History
Lesson
Part
0ne
By: David
Alan-Peter Witte.
Just remember
that as the families migrated from Western Europe to their new land. While they
lived, worked, and raised their families. The place that they lived in
(country) changed its name five times (HUNGARY, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, ROMANIA,
CZECHOSLAKIA, YUGOSLAVIA, UNDER THE CONTROL OF GERMANY 1941-1944) but they
never moved from their cities. The Volkdeutsch lived in their villages, took
care of their villages, worked very hard, and rarely if every got involved with
the political strife or political upheaval in their area. The towns people had
to serve in the Hungarian, Austria-Hungarian, Romanian, Yugoslavian, German
Armies over there years and because of this many men left to seek out new lives
in other countries and then as 1944 came to pass this association with the
German army and their language that they spoke since the late 1600s and up until
1940s, they had to be eradicated.
This story will
invoke pride, honor, and a sense of belonging to a very proud, noble, and
hardworking group of people called the Volkdeutsch and the Donauswabians.
Have your ever
stopped and thought about where your ancestors ever came from?
If you have,
have you thought?
"WHY do I
have the features that I have?"
What did my
parents, grandparents or great-grandparents, or their ancestors think or live
through when they were my age?
This is the
largely unknown story of the Germanic pioneers of the crown lands from 1770 to
1800. And their incalculable contribution to the development of the region,
settlement areas, families who emigrated to the North American in the early
part of the 1900’s, the region separation after World War 1 and the expulsion
and genocide in the years of 1945 to 1948. This manuscript has been wriitten to
bring the families, friends and strangers up to this new millenium so that the
SWABIANS (Southeastern Europe’s forgotten victims) will not be relegated to
oblivion.
The following is
an account of where the origins of the families Dekold and Furo and their ancestors began. This account is more
than just names and facts it also bring to light customs, food, activities,
structure, and a lifestyles and saga of a people who had an identity problem,
not having a country to call home. In the past 20 years of research I have met,
talked, associated and came to appreciate so many family members no matter how
distant.
Everyone who
gave me information, details, stories or even just rolled out a bed for me to
sleep in will never be forgotten as well as those who provided me with the
spirit to go on, even though times looked very bad.
My struggle in
writing this document was to educate family members and others aware of the
struggle that each generation before us and to think of what the word FAMILY
means understanding the struggle and the hardships makes us more grateful for
what we have today. Was the struggle of migration to relieve themselves of
tyranny and political and social strife?
Was it to find employment and the golden road? OR was it to just try to
survive from years of wars and to flee for your life
after the
expulsion and genocide of the Hungarian Germans from Yugoslavia/Hungary/Romania
in the years of 1945 to 1948.
The migration of
families to the Australia, Canada, United States, Germany, and to the far
reaches of the world still leaves us with one thing in common, our ANCESTORS.
During the research I got to meet great aunts/uncles, cousins from second to
fifth cousins who never knew that they had family in the United States or
elsewhere besides Germany, Canada, Hungary, Australia. I found families that I
feel like I have known my entire life. Now many of these family members and
family members and strangers from Banat, Batschka, Barananya, Croatian Syrmia
and Slovonia are about to be launched onto a journey that has never been told
to them or will not be found in school’s history books.Just sit back and read
for a while and then reflect on the knowledge you are gaining and try and
remember any stories, actions, or events that may trigger memories for you. I
have tried to bring forward the stories,
images and
people that I have come across and tried to let the light shine upon them for a
brief time
FAMILY is just
not a word on a piece of paper but rather the word FAMILY is the interaction
with an individual who share common traits, blood lines, interests, or even a
neighbor across the street. Family can and is measured by a letter, phone call
or visiting in person. When the effort is made of contacting and staying in
touch the impossible come true.
One can find
love and happiness by picking up a book, a pen, a telephone and calling someone
and one will never know what is possible or even a family member without even
trying to think about the past and the present.
