1944-1945 Killings in Bačka
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The 1944-1945 Killings in Bačka were the killings of several thousands of ethnic Hungarians in Bačka allegedly organised by members of the Yugoslav Partisan Movement after they gained control over the area between 1944 and 1945.
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[edit] Introduction
During World War II, in 1941, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Yugoslavia. The Vojvodina region was divided into three occupation zones: Banat was placed under direct German control, Bačka was attached to Horthy's Hungary and Syrmia was attached to the Independent State of Croatia. Since the beginning of the occupation, the occupying powers committed numerous war crimes against the civilian population of the region, especially against Serbs and Jews. [1] Therefore, many citizens of Vojvodina belonging to all ethnic groups joined the partisan resistance movement to fight against occupation. [2] The victims of the Axis troops were mostly civilians, while some were the fighters of the partisan resistance movement. [3]
At the end of 1944, Axis troops were defeated by the Red Army and the whole of Vojvodina came under the control of the Yugoslav partisan forces. On October 17, 1944, by the order of Josip Broz Tito, the Banat, Bačka and Baranja regions were placed under military administration. About the establishment of this military government, Josip Broz Tito said the following: "The liberation of Bačka, Banat and Baranja requires the quickest possible return to normal life and the establishment of the people's democratic power in these territories. The specific circumstances under which these territories had to live during the occupation, and a mission to fully avert all adversities inflicted to our people by the occupying forces and foreign ethnic elements colonized here, requires that, in the beginning, we concentrate all power in order to mobilize the economy and carry on the war of liberation more successfully". [4]
[edit] Events
The partisan troops in Bačka had a very strict order, they had to "show the strongest possible determination against fifth columnists, especially against Germans and Hungarians". This was due to the fact that members of these two ethnic groups showed the largest level of collaboration with the Axis authorities and committed most of the war crimes against the citizens of Vojvodina.
The term "fifth column" is applied to the subversive and resistant forces and organizations left behind by a retreating enemy. The National Committee for People's Liberation and the Red Army had agreed on the necessary cooperation in due time.
Brigadier General Ivan Rukavina was appointed commander of the military administration. He was in constant and direct contact with Tito, the supreme commander. In his first decree, he ordered his troops to "protect the national future and the South Slavic character of the territories" . This sentence was meant to encourage the alteration of the existing ethnic makeup of the region, which was a results of the Axis ethnic policy of genocide and colonization during the war.
In the October 28, 1944 issue of "Slobodna Vojvodina", the newspaper of the People's Liberation Front in Vojvodina, one member of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia summarized the intentions suggested from above:
Although we destroyed the occupying German and Hungarian hordes and drove them back to the west, we have not yet eradicated the roots of the poisonous weeds planted by them... The hundreds of thousands of foreigners who were settled on the territories where our ancestors had cleared the forests, drained the swamps, and created the conditions necessary for civilized life. These foreigners still kept shooting at our soldiers and the Soviet soldiers from the dark. They do everything they can to prevent the return to normal life, preparing, in the midst of this difficult situation, to stab us in the back again at the appropriate moment... The people feel that determined, energetic steps are needed to ensure the Yugoslav character of Bačka.
The vengeance on the Hungarians, the idea of the vendetta, was in the minds of the partisan commissars who were in constant touch with their commander, General Rukavina. During the war, families of many members of the partisan army were victims of fascist Hungarian troops, thus, the idea was often seen among them as a personal revenge for the lost members of their families. Rukavina in turn had to inform Marshal Tito about all his decisions and all the military achievements of his subordinates.
The Yugoslav government, as soon as it got in touch with the new temporary democratic Hungarian government, declared its demand for a population exchange. They offered forty thousand Hungarians living in Bačka for the same number of South Slavs who were to move there in their place.
[edit] Controversy about number of victims
Various sources provide very different numbers of people killed. The estimates range from 4,000 [5] to 50,000. [6]
According to some sources, the most probable number of people killed is between 20,000 and 25,000, [5] [7] [8] while others claim that the most probable number is about 35,000 (Cseres Tibor gives an exact estimate of 34,491 persons killed). [9]
[edit] Killings
Some Hungarian houses were sacked and a number of Hungarian civilians were executed and tortured. [10] Some women and children were raped. [11] Some men who were able to work were deported to Siberia. [12]
[edit] Bibliography
- Fifty thousand Hungarian martyrs report about the Hungarian Holocaust in Jugoslavia, 1944-1992 - ed. István Nyárádi, 1992
- Márton Matuska: Days of the revenge. Forum Publisher, Novi Sad, 1991
- Tibor Cseres: Serbian Vendetta in Bacska
[edit] Notes
- ^ Zvonimir Golubović, Racija u Južnoj Bačkoj, 1942. godine, Novi Sad, 1991.
- ^ Milorad Grujić, Vodič kroz Novi Sad i okolinu, Novi Sad, 2004.
- ^ Slobodan Ćurčić, Broj stanovnika Vojvodine, Novi Sad, 1996.
- ^ Jelena Popov, Vojvodina i Srbija, Veternik, 2001.
- ^ a b Dimitrije Boarov, Politička istorija Vojvodine, Novi Sad, 2001.
- ^ Memorial site of the victims
- ^ Dragomir Jankov, Vojvodina - propadanje jednog regiona, Novi Sad, 2004.
- ^ http://www.krater.hu/pprint.php?print=102&PHPSESSID=086c47ea596fafd2ed0f5f10ca1a0262
- ^ Cseres Tibor: Vérbosszú Bácskában. Magvető, Budapest, 1991. (Vendetta in Bačka, see above)
- ^ Kasaš, Aleksandar: Mađari u Vojvodini 1941–1946. (Novi Sad, 1996) Filozofski fakultet u Novom Sadu, Odsek za istoriju.
- ^ Kasaš, Aleksandar: Mađari u Vojvodini 1941–1946. (Novi Sad, 1996)
- ^ Karapandžić, Borivoje: Jugoslovensko krvavo proleće 1945. Titovi Katini i Gulagi. (Beograd 1990: Mladost).
