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GENOCIDE of the Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia 1944-1948 The most cruel and most
shocking chapter of the tragedy of the ethnic
Germans in the communist Yugoslavia is the fate of
the children. Their demise in the liquidation
camps, caused by starvation and diseases is
documented in many eyewitness and first person
reports. The extent of the spiritual and mental
anguish, however, can never be adequately
described. The attempt of the Tito
regime to send the surviving children who had no
parent or relative left in the camp to government
children homes, subject them to a
re-nationalization process and arbitrarily
determine their ethnic identity runs against the
human rights and personal dignity. Fortunately for
most of the children, this despicable experiment
had to be terminated at the beginning of the 1950's
due to world-wide moral pressures, particularly
those exerted by the International Committee of the
Red Cross (IKRK) in Geneva. At that time, the IKRK,
as well as world opinion, could resort to the
United Nations Resolution of December 9, 1948
according to which the re-nationalization was
explicitly termed a form of genocide and condemned.
The torture of children was
also programmed at the end of 1944 together with
the internment of all ethnic German civilians. The
children were, together with the old, the sick and
those unable to work chased into the liquidation
camps - also called "death camps," and "starvation
and dying camps." Particularly cruel was the brutal
taking of children from their mothers since almost
all young women were to be shipped as work slaves
to Russia. It is documented that 45,000
children, of up to 14 years of age, were interned
and at least 6,000 (13%) starved to death. The
percentage of children in the liquidation camps was
very high. On April 30, 1946, at the Rudolfsgnad
camp there were approximately 18,000 inmates
registered of which 8,288 were children under the
age 14. For many children the care by parents or
relatives was of short duration, since the death
rate, particularly up to May 1946, was at its peak
and the older people used to sacrifice themselves
by giving their tiny rations to the children.
The terms "death camp," and
"liquidation camp" are, indeed, justifiable,
particularly when you consider that, for example,
at the death camp Jarek 171 of the 190 children of
the village Bulkes, Batschka, died within one year.
That's 42% of the 457 children interned at
Jarek. At the Rudolfsgnad camp 7,664
people out of 17,000 perished between October 1945
and December 1946. Of these 1,036 were children up
to 10 years old. The rapid demise of older
people, mostly grandparents and relatives of these
children without parents, created a high percentage
of orphans. These were then put into children homes
within the camps. From there they were then shipped
to children homes in the Banat and the Batschka and
from there split up to distant homes from Mazedonia
to Slovenia. Siblings were separated with
the intention to make them forget their origin.
This was mainly achieved with very young children.
Those forcefully separated brothers and sisters met
again only many years later - if at all - at
Belgrad where the Red Cross organized the
reunification transports. Most did not recognize
each other any more and even spoke different
languages. Very few, however, still spoke German.
Volume III of the
documentation series Leidensweg III contains 53
reports. They were written by men and women who
experienced these events as children. The following
are a few of these tragic experiences. DAVID GERSTHEIMER, born 1936
at Kischker/Batschka. Within a few months after
being interned at the Jarek liquidation camp his
mother, six siblings and grandparents died of
starvation. David, at that time 8 years old, was
the only survivor and sent to a government children
home for re-education and "Slavinizing."
Father WENDELIN GRUBER, born
1914, Filipowa/Batschka. He spent some time in the
Gakowa death camp: "Afternoons I went to the
children homes which were set up in the larger farm
houses. There the children, between 20 to 30 in a
room, were lying around, only on straw and scantily
covered. Only skin and bones, sick, and with
infected wounds. Nobody cared for them. The small
ones cried and screamed pitifully - they were
starving. Others were lying motionless; they didn't
even have the strength to cry anymore. I went from
room to room, always the same picture. A woman who
took over as caretaker leads me to the room in the
back. Carefully she pulls the cover from a pile of
children. What a sight! 'Are they still alive?' I
ask trembling. These little ones, in a row on rags
are almost naked; skin and bones only. They are
gasping for air with open mouths. The last thing
the world can offer them. 'We pulled these out
since they cannot digest food any more and are the
first to die,' was the reply." Suco, the almighty commander
of the Gakowa camp, responding to the question of
what plans the Communists had for the surviving
children tells Father Wendelin Gruber: "Don't
worry, comrade Pope! Everything will be in order!
Our Socialist State will look after the children.
They now will be adequately fed and then housed in
government children homes. A progressive
kindergarten teacher has already arrived. She will
now take over the responsibility for a good
education. These children will be Tito's pioneers
and brave fighters for our liberation revolution.
You will see, these Fascist, Capitalist children
will become model members of the liberated working
class and enthusiastic supporters of a better
future." This programmed re-education
which was supposed to awaken the hatred for their
"Fascist" parents was reported by most of the
children. At the time of the reunification process
there were children who did not want to go home to
their "criminal parents." KARL WEBER, at that time 11
years old, reports of the tragic consequences of
trying to go begging. "My friend Philipp was beaten
to death during such a begging trip (on October 28,
1945). It didn't take much, we were already half
dead," said Karl Weber about the fate of his friend
Philipp Bauer with whom he undertook several such
begging trips. At the Jarek camp, FRIEDRICH
GLAS from Bulkes who saw two of his
great-grandparents and two grandparents, as well as
his two year old sister starve to death, was
caught, together with his friend PETER KENDL
slipping out of the camp to go begging. The two
partisans took them to the guardroom. After a while
they were led back to the place where they were
caught and motioned to go away. After they made a
few steps the guards then shot at them from behind.
