann Spahn and notary W. Walter, kidnapped
five men, two women and two girls while working in
the field and tortured them to death. On October
10, 105 men, distinguished citizens, farmers and
German soldiers on furlough, were captured,
tortured, shackled and killed in the neighboring
community of Bawanischte. One hundred and forty six
Germans from Mramorak, recorded by name, perished
even before the general internment had begun.
The city of Pantschowa
had about 22,000 inhabitants, about 8,000 ethnic
Germans. Before the internment 222 of these,
recorded by name, were murdered. Immediately after
the occupation by the Russians and partisans and
the resulting rapes and pillage, all men were
arrested. Some were held in a camp at the
Fischplatz; men of the intellectual level and women
in the Stockhaus jail. A partisan court martial
dispensed the sentences. Each morning women and
wealthy intellectuals, after night-long torture,
were led out and shot. Then, a few days later, all
the other jailed inmates, shackled together with
wire, were herded through the city and executed as
well. Among those executed were member of
parliament Dr. Simon Bartmann, attorney Dr.
Bartosch and jeweler Boleschni. By the end of
October, all still alive were chased to the 25 km
distant Banat-Brestowatz and put into local German
houses. Those who could no longer walk were shot on
the spot. The village of
Startchowa/Starcevo had a population of
3,645 of which 850 were Germans and 1,000 Croats.
The pillage began October 1, 1944; partisans and
gypsies took whatever they wanted, "in the name of
the people." On October 20, a Russian and local
Communists, after a nocturnal drinking bout,
executed the first seven Germans in the city park,
"just for their amusement." The next day 300 men of
a special commando of the Sremska brigade arrived.
They took all the men and several youths to the
inn, beat them with belts, chains, sticks, forks
and rifle butts. Except for seven, all 86 - the
youngest was only 14, the oldest over 70 - were
tied up in pairs and during the night taken out
into the marsh. There the gypsies were already
waiting with lanterns in front of excavated pits.
Machine gun bursts killed all the prisoners except
a 15-year old. He was able to loosen his shackles,
crawl out and escape. During the months of October
and November, 108 men and women were murdered.
The city of
Werschetz/Vrsac had 29,000 inhabitants,
almost 12,000 ethnic Germans. On October 2, 1944,
after heavy fighting, the Russians and partisans
occupied the city. During the month of October
about 700 German civilians were murdered. Pastor
Neumann reports: "The Russians behaved like rabid
animals. They raped women and girls and took with
them whatever they wanted." On October 3rd the
partisans started with the detentions, resulting in
the murder of 136 citizens. After a hidden German
soldier shot a Russian major, a large number of
farmers, just starting their trip home from working
in the vineyards, were arrested and executed the
next day. "Cheering gypsies and partisans tossed
the dead onto wagons," writes Maria Nadaschdy,
another eyewitness. Eighty-one of the killed are
recorded by name. Johann Bless, also an eyewitness
counted 124 killed. On October 23rd, 35 well-to-do
citizens were taken from their homes, tortured for
two days in the jail and disappeared without a
trace; among them school director Nikolaus Arnold.
On October 17 (or 25) Mayor Géza Frisch and
five prominent citizens were chased through the
city and executed at the Schinderplatz. The rest of
the men were locked up at the Stojkovic-Telep. It
was always at sundown that they were trucked to
their executions. Serbian loyal monarchists were
also among the victims. Zichydorf/Veliko
Plandiste in the Werschetz district had a
population of about 3,300, almost 2,000 were ethnic
Germans. One hundred forty nine of them became
victims of the Aktion Intelligenzija. Most of the
men jailed in the village hall during October did
not survive their tortures. On November 2, 1944
about 200 partisans disembarked from a freight
train and arrested all males age 14-70, in total
350 persons. They were taken to the Stoikovic-Telep
at Werschetz which had acquired the sad reputation
as being the execution camp for the Danube Swabians
of the South Banat. There about 160 males from
Zichydorf were executed, according to the Zichydorf
home town book. The mass executions and other
murders (by stabbing, beating, etc) in the Batschka
during the Aktion Intelligenzija in the individual
communities were, as a rule, carried out in a
single day or night. This happened for instance in
Bajmok, Bezdan, Filipowa, Hodschag, Kischker,
Kolut, Obrowatz, Palanka and Weprowatz. The
"special commandos" selected male youths from age
16 and adults up to 60 for executions. In the
Banat, from 14 to 70. Notorious was Sombor,
the former regional capital of the Batschka with
32,300 inhabitants (2,500 Germans) with its
Kronics-Palais, which the OZNA confiscated and
converted into its central prison, and the Zupanija
(district administration building). Both buildings
also served as the partisans' military court.
