1944-1945 Killings in Bačka
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The 1944-1945 ethnic cleansing 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".
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
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]
Bezdan (Hungarian: Bezdán, Serbian: Bezdan or Бездан) 3rd November 1944.[13]
The Hungarian male inhabitants of the village in the age of between 16 and 50 years were driven to a sports ground. 118 men were shot down by machine pistol to the Danube. 2830 Serbian communist partisans who made the murder belonged to the udarna brigade No. 12 in the division No. 51. Soviet officers were also horrified at the massacre, they were who stopped swearing further executions.
Sombor (Hungarian: Zombor, Serbian: Sombor or Сомбор) 6th December 1944.[14]
The Serbian partisans first had one part of their captives dug up to the neck into the earth by other captives then they had them trampled to death by tank. The first impalement happened here, too. The executions in the villages of Bačka (Hungarian: Vajdaság) were directed by a Serbian communist partisan woman called Julka who was wounded mortally in the fights later. At the moment there is a thirty meter high granite monument on the mount of Batina and on the top of this monument there is the statue of this woman executioner.
Novi Sad (Hungarian: Újvidék, Serbian: Novi Sad or Нови Сад) 23rd October 1944.[15]
In the early morning hours the Serbian partisans under the leadership of Todor Gavrilović Rile, Political Commissar of the Partisan Division in Novi Sad marched in the city. From the first day they already carried off the Hungarian inhabitants to the former winterport of the Danube. This was the center of the massacre. Until the execution men were held in prison for weeks. Among the captured and executed people there were a lot of 14-15 year old boys as "dangerous fascists". Executions started on 25th October. The Hungarian captives got some water and bread only on the fifth day. During the first week about 1500 Hungarians were shot down into the Danube: one part of the corpses was either burnt or put into common graves in several rows. All the Hungarian students captured in Novi Sad and its surroundings were shot down.
Srbobran (Hungarian: Szenttamás, Serbian: Srbobran or Србобран) In October of 1944.[16]
3,000 inhabitants of Hungarian nationality were executed by the Serbian communist partisans from the village of 18,000 inhabitants. In the old Serbian cemetery the tomb was dug by the persons to be executed and the Hungarians were executed in groups of 150-200. An 8-year-old girl was the witness of the massacres by chance and unnoticed. The Serbian people next door overheard her story and denounced the little girl. Next day the Serbian partisans took away the innocent girl and executed her.
Sivac (Hungarian: Szivác, Serbian: Sivac or Сивац) 1st November I944.[17]
Seventy-five Hungarian men completely undressed were accompanied to the cemetery where they were executed by command of Brano B. Serbian main communist from Sivac.
Adorjan (Hungarian: Adorján, Serbian: Adorjan) On 3rd December 1944.[18]
56 Hungarian citizens were executed on the bank of Tisza.
Kanjiza (Hungarian: Magyarkanizsa or Kanizsa, Serbian: Kanjiža or Кањижа) On 7th October 1944.[19]
In this town the names of the offenders entirely remained. First of all every Hungarian women were ravished. 300 Hungarians were collected and they were closed in the cellar of the town hall, majority of them was beaten to death there. The corpses were carried on cart by nights to the island of Tisza where they were lying covered by lime for days.
Let the names of the Serbian communist partisan killers be listed here: Niklo Radovics, Szvetozár Knezevics, Alexander Oluski, Dusan Ugranov.
Stari Becej (Hungarian: Óbecse, Serbian: Stari Bečej or Бечеј) Killing of the Hungarians began on 9th October I944.[20]
First Ferenc Petrányi 65 year old catholic abbot was arrested by some young communist Serbian partisan girls. All parts of his face and body were mashed. A partisan woman from Sombor, called Zorka was the most brutal. He was bound on a plank by her and then they jumped to his belly chest and sexual organ from the table. Zorka and her partisan comrades in laced boots practically disemboweled his internal organs. When he died on l4th October they threw him out of the window to the stone block yard so that his death should seem to be a suicide.
[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).
- ^ Fifty Thousand Hungarian Martyrs - Vojvodina 1944-1992
- ^ Fifty Thousand Hungarian Martyrs - Vojvodina 1944-1992
- ^ Fifty Thousand Hungarian Martyrs - Vojvodina 1944-1992
- ^ Fifty Thousand Hungarian Martyrs - Vojvodina 1944-1992
- ^ Fifty Thousand Hungarian Martyrs - Vojvodina 1944-1992
- ^ Fifty Thousand Hungarian Martyrs - Vojvodina 1944-1992
- ^ Fifty Thousand Hungarian Martyrs - Vojvodina 1944-1992
- ^ Fifty Thousand Hungarian Martyrs - Vojvodina 1944-1992