Fritz who played dead, survived. The wounded Peter,
however, screamed after the guards had already
started to go away. They returned and killed him
with a bullet to the head. Suicides because of despair,
fright and sense of shame after being raped also
occurred. Not even children were spared from rape
during the mass rapes at Deutsch-Zerne in October
1944. EVA BISCHOF, only nine years old, was cruelly
raped by nine men. Her injuries were so severe that
she lost consciousness and was unable to move.
Thereupon her own mother, in desperation, hung her
child and hung herself. JULIANE WIRAG, born 1908,
from Ridjitza strangled her twin daughters, born in
1944 because she could find no way to save them
from slow starvation and then hung herself.
EVA BUTZSCHEDEL, born 1932,
from Gakowa, relates one of the most tragic and
touching experiences documented. Her mother was
sick with typhus. "Day by day, the condition in our
room and that of my mother became worse. We were
praying intensely. Mother never stopped praying.
God, however, had other plans for her. Her
condition became worse and we saw death
approaching. Everybody in the room already had high
fever and nobody was aware of the others around
them. When Monika, my sister, became aware of
mother's imminent death, she did not leave her
side. She constantly called: 'Mother, you will not
die, right, Mother you won't abandon us, right?'
"She implored the Holy
Mother: 'Wonderful Mother please help our mother.'
She continuously caressed Mother and noticed that
she became increasingly weaker. Her tears kept
dripping down on the terminally ill as if she
believed they would help save her from death. I
think there is nothing worse in this world for a
child than in such a state of loneliness,
surrounded by death and distress to kneel at the
deathbed of the mother, not being able to help in
her struggle and having to watch how the hand of
death slowly takes her away forever. . ."
KAROLINE BOCKMÜLLER,
born 1905, Deutsch-Zerne, Banat, describes the
condition of the children camp in a part of the
Rudolfsgnad liquidation camp. "I had to visit this
children camp and happen to enter a room which
contained 30-35 children (from babies to 16 months
old) whose parents had died. None of them could
stand, let alone walk. They were just lying there
or slid around the room on their bellies. The room
was reeking of excrements. The children were
crying, pale and starving. Their bodies were
smeared with excrement, which was partially dried
to the skin. I fled from the room, weeping and
asked the women whether there was anybody to look
after these poor abandoned children. They replied
they could not help since they had no diapers, nor
towels, water basins, water, soap - practically
nothing. They continually asked the camp
administration for just the basic requirements,
however received nothing, only the comment: 'The
children should kick the bucket.' They also tried
repeatedly to take away my grandchild and put it
into the children camp but I did not give her up.
After she died I escaped from the Rudolfsgnad camp
and went to Molidorf to look for my mother. There I
was told that my mother and aunt had died of
starvation in the camp." PETER WILPER, born 1938, from
Palanka, Batschka, talkes about the conditions at
the liquidation camp Jarek: "Both grandmothers died
within a week. After that I was all by myself, only
six years old, terribly alone." KATHARINA WEBER, born 1935,
from Bulkes/Batschka, at that time ten years old
was, together with six of her schoolmates at the
Jarek liquidation camp. Five of them died between
September 1945 and February 1946. The sixth
girlfriend died in October 1947 at the Subotica
camp. The surviving Katharina was shipped to a
government home. ANNA NIKLOS-NYARI describes
the sad passing of an entire family at the Gakowa
liquidation camp: "There was a young mother who
lived in a room with her three small children. When
her last child was struggling with death she said
to the people in the next room: 'I don't know
anymore for whom I should pray, mourn or weep
first: for my husband who died in the war, my
parents, my grandparents, brothers and sisters or
for my children. What does the Almighty want to do
with me? Haven't I suffered enough yet? Do I now
also have to give up my last child?' She staggered
back into her room and knelt down next to the dying
boy. We stood in our own room and wept. If the
years of compassion could have helped, the little
boy surely wouldn't have died. "We heard the boy groan and
for a long time I could not fall asleep. It must
have been early in the morning when I woke up.
Everybody around me was still asleep. I looked into
the neighboring room. The little boy, lying on the
floor had his hands folded; I knew what this meant:
the woman's third child had now also died. She
didn't wake anybody but kept watch and prayed all
by herself. At that moment I saw her kneeling down,
her gaze up to the ceiling and she started to talk
aloud. Was she becoming insane? Her voice was
humble: 'Almighty, you have taken all my loved ones
to you. I hope you now won't forget to take me.
Don't let me wait long, I am ready to die. I have
only one wish: When Tito dies let all the poor
souls who were tortured, starved to death and
murdered on his orders pass by his death bed, me
and my children last. Only then should he be
allowed to die.' " Promises of the Yugoslav
representation in the USA were never carried out.
It was all deception and delaying tactics.
Endeavors of governmental, ecclesiastical, as well
as the efforts of the welfare offices of the Red
Cross in Germany and Austria, remained ignored by
the Communist Yugoslavia. Even the efforts of the
International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva
remained without real success. There were not only
problems with the Yugoslavian authorities, the
Allied occupation forces in Germany and Austria
were not always understanding and often delayed
possible support. Finding the location and
repatriation of the "lost children" entailed great
efforts. The distribution of the publication Kinder
im Schatten (Children in the Shadow) by Batschka
writer Adalbert K. Gauss, in early August 1950
initiated some movement in the rescue of the
children. Several organizations and individuals and
particularly the International Committee of the Red
Cross, after tedious struggles, achieved some
success and, between 1950 and 1959, about 2,300
children could be re-united with their parents and
relatives. Still, several hundred German children
could no longer be found and meanwhile were
"reeducated" and "slavinized." They now live
somewhere in the partitioned Yugoslavia. They may
be lost, but never forgotten. It is one of the most
tragic chapters of the Danube Swabian
tragedy. |