Sudbina Jevreja u krajevima gde su folksdojčeri preuzeli vlast aprila 1941.

Abstract

Prema popisu stanovništva iz 1931, nemačka nacionalna grupa u Jugoslaviji brojala je nešto preko pola miliona i najvećim delom (preko 90%) živela u Vojvodini i Slavoniji (Banat 120.450, Bačka i Baranja 188.809, Srem 49.345, Slavonija 80.519). Sa jačanjem nacionalističkog pokreta u Nemačkoj tridesetih godina, a posebno posle dolaska nacista na vlast 1933, zapocinju politička previranja i unutar nemačke nacionalne grupe u Jugoslaviji. Nosioci ideja nacionalsocijalizma među folksdojčerima bili su studenti koji su se školovali u Nemačkoj i Austriji. Među njima su se isticali dr Sep Janko, dr Jakob Avender i drugi. Uspon Trećeg Rajha u prvim godinama nacističke vladavine, privredni i spoljnopolitički uspesi, priključenje Austrije i Sudetskih oblasti Nemačkoj i, najzad, neočekivano lake pobede u prvoj godini rata, snažno su se odrazili na raspoloženje Nemaca u Jugoslaviji. Oni su u to vreme, izuzev malog broja, sa oduševljenjem prihvatili nacističke ideje. Predstavnici starije generacije, koji su do tada zauzimali vodeće položaje u političkim, privrednim i prosvetnim organizacijama nemačke nacionalne grupe i duže vreme se suprotstavljali radikalnim političkim promenama, sredinom 1939. ustupili su mesta mladima. Za predsednika Kulturbunda izabran je dr Sep Janko, koji je već od tridesetih godina propagirao nacionalsocialističke ideje i organizovao grupu istomišljenika. Dolaskom na položaj predsednika, dr Sep Janku bili su obezbeđeni uslovi za legalno delovanje, a opšte raspoloženje Nemaca u Jugoslavvji omogućavalo mu je da sprovodi mere koje će celokupnu nemačku nacionalnu grupu organizovati na nacističkim prinicipima i pripremiti je za izvršenje zadataka u sklopu opštih nemačkih osvajačkih planova.

According to the poll of 1931, the German minority group in Yugoslavia numbered half a million people. They lived mostly in Vojvodina and Slavonia.

In the 1930's - particularly after the success of the Hitler movement to take over the power - the nazi ideology was accepted by ever greater number of Germans in Yugoslavia. The students who attended universities in Germany and Austria were most active in this drive, Sep Janko and Jakob Avender being the two leading figures among them.

No sooner had the Third Reich achieved its first successes the younger generation's influence increased within the German minority group in Yugoslavia and Sep Janko became the president of the Kulturbund, the organization of Germans in Yugoslavia which now adopted fascist and Hitlerian leadership (Führer) methods practised in Germany. Very soon the organization's membership reached a record number of 450.000, in 402 local groups. The Germans in Yugoslavia believed that, by the help of the Third Reich, they will be given leading role in the area of Lower Danube. They claimed to have a mission to fulfil in that area, to secure the free navigation for the Third Reich on the Danube.

As early as 1940 the Germans in Yugoslavia started with the military training of their members organizing them in military units, as a rule under the guise of sports activity or even as fire brigade training. In the April war against Yugoslavia in 1941 these local German groups carried out a number of military actions, took possession of important buildings, disarmed Yugoslav units, etc.

Measures of Volksdeutschers against Jews – BANAT: In certain places, Volksdeutschers started to plunder Jewish property even before the German troops arrived. Commissaries proposed by the Kulturbund were appointed to take over Jewish shops and institutions.

The Volksdeutschers also made the Jews work as forced labourers and tortured them. The Jews had to clean public buildings and to take out the garbage and refuse barehanded. They were not allowed to walk on the pavement, to enter shops, to appear on market places or in any public building. They were deprived of food, forced to pull wagons, to creap as animals and humiliated in prisons during special performances organized for the purpose. There were also cases of vivisections and naked killings committed by the Volksdeutschers, particularly in Zrenjanin and Pančevo. In August 1941 all the Jews in Banat were arrested and sent to Belgrade where the Gestapo and Vermacht took them over and killed all of them before the end of 1942. The Jewish property was taken possession of by the Volksdeutschers. The measures against the Jews in Banat were crueller than at any other place as they were carried out by the Volksdeutschers who apparently enjoyed their own performance although they lived with their victims until the war as fellow citizens, neighbours or acquaintances. Four thousand Jewish lives were very soon lost in Banat. SREM: Until October 1941 Srem was divided into two parts: the western part was administered by the puppet Croatian state while the eastern part was occupied by the German army. As the Volksdeutschers had the power for all practical purposes in both parts their measures against the Jews included arrests, plunder and even liquidation. In Ruma the Jews were forced to carry yellow marks, the synagogue was demolished, the ransom was taken. In addition to the local Jews, about 300 Jewish refugees from other countries happened to be on that territory. As early as 1941 these refugees were sent to death camps in Croatia, while the local Jews (about 230) were sent to the same camps in 1942 never to return again. In Zemun, the Volksdeutschers plundered the property of the Jews and made them forced labourers with the purpose of taking large sums of ransom money from them. In autumn of 1942, the Jews of Zemun were sent to various camps (Banjica and Belgrade Fairground among them) where they met their death. In Vukovar, the local Volksdeutschers and the Ustashi Croats arrested the leading personalities of the Jewish community as early as April 1941 and have taken from the Jewish community a large sum as ransom. It is true that the arrested personalities were set free after the ransom money was deposited, but the fact remains that already in the middle of August all the Jews were arrested and the synagogue was made their prison. This situation lasted until November when they were sent to Jasenovac death camp to be tortured and killed there. A similar procedure was adopted by the Volksdeutschers in Sremska Mitrovica, Beočin and other places with the result that out of 2000 local Jews and about 300 refugees from Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and other countries only 200 survived. The plunder of Jewish property was the privilege of the Volksdeutschers. Evidence exists that Ustashi officers appealed to higher quarters complaining that nothing from the Jewish property was left for them. Volksdeutschers from Banat and Srem participated in the plunder of Jewish property in Belgrade as well. One can prove with documentary evidence that they have taken loads of Jewish property from Belgrade over the rivers Sava and Danube which operations looked like mass migration.

While the Germans operating as occupiers in Western Europe tried at least to appear to follow the rules of international law by transporting the Jews to death camps in Eastern Europe, in Yugoslavia they were more bestial and shamelessly cruel because the local Volksdeutschers participated in the plunder and killings of Jews and no adverse reaction of the local population was to be reckoned with. It is therefore that the loss of Jewish life was so high in Yugoslavia, in fact percentage-wise among the highest. In all 62.788 Jewish lives were lost which is 85%. The percentage was higher only in the occupied parts of USSR (practically 100%), in Poland (90%), while in Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg the figure was 56%, in Norway 38%, in France and Italy 22% and in Danemark 1%. The monstrosity of the genocide committed against the Jews in Yugoslavia was intensified by the participation of the Volksdeutschers who started preparing themselves for their misdeeds long before the German troops arrived