Helene Rajal, who was
arrested on November 20 in Apatin and taken to the
notorious Palais, had to take food to the prisoners
who were locked in a garage. She describes the
conditions of that place: "About 150 men in chains
were in this garage for seven weeks. The chains
were so tight that the men had sores on their
hands. During the seven weeks the chains were not
removed once, not even for eating or performing
bodily functions. Their clothing was scant and
infested with lice. During the cold December days,
they had to lie down on the concrete floor of the
unheated garage. It was only at Christmas 1944 that
a new judge arrived from Neusatz and ordered the
chains removed for Christmas Eve." Rajal herself
was sentenced to six months forced labor at a
partisan hospital because she was a member of the
Bourgeoisie. Besides the Germans from
Apatin (13,400 inhabitants of which 11,700 were
Germans), the Germans from Kolut, a multi-ethnic
village in the district Sombor, were one of the
larger groups in the Kronics-Palais. They consisted
of 52 Germans and other nationals. None of them
survived. A particularly bestial crime
was committed in the multi-ethnic community
Batsch-Brestowatz (8,500 inhabitants, 4,450
Germans). Magdalene Thorer, after her escape from
the camp, described how the partisans summoned her
to the deathbed of a Brestowatz Serb and forced to
forgive the dying man, who considered himself a
murderer. He confessed that he participated in the
murder of her brother Stefan and eleven other
Brestowatz Germans. He narrated how these men had
to bury each other up to the neck in a field
outside the community. Then their heads were bashed
in or hacked off. Only after Magdalena Thorer
forgave the murderer of her brother, was he able to
die. The district of
Palanka experienced the first partisan
actions against the ethnic Germans since it was
situated at the front line and for a long time
German troops were stationed on the other side of
the river Danube. The city of Palanka had a
population of about 13,200, about 6,800 ethnic
Germans. The first partisans appeared on October
20, 1944 and a few days later also partisans from
Syrmia who were particularly rough. According to
Dr. Wilhelm Neuner, president of the local court,
the partisans committed terrible massacres during
the very first days of the occupation: they
murdered 15-17 year old youths. On October 26, they
arrested, tortured and murdered between 80-100 men,
particularly prominent citizens and those
considered, in the eyes of partisans, to be
"capitalists." On November 17 all so-called
higher-educated from all communities within the
Palanka district were executed. According to Nikolaus
Dietrich, in the community Kischker/Backo Dobro
Polje (population 3,660, 3,500 Germans) 77 of
the 139 documented victims of the Aktion
Intelligenzija were women. Usually they were almost
all men. On November 9, 1944 the partisans picked
out names from a list and took them to the town
hall. Men and women were separated by gender and
crowded into separate small rooms that gave them
hardly space to breathe. The partisans continuously
threatened to execute them, pushing the poor
victims even closer together. After midnight the
execution squad arrived. The trembling men and
women were taken out one by one and hauled into the
interrogation room. A woman whose life was spared
relates the following procedure: When brought into
the room the interrogator screamed at her, asking
if she was a member of the Kulturbund (Cultural
Society) and where her husband was. When she
answered that they had to be in the Kulturbund
otherwise their son could not have attended the
German high school and that her husband was also
here, the judge, flanked by a partisan with whip,
shouted: "Group 2." The interrogated were separated
into two groups. Her husband was put into group 1.
Those in group 2 were spared, group 1 was murdered.
Twenty-two men and fifty-six women age 20-70, among
them mothers, were torn from their babies. One
mother left behind five children under 12 years of
age. "My grandparents had a son, two daughters, two
daughters-in-law, one son-in-law and two grand
daughters among the murdered." According to the Danube
Swabian Karl Mengel who did not flee his hometown
Werbass/Vrbas (13,900 inhabitants, 7,900
Germans) the partisans occupied the city without
resistance. Werbass was the most important school
center for the ethnic Germans in the Wojwodina. The
executions began towards the end of October.
