Banat (1941–1944)

Banat
Banat (de)
Банат / Banat(sr)
Entity controlled by local German minority
←
 1941–1944 →
The Banat (in green) within Serbia (in yellow).
Capital Not specified
Language(s) German (official), Serbian, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak, Croatian
Religion Christian Orthodox, Roman Catholicism, Protestant, other
Government Minority rule, Authoritarian state
Vice governor
 - 1941-1944 Joseph-Sepp Lapp
Historical era World War II
 - Balkans Campaign 1941
 - Belgrade Offensive 1944
Area
 - 1931 9,300 km2 (3,591 sq mi)
Population
 - 1931 est. 585,579 
     Density 63 /km2  (163.1 /sq mi)

The Banat was a political entity established in 1941 after the occupation and partition of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis Powers in the historical Banat region. It was formally a part of the Axis puppet state of Serbia, but all power within the region was in the hands of the local minority of ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche). The regional civilian commissioner was Joseph-Sepp Lapp.[1] Following the ousting of Axis forces in 1944, this German-ruled region was revoked and most of its territory was included into Vojvodina, one of the two autonomous provinces of Serbia within the new SFR Yugoslavia.

Contents

History

German plans for the future

The local German population agitated for the German government to establish a large German state in the Danube and Tisza valleys, expressing annoyance that the Bačka and Syrmia regions in the west were awarded to Hungary and Croatia respectively after the collapse of Yugoslavia.[2] In spite of repeated personal appeals to Hitler, they were rebuffed in this objective. In the interest of maintaining close political ties with the Hungarian and Romanian regimes Berlin preferred to retain the Banat as a potential bargaining chip with these countries, both of which desired to annex the area (see also Greater Hungary and Greater Romania).[2] In order to avoid offending either ally it was placed under the control of the German military government of Serbia.[2] Because this theoretically made the Banat also a part of the Serbian puppet state (the so-called Nedić's Serbia) the Germans ordered the Serbian government to proclaim it a separate administrative area under an ethnic-German vice-governor (Vice-Banus), who was to have sole administrative authority of the region.[2]

The Banat Germans subsequently used every means at their disposal to strengthen their position compared to that of other nationalities, and to foster the development of German national feeling through the establishment of youth and adult organizations, and setting up its own school system.[2] These attempts were made to convince the Nazi authorities of the desirability of creating a new Gau in the Danube area and parts of Transylvania (Siebenbürgen) which they tentatively called the Prinz-Eugen Gau[3], a goal never officially supported by the war-time German government.[2]

Nazi plans for Serbia as a whole however intended for the country to remain under some form of permanent German control.[4] This was believed necessary to ensure German dominion over the Danubian basin of South-Eastern Europe, an economically vital area in consideration of Germany’s wartime goals for the eastern territories that it expected to conquer in the Soviet Union.[5] German plans did call for re-making the strategically located city of Belgrade as a "fortress-city of the Reich" (Reichsfestung Belgrad) to ensure control over the Iron Gate, populated only by Germans.[4] The city's possible renaming to Prinz-Eugen-Stadt was also discussed.[6]

War crimes against Serbs, Jews and Roma

Although the region was formally a part of the Axis vassal of Serbia, it was ruled by the German army. The Germans instituted anti-Jewish measures immediately after the German invasion and occupation of Yugoslavia. The Jewish population of the city of Zrenjanin was rounded up and sent to the Tašmajdan concentration camp near Belgrade where they were executed. In September 1941, there was a mass hanging of Serbian and Jewish civilians. Jews were also forced into labor battalions to do forced work for the German occupation authorities. In August 1942, German officials announced that the area was judenrein, i.e. Jew-free.[7] Between 1941 to 1944, at a Stratište locality near Jabuka village in Banat, more than 10,000 Serbs, Jews and Roma was killed by German forces.[8]

SS Division Prinz Eugen

After the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia had been established, the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen was formed from Yugoslav Germans (Volksdeutsche). The backbone of the division was made up of ethnic Germans from Banat itself, many of whom had been former officers and NCOs in either the Yugoslav Army or even the Habsburg army. The core of the Division was made up of the SS controlled Protection Force or Selbstschutz consisting of Volksdeutsche from Serbia.