What is
family-was it a name that I only heard of from my grandparents. Most people
would say no, but after writing to them to introduce myself and to verify
information. I found out that these people where not only my second cousins,
the did not know of me before but got invited to their house and found out
there grandmother who is not related to me was my grandmother FURO best friend
in Klek and also in the United States. They used to write to each another all
the times and talk on the phone. Anna Letschka daughter married Katharina
Dekold Furo’s nephew. That’s how small this world is when you let your family
work for you and with them.
People choose to
immigrate because of the predatory wars with the French and because of the
extreme taxes required to support the frivolities and extravagances of their
own nobility.
In addition very
powerful advertisements exaggerated the benefits of the move, but most
certainly the strongest incentive was the promise of a free homestead, free
passage and three years free of all taxes and assessments. Most were poor
peasants who had farmed the land of feudal lords and who then
settled in the
Danube valley. In the next decade the Germans settlers established a thriving
civilization. Unfortunately in 1738 the Turks returned setting off another
siege of terror. The non-German population joined in the pillaging the German
towns along the Danube. Also at this same time there was an episode of the
plague that reaped its own terrible devastation. It took another decade to
reestablish security and initiate a second migration. In colonization decree
Maria Theresa invited
commissioned and
non-commissioned soldiers to settle in Banat.
In this period
between 1763 and 1770 that is the most likely time for the Dekold
(Decol-Dekoldt), Potje(Potier), Valeri (Valerius) , Heh families to have
immigrated to Banat. Verbal history recounts that they came from Lorraine and
written from the area around Trier either present day Luxemborg, Germany or
France around Saurreggemine.
Perhaps this will give you an idea on the
taxes that had to be paid by the inhabitants of a town in Lorraine in 1742 and
thus see why people were wanting to migrate to a land they had never seen or
heard of before. Others reasons for leaving:
Little or no
personal freedom
Bad harvests
Much illnesses
and accompanying high death rates
Extremely High
taxes
TAXES10% of all
agricultural produce ---------Hamburger Corn
Betoken
Gottesheller
(God’s Heller, a unit of money, i.e. A tithe)
Zehntpfennig
(Erwerbsteur) (produce tax)
Zehtmass
(Schanksteur, Umsatzsteuer) (sales tax)
Weinzehnt (10%
of wine production)
Beetwein 10% of
beets and fruits (in cash)
Laemmerzehnt
(10% of lambs)
-Kaelberzehnt
(10% of calves)
Honigpfund
(pound of honey – if meant literally)
Other services
(undefined) among which was the following was the most ardous
----- Frondienst
(compulsory 30 hours of labor a week on the land of the landlord
---------Meaning:
8-9 Morgen of land per pair of oxen/horses owned by the farmer had to be
plowed; other labor necessary on this land came under the heading
"Handfron"; then, for each
plow owned by
the farmer, he had to pay the landlord 11 Guldens per year – (only the mayor
and the church usher were exempt from this tax)
------Gemeindefrondienst
(compulsory labor for the community)
------Each
inhabitant had to catch a specified number of moles and mice on the landlord’s
land each spring and fall)
(What energy and
time remained was spent working one one’s own land.
Other possible
payments:
At weddings
(even if celebrated at home) only 6-8 people could be invited and the
festivities could only last one day, otherwise a cash penalty had to be paid.
Excessive hilarity or secret meetings were frowned upon too – cost: 1 Gulden to
be paid to the community.
The migration of
these settlers headed towards the Danube to go to the new settlements. Arriving
in town such as Ulm, Regensburg, Tuttlingen, Neuburg, Ingolstadt they boarded
barges with sails called " Schachtels" and that they floated down the
Danube. That still flows through the present day
countries of
Germany, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Romania and empties into the Black
Sea at the ports Valcov and Sulina. A Schachtel was a boat that had a flat
bottom, pointed in the front with a flat stern. In the middle of the boat is a
small roofed house, completely enclosed with a simple door
both front and
back. Windows exist on the port and starboard sides. Built around the house was
a superstructure, which was in the shape of a flat "I" along the
length of the boat. A ladder in the bow permitted access to his area. Unique to
this boat was the four large steering oars, which can be controlled from the
superstructure, two pointing fore, and two aft. Perhaps most interesting was
that the hull was painted in wide black and white diagonal stripes.