Initially 20 respected citizens and one woman, they
are recorded by name, were herded together,
tortured and shot at the cemetery. The same fate
happened to three young soldiers who had returned
home. Repeatedly Germans were taken from their
homes and disappeared without a trace. Mengel quotes: "Interventions
by known Serbs were fruitless. The leader of the
partisans was a certain Anton Heller, 28 years old.
He was conscripted by the Germans into a so-called
"work unit," serving on Germany's eastern front and
deserted to the Russians. With the advancing
Russian army he returned to his hometown Neuwerbass
and assumed a leading role among the partisans.
Under his command 22 workers from the sugar
factory, Germans as well as Hungarians, were
arrested and put to death." According to Mengel, the
Aktion Intelligenzija at Werbass took place during
the nights of November 19, 21 and 23. A Serbian
acquaintance reported to him that on these days 150
Germans and the same number of Hungarians were
rounded up and beaten. At midnight they were
shackled to a long wire and chased nude to the
central cemetery. In groups of two they had to
stand before the pit and were executed by neck
shots. Among the executed was Jakob Lotz, the
former director of the Werbass Serbian high school.
These reports are based on statements of Karl
Schimony, who was only wounded and able to crawl
out of the pit and saved by the Serb shoemaker
Novo, performing guard duty. One hundred and one of
the murdered Germans are documented by name.
On January 20,1945, all
Germans of Werbass still at liberty were interned
at the Seidenfabrik (silk factory) at Werbass which
then began to function as the notorious Central
Civilian Camp. November 23, 1994 became the
"Black Day" for the district city of
Hodschag/Odzaci (5,900 inhabitants, 4,750
Germans). On that day a partisan commando that
supposedly belonged to the Krajiska brigade arrived
at Hodschag. Anton Mathes reports on the actions of
this troop: "On November 23 they started
a large scale raid; 181 men and two women were
herded into the house of photographer Johann Raab.
Meanwhile, 40 young people dug a large mass grave
in a field along the road to Karawukowa. At that
time the city council consisted of three Serbs:
Dobranov, Urbas and Pavkov. They knew what was
going to happen and succeeded to free some of the
prisoners. Thus, innkeeper Franz Kraus, merchant
Ladislaus Kollmann and Hans Petko were saved. The
three Serbs genuinely tried to prevent the mass
murder, however, without success. Towards midnight
the prisoners had to undress and line up in rows of
four and were marched to the mass grave. There they
were brutally murdered and the corpses thrown into
the pit which was then closed. Hans Mayer was the
only one who managed to escape during the night.
For many days the mass grave was guarded and nobody
allowed to go near." The murder of men and youths
of Filipowa/Backi Gracac (an entirely ethnic
German community of 3,500) in the Hodschag/Odzaci
district during the night of November 25 was
probably the peak - at least as far as the number
of victims was concerned - and the end of the
"Bloody Autumn" in the Wojwodina. These were the sequences of
events, as researched by Dr. Georg Wildmann: "The
evening of November 24, a squad of partisans,
belonging to the Krajiska brigade arrived at the
village. On the 25th they surrounded the village.
After the morning mass the "Kleinrichter" went
through the village and announced: All males
between 16-60 have to report immediately to the
village hall. Anybody not doing so and caught by
the partisans will be executed on the spot. Towards
9 o'clock more than 300 men and youths congregated
at the village hall. Towards 10 o' clock they were
ordered into the fenced churchyard and to form into
files of four. A table was brought and some Serbian
clerks sat down. Two partisan officers were in
command, one Serb and one Hungarian. Then the men
and youths were motioned to the table, their names
recorded and divided into two groups. Early
afternoon the larger group of 212 had to form lines
of four. Partisans stood between them. A leader, on
horseback, assumed command as the condemned moved
out of the village, watched by horrified women and
children behind drawn curtains. The church clock
struck 3 p.m. The ones left behind, about 100, were
chased into the church and locked up for the night.
If a villager showed himself as the condemned left
the village he was shot at immediately. At one of
these shots fired by the commander, his horse rose
up and the commander wounded himself and fell from
the horse. He was said to have died the next day.
Some distance outside the village the procession
stopped. In spite of the silence imposed on the
participating partisans, the family members were
able to learn of the tragic events that transpired.