"After the initial rush of Volksdeutsche to join, voluntary enlistments tapered off, and the new unit did not reach division size. Therefore, in August 1941, the SS discarded the voluntary approach, and after a favourable judgement from the SS court in Belgrade, imposed a mandatory military obligation on all Volksdeutsche in Serbia-Banat, the first of its kind for non-Reich Germans."[9]

Consequenly over 21,500 ethnic Germans from Serbia were conscripted into the Waffen SS.

The staff of the Prinz Eugen Division was based in the city of Pančevo in Banat. The division was formed between April and October, 1942 and was commanded by the Romanian Volksdeutsche SS Gruppenfuehrer and General-lieutenant of the Waffen SS, Artur Phleps. By December 31, 1941, the division was made up of 21,102 men. The Prinz Eugen SS Division was deployed throughout the former Yugoslavia to put down the Yugoslav Partisans, but was largely unsuccessful. During the campaigns it became infamous for reprisals and atrocities against innocent Yugoslav civilians of all faiths but particularly Serbs. The division was formally accused of committing atrocities against POWs and civilians during the World War II at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.

Post-war fate of ethnic Germans

Main articles: Banat Swabians and Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)

After the defeat of Axis Powers, in 1944, most of the ethnic Germans left from Vojvodina region, together with defeated German army. The antifascist council for the liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) declared the remaining German population as public enemies. They were sent to one of several villages turned into prison camps, mainly Knićanin and Sremska Mitrovica, where some of them died from disease and malnutrition. According to some claims, some were tortured or shot by the partisans. After prison camps were dissolved (in 1948), the remaining German population left Yugoslavia because of economic reasons.

Population

Ethnic groups

According to the 1931 census, the population of the region numbered 585,579 people, including:[10]

Religion

By religion, the population included (1931 data):[11]

Number of victims

During the war, German Axis troops killed 7,513 inhabitants of Banat, including:[12]

Of the total number of the victims (excluding the killed members of the resistance movement), 4,010 were men, 631 were women, 243 were old people, and 271 were children.

Note: this list include only native inhabitants of Banat who fell as victims of Axis occupation. Civilians who were brought from other parts of occupied Yugoslavia and killed in Banat by German forces are not counted in this victims list.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Yugoslavia.html
  2. ^ a b c d e f Rich, Norman (1974). Hitler's War Aims: the Establishment of the New Order W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., pp 294-295.
  3. ^ Manoschek, Walter (1995). "Serbien ist judenfrei": militärische Besatzungspolitik und Judenvernichtung in Serbien 1941/42. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, p. 27.[1]
  4. ^ a b Rich (1974), p. 316
  5. ^ Rich (1974), p. 311-313
  6. ^ http://www.danas.rs/vesti/dijalog/opasno_neznanje_ili_nesto_vise.46.html?news_id=145464 DANAS.rs Opasno neznanje ili nešto više; Autor: Aleksandar Lebl
  7. ^ John K. Cox (2002). The history of Serbia. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 92. ISBN 9780313312908. http://books.google.com/books?id=U765FGDfbPoC&pg=PA92. 
  8. ^ http://www.pancevo.rs/Jabuka-30-1
  9. ^ Valdis O. Lumans, Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National minorities of Europe, 1939-1945 (University of North Carolina Press, 1993), page.235.
  10. ^ http://www.hic.hr/books/jugoistocna-europa/02tablice.htm
  11. ^ http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/romsics/w25.htm
  12. ^ Slobodan Ćurčić, Broj stanovnika Vojvodine, Novi Sad, 1996. (pages 42, 43)

External links

Timeline Prior to 1918 Creation
1918 – 1941		 World War II
1938 – 1945		 Socialist Yugoslavia
1943 – 1992		 Breakup & Yugoslav Wars
1990 –
Slovenia territories controlled by Austria-Hungary
(1867 – 1918)

