| Banat | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative unit of theTerritory of the Military Commander in Serbia | |||||||||
| 1941–1944 | |||||||||
 Banat (lighter green) within theTerritory of the Military Commander in Serbia (darker green). | |||||||||
| Capital | Veliki Bečkerek(Petrovgrad) | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• 1931 | 9,300 km2 (3,600 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1931 | 585,579 | ||||||||
| Government | |||||||||
| • Type | Minorityauthoritarianism | ||||||||
| Vice Governor | |||||||||
• 1941–1944 | Josef Lapp | ||||||||
| Historical era | World War II | ||||||||
| 1941 | |||||||||
| 1944 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of |  Serbia | ||||||||
TheBanat was a political entity established in 1941 after the occupation and partition ofYugoslavia by theAxis powers in the historicalBanat region. It was formally under the control of theGerman puppetGovernment of National Salvation in Belgrade, which theoretically had limited jurisdiction over all of theTerritory of the Military Commander in Serbia,[Note 1] but all power within the Banat was in the hands of thelocal minority of ethnicGermans (Volksdeutsche). The regional civilian commissioner and head of the ethnic German minority wasJosef Lapp.[3] Following the ousting of Axis forces in 1944, this German-ruled region was dissolved and most of its territory was included intoVojvodina, one of the two autonomous provinces of Serbia within the newSFR Yugoslavia. There were plans of creating a biggerSouth German buffer state which would be controlled by ethnic Germans living in the region, but the Banat was the only part of the plan that was actually accomplished.
Thelocal German population agitated for the German government to establish a large German state in the Danube and Tisza valleys, expressing annoyance that theBačka andSyrmia regions in the west were awarded toHungary andCroatia respectively after the collapse ofYugoslavia.[4] In spite of repeated personal appeals toAdolf Hitler, they were rebuffed in this objective. In the interest of maintaining close political ties with the Hungarian andRomanian regimes Berlin preferred to retain the Banat as a potential bargaining chip with these countries, both of which desired to annex the area (see alsoGreater Hungary andGreater Romania).[4] In order to avoid offending either ally it was placed within theTerritory of the Military Commander in Serbia.[4] Because this theoretically placed the Banat under the control of the puppet Nedić government, the Germans ordered the puppet 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.[4]
TheBanat 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.[4] These attempts were made to convince the Nazi authorities of the desirability of creating a newGau in theDanube area and parts ofTransylvania (Siebenbürgen) which they tentatively called thePrinz-Eugen Gau,[5] a goal never officially supported by the war-time German government.[4]
Nazi plans for the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia as a whole however intended for the country to remain under some form of permanent German control.[6] This was believed necessary to ensure German dominion over the Danubian basin ofSoutheast Europe, an economically vital area in consideration of Germany'swartime goals for the eastern territories that it expected to conquer in theSoviet Union.[7] German plans did call for re-making the strategically located city ofBelgrade as a "fortress-city of the Reich" (Reichsfestung Belgrad) to ensure control over theIron Gates, populated only byGermans.[6] The city's possible renaming toPrinz-Eugen-Stadt was also discussed.[8]
The region was ruled by the German army. The Germans institutedanti-Jewish measures immediately after the German invasion and occupation ofYugoslavia. The Jewish population of the city ofZrenjanin was rounded up and sent to theSajmište concentration camp nearBelgrade where they were executed. In September 1941, there was a mass hanging of anti fascist Serb 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 wasjudenrein, i.e. "clean of Jews".[9] Between 1941 and 1944, at a Stratište locality nearJabuka village in Banat, more than 10,000Serbs (who were mainly from NDH),Jews andRoma were killed by German forces.[10]
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Banat" 1941–1944 – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
After theNazi occupation ofYugoslavia had been established, the7th SS Volunteer Mountain DivisionPrinz Eugen was formed from Yugoslav Germans (Volksdeutsche). The backbone of the division was made up ofethnic Germans from Banat itself, many of whom had been former officers and NCOs in either theRoyal Yugoslav Army or even the Habsburg army. The core of the Division was made up of the SS controlled Protection Force orSelbstschutz consisting of Volksdeutsche from the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia.[citation needed]
"After the initial rush ofVolksdeutsche 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 allVolksdeutsche in Serbia-Banat, the first of its kind for non-Reich Germans."[11]
Consequently, over 21,500 ethnic Germans from the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia were conscripted into theWaffen SS.[citation needed]
The staff of the Prinz Eugen Division was based in the city ofPančevo in Banat. The division was formed between April and October, 1942 and was commanded by the Romanian VolksdeutscheSS 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 theYugoslav Partisans, but was largely unsuccessful. During the campaigns it became infamous for reprisals and atrocities against innocent Yugoslav civilians. The division was formally accused of committing atrocities against POWs and civilians duringWorld War II at theNuremberg War Crimes Trials.[citation needed]
At the end of the war, in retribution, Partisan bands engaged in massacres of ethnic Germans, primarily in the area of present-dayVojvodina. Villages were wiped out, with the inhabitants either killed or forced into concentration camps, where many died of hunger or disease. The provisional government of Tito’s Partisan movement was the AVNOJ (Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia). In its meeting in Belgrade on November 21, 1944, it decreed that all property of ethnic Germans residing in Yugoslavia be confiscated. Their Yugoslav citizenship was revoked, they no longer had any civil rights, and they were declared enemies of the people. Exempted were those ethnic Germans who participated in the partisan national liberation movement, and those who were not members of German ethnic societies such as the “Schwäbisch–Deutsche Kulturbund", nor declared themselves to be members of the ethnic German community.
Of the approximately 524,000 Germans living in pre-war Yugoslavia, about 370,000 escaped to Germany in the last days of the War or were subsequently expelled by the Yugoslav Government (at one point, in January 1946, the Yugoslav Government requested the U.S. military authorities’ permission to transfer these ethnic Germans to theAmerican-occupied zone of Germany, but it was not granted). Of this number, 30,000 to 40,000 escaped from Yugoslav concentration and work camps, often with the connivance of the authorities, most going either to Hungary or Romania. Those who went to Hungary, later subsequently fled or were expelled to Austria or Germany, whereas those who fled to Romania generally remained, at least provisionally, in the Swabian communities in the Romanian Banat. About 55,000 people died in the concentration camps, another 31,000 died serving in the German armed forces, and about 31,000 disappeared, mostly likely dead, with another 37,000 still unaccounted for. Thus the total victims of the war and subsequent ethnic cleansing and killings comprised about 30% of the pre-war German population.[12]
TheSerbian census from 2002 records 3,901Germans in Serbia, of which 3,154 in the province ofVojvodina. In December 2007 they formed their own minority council inNovi Sad, which they were entitled to with 3,000 voter signatures. The president, Andreas Biegermeier, stated that the council will focus on property restitution, and marking of mass graves and camp sites. He estimated the total number of remainingDanube Swabians inSerbia and their descents at 5,000–8,000.[13] In 2007 Banat Schwabians formed a national council.[14]
According to the 1931 census, the population of the region numbered 585,579 people, including:[15]
By religion, the population included (1931 data):[16]
During the war, German Axis troops killed 7,513 inhabitants of Banat, including:[17]
Of the total number of the victims (excluding members of the resistance movement), 4,010 were men, 631 were women, 243 were elderly people, and 271 were children.
Note: This list includes 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 list.
.svg)
.svg)
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Timeline ofYugoslav statehood | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.svg)