Camp inmates who were bought out as workers by
Wojwodina Slavs obtained some of the details from
their masters. "First the men were asked to
squeal on each other. He who would tell which ones
of the co-prisoners is a member of the Swabian
Cultural Society (Schwäbisch-Deutscher
Kulturbund) would be freed. Nobody squealed. That's
when the tortures started. The execution commando
was reinforced to 50 men: Serbs, Slovaks, Bunjewatz
and Hungarians from the Batschka. A Bunjewatz
recognized Ludwig Vogl, the Filipowa pharmacist and
requested that he be released, since he knew he was
not guilty. Arguments started and a major part of
the Wojwodin men joined the Bunjewatz in refusing
to participate in the torture and execution of the
Filipowa men. A messenger on horseback was
dispatched to notify the higher-ups of the
situation. He returned the same night with the
order that the protesters should be immediately
withdrawn." An eye-witness from Piwnitz
told Sister Lea Helfert of the "Armen Schwestern"
(the Poor Sisters), who was still spared from the
camp: "In 1944, I was drafted into the
'Heimatschutz' (Home Guard) and had to participate
in the 'cleansing action' on November 25, 1944. I
was not with the armed guards but with the ones who
had to hold together the ropes so nobody could run
away. What I tell you now I'll never be able to
forget in all my life. Most of the men prayed and
made the sign of the cross before they were shot to
death. When both father and son were together, the
father made the sign of the cross on his son's
forehead, before they were executed." At Roth-Sallasch they chased
the men onto the hay-meadow that contained pits
which were used to protect the anti-aircraft guns
of the former German airfield. The men had to
undress in front of these pits and then were beaten
to death or shot. Bunjewatzen citizens who,
unarmed, also had to participate reported to Father
Friedrich Gillich the screams and praying which
only ceased after the last victim expired. This
unholy night gave them endless nightmares. Victims
of this massacre included 35 youths age 16-19.
Officially all 212 murdered were termed "Fascists"
and "War Criminals." Fortunately most Danube
Swabians of Syrmia were evacuated. However, the
fate of the ones that stayed behind was tragic. In
the multi-ethnic community India/Indija
(8,100 inhabitants, 5,900 Germans), it was the
local Volksbefreiungsauschuss (People's Liberation
Committee) which cruelly persecuted the ethnic
Germans that stayed behind. On November 11, 1944, nine
well-known men were summoned to the school yard,
tied with wire and chased to Alt-Pasua 8 km away.
On the way they were beaten with clubs and guns.
There they had to dig their graves and then were
executed by a machine gun salvo. Gypsies with
hatchets in their hands checked whether all were
dead and split their heads. Some Croats from the
area were also murdered. On November 12, more
prisoners were taken from the Hungarian school, two
prisoners tied together and each was also tied
around the waist with a rope. Then they were chased
to the village hall, cussed at and mistreated on
the way, particularly by the gypsies. At that time
a messenger arrived from Semlin requesting workers
for a Russian commando. After these were selected
and dispatched, the rest of the prisoners were
divided into three groups. The first consisted of
six men, women and children. They were told that
they now were taken home; but instead they were
taken to the Schinderhaus, horribly tortured and
herded into a room. The Serb Toso Vujanic then
threw a hand grenade into the room, which tore
apart many of the occupants. Those still alive were
butchered or beaten to death with hatchets. During
this massacre, conducted under the command of a
Kommissar and a female partisan, the butchers sang
partisan songs. (A local record names the
participating Serbs.) At Semlin/Zemun, a
suburb of Belgrade (28,000 inhabitants, 8,350
Germans) immediately following the occupation the
partisans arrested hundreds of ethnic Germans. Of
the ones they murdered during the night of November
3rd, 241 are documented by name. The local records read as
follows: "The first unit of the partisans came from
Beschania. Three days after their arrival posters
appeared in the entire city announcing that on
October 29, 30 and 31 all Germans had to report for
work to the Salzamt. Anybody not following this
order will be shot immediately, without a court
martial." A great panic broke out among the Germans
that had stayed behind. Responsible citizens as they
had always been, the majority of the Semlin and
Franztal Germans reported to the Salzamt. With very
few exceptions, none of them survived the trip. An
eyewitness reports: "When I arrived the next day I
found over seven hundred people crowded together in
a small space; men, women and adolescents but
mainly older people. Since I was delivering milk
for a municipal institution, I was taken out of the
Salzamt by the Serbian manager. In the night of
November 3, all those that had reported to the
Salzamt disappeared... " A woman who wanted to bring