Included Bay of Kotor

See also:

Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
(1868 – 1918)

Kingdom of Dalmatia
(1815 – 1918)

Condominium of BIH
(1878 – 1918)		 Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
(1918 – 1929)

↓ renamed ↓

Kingdom of Yugoslavia
(1929 – 1943)

See also:

State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs
(1918)

Republic of Prekmurje
(1919)

Banat, Bačka and Baranja (1918-1919)

Free State of Fiume
(Free 1920 – 1924;
Italy 1924 – 1947)		 annexed by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany
(1941 – 1943/1945)
Prekmurje annexed by Hungary		 Democratic Federal Yugoslavia
(DFY, 1943 – 1946)

↓ renamed ↓

Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia
(FPRY, 1946 – 1963)

↓ renamed ↓

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
(SFRY, 1963 – 1992)

Constituent federal subjects to the right		 SR Slovenia
(1944 – 1991)		 Republic of Slovenia
(since 1991; see Ten-Day War)
Dalmatia Independent State of Croatia
(1941 – 1945)

puppet of Nazi Germany, parts annexed by Fascist Italy

Međimurje and Baranja annexed by Hungary		 SR Croatia
(1943 – 1991)		 Republic of Croatia
(since 1991; see Croatian War of Independence)
See also:
SAO Kninska Krajina (1990) → SAO Krajina (1990 – 1991)
SAO Western Slavonia (1990 – 1991)
Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia (1990 – 1991)
↳ Republic of Serbian Krajina ↲ (1990 – 1995) → UNTAES (1996-1998)
Slavonia
Croatia
Bosnia SR Bosnia and Herzegovina
(1943 – 1992)		 Bosnia and Herzegovina
(since 1992; see Bosnian War); Consists of:
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (since 1995)
Republika Srpska (since 1995)
Brčko District (since 2000)
See also: Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia
SAOs Bosanska Krajina, North-Eastern Bosnia, Romanija, & Herzegovina (1991 – 1992)
↳ Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ↲ (1992 – 1995)
Herzegovina
Vojvodina Autonomous Banat (formally part of Nedić's Serbia)
Bačka annexed by Hungary (1941 – 1944)
Syrmia annexed by Independent State of Croatia (1941 – 1944)		 SR Serbia
(1943 – 1990)

Included APs:
SAP Vojvodina &
SAP Kosovo		 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
(1992 – 2003)

↓ renamed ↓

State Union of Serbia and Montenegro
(2003 – 2006)

Consisted of until 2006:
Republic of Serbia (1990)
Republic of Montenegro (1992)

See also:
Republic of Kosova
(1990 – 2000)		 Republic of Serbia
(2006 – 2008)

Included APs:
Vojvodina &
Kosovo and Metohija
(under UN administration)		 Republic of Serbia
(since 2006)

Includes AP Vojvodina
Serbia Kingdom of Serbia
(1882 – 1918)		 Nedić's Serbia
(1941 – 1944)
puppet of Nazi Germany
See also: Republic of Užice
Kosovo Kingdom of Serbia
(1912 – 1918)		 mostly annexed by Albania
(1941 – 1944)
along with western Macedonia and south-eastern Montenegro		 Republic of Kosovo
(since 2008)
Declared unilateral independence, which is since then only partially recognised
Metohija Kingdom of Montenegro
(1910 – 1918)

Metohija controlled by Austria-Hungary
(1915 – 1918)
Montenegro Protectorate annexed by Fascist Italy (1941 – 1943) and Nazi Germany
(1943 – 1944)
Smaller part annexed by Independent State of Croatia (1941 – 1944)		 SR Montenegro
(1943 – 1992)		 Montenegro
(since 2006)
Macedonia Kingdom of Serbia
(1912 – 1918)		 annexed by Kingdom of Bulgaria
(1941 – 1944)		 SR Macedonia
(1944 – 1991)		 Republic of Macedonia
(since 1991)