food to one of the persons held did not find
anyone, only big piles of their clothing in the
hallway. The next day, a Franztal worker who did
not report to the Salzamt was told by a coworker at
the electricity plant: "Last night they took your
fellow-countrymen past this plant, stripped and
tied together two-by-two." The electricity plant
was situated at the Danube River. None were ever
seen again. After this occurrence, the
German Communists, under the leadership of
Alexander Mettler thought they could help their
countrymen in Semlin and Franztal that were still
alive. According to reliable sources, Mettler went
to Belgrade to protest against the Partisans'
actions in Semlin and asked for assistance. He was
said to have gone to Moscha Pijade, one of the most
influential members of the new govemment whom he
personally knew from the time of the Communists
persecution during the reign of the Yugoslav
monarchy. Mettler, however, was supposed to have
been told to keep out of this matter if he didn't
want anything to happen to himself. Mettler and his
comrades in the Communist party were no longer
considered important and they were just able to
save their own heads. In November 1944, a similar
bloodbath occurred at Ruma (13,400
inhabitants, 6,950 Germans). During many nights,
numerous Germans were brutally murdered, initially
at the Croatian center (Hrvatski Dom) and later at
the Rausch brick works. A. Kreuzer reports: "As soon
as the partisans moved into Ruma during the Autumn
1944, they began a hunt for all ethnic Germans. The
Germans from Ruma and surrounding communities that
had remained in the Autonomous Republic of Croatia
after evacuation of the German population were
rounded up and jailed in the Croation Center.
During the night a larger group of the partisan
murderers, including a concertina player, arrived.
They lined up in the second large hall. They all
had daggers tied to the shaft of their boots or
around the waist. The concertina player positioned
himself in the doorway that led from one hall to
the other. The ethnic Germans were ordered to lie
down on the floor, closely together. When there was
a deadly silence, the leader motioned to the
concertina player who then played a Kolo-dance
melody and the whole group danced into the hall.
The murderous gang trampled over the motionless
German bodies, continually shouting and cheering
while they stabbed the humans under their feet
until they had finished their butchering. During
the next two nights the same bloody orgy was
repeated with new groups of victims. Each morning
German women had to wash the blood from the walls
and floor." Some reasonable Serbs
apparently protested to the new rulers against the
mass murdering in the center of Ruma. At any rate,
the order came to discontinue the mass killing in
the Croatian Center. Now the ethnic Germans were
only herded together into the Croatian Center and,
after midnight, stripped and chased to the Tausch
brick works. The hands of each two prisoners were
tied together with wire. At the brick works they
again had to lie face down. The executioners
stepped on the bodies of the condemned, illuminated
their necks with flashlights and dispatched them
with a bullet. This process lasted until there were
no ethnic Germans left alive. The murdered were
covered with lime. A young man from Ruma was
also shot in the neck but not dead, only
unconscious. After the murderers left the scene he
recovered consciousness and being on the top layer
of the dead, was able to free himself. In spite of
his wound he could flee into a cornfield and make
his way across the border to Hungary. Originally, the community of
Walpach/Valpovo had a Gerrnan population of
abaut 400. The death camp was set up in May 1945 to
house the ethnic Germans of Slavonia. It closed in
May, 1946. About 3,000 inmates were crowded
together and 1,000-2,000 perished during the 12
month period, mainly due to typhus and dysentery.
The barracks, surrounded by
barbed wire, had no window panes and were boarded
up. There was no electricity nor heating. Those who
could not find a place inside had to sleep out in
the open, in all weather conditions. The courtyard
was often a mud patch; leaking roofs also soaked
the people inside. Inmates had to report for
work at 6 am, most had only torn clothing, their
feet wrapped in rags or even barefoot. The meager
food rations consisted of leaf tea for breakfast, a
watery soup for lunch and in the evening again soup
with some occasional left over potato or bean
peels. The daily ration of coarse corn bread was
100-150 grams. No fat nor salt. As an unusual
twist, at times people over 60 received a ration of
sugar. Ten days later hundreds died. It was
probably poisoned. Typhus and dysentery raged
and the highest daily death rate reached up to 32.
It was only in April 1946 when barrels of DDT
powder arrived from the USA that the epidemics
started to decline. On July 22, 1945 an attempt
was made to expel 1,800 inmates to Austria.
However, the British occupation authorities refused
to accept them and they had to be returned to the
Valpova and Kerndia camps. |