If you’re in
Ulm, there are replicas that come in various sizes from 8 inches long to 4 feet
long, some assembled, and some kits.
The following
description comes from a kit of an ULMER SCHACHTEL.
The History of
the small barge typical of Ulm called "Ulmer Schachtel" (box of Ulm)
Already in early
times, navigation on the Danube occupied an important position in the
commercial life in the city of Ulm. In the past, numerous rafts descended the
Iller from the well-wooded Allgaeu. In order to transport persons and fragile
or perishable goods, one had to fit these rafts with superstructures before
they could continue their journey. In the Middle Ages, this was the way to
transport salt, linen, and hardware down the Danube. As the circumstances of
the 16th century demanded a more regulated navigation, the
inhabitants of Ulm set to put shipbuilding on a professional basis. They sent
for skilled craftsmen, so-called "Schopper" from the Lower Danube who
had to familiarize the local ship-builders with proven techniques. This is the
origin of the shipbuilding yards also called "Schopperplaetze, which,
during more than three centuries, met all requirements. Over time different
types of barges built in Ulm were subject to various changes relative to their
form and proportion.
The later types
of barges of Ulm corresponded more to the so-called "Stockplaette".
This was rather flat, built in a very wide way and had a blunted stern. The
Austrians called these ships Scwabenplaetten" (barges of the Swabians),
and chiefly "Ulmer Plaetten (barges of Ulm) because they were only built
in Ulm. The expression "Ulmer Schachtel" did not originate from the
rivers and terrain of the Danube but from those of the Neckar. With the name of
"Ulmer Schachtel", the lowlanders
wanted initially
to mock the bargemen on Ulm. In 1664, during the Turkish wars, the bargemen of
Ulm transported 2500 Swabian soldiers for operations in Hungary. From 1712 on,
a barge went to Vienna every week. These ships called
"Ordinarischiffe" (scheduled ships) were so popular that, till the
18th century,
all Danubian ships corresponding to this type of ship were called after them.
In Ulm, it is customary up to the present day to call the Ulmer Schachtel
"Ordinarischiff".
IN Vienna, the
Ordinarischiffe were taken to pieces and the wood sold. The Danubian barges started
back on foot, towing upstream little barges laden with wine from Hungary. The
weinhof in Ulm, trading post for this wine was in such great demand that it has
kept its name up to the present day. The navigation on the Danube was highly
reputed. On 4th October, 1745, for example, the Emperor Francis I and the
Empress Maria Theresia – coming from Frankfurt – continued on their way from
Ulm to Vienna on the Danube with 34 barges and even in 1853, a number of 129
barges known as
"Schwabenplatten"
passed by the customs house of Engelhartszon their way from Ulm to Vienna. In
1897, an Ulmer Schachtel transported its charge to Vienna for the last time.
And thus, commercial navigation on the Upper Danube ended as the result of the
increasing concurrence of the railroad.
Before arrival
in the Banat/Batschka/Baranja, etc each colonist received 4 Gulden of which 2
in Vienna, 1 in Ofen and 1 on arrival at their destination. Then in the case of
the Dekol’s in Heufeld, they received the following:
As a group:
A community hall
One session
(form of land measurement) of common land
which equaled 34
Joch of arable land and as much meadow as
could be worked
in 22 days.
All colonists
received:
· 10 years
tax-free
· ½ session (=
Kastral joch and 1100 Geviertkafter)
As much meadow
as could be worked in 10 ½ days (=6 Kastral
joch and 326
Geviertklafter
· 1 Milk Cow
Each settler
received
1 straw filled
mattress
1 kneading
through
1 water pail
1 bed-frame
1 milk vat
6 sacks
1 axe (for
chopping wood)
1 carpet (size
not defined)
1 flour sieve
1 butter-churn
1 pitch fork
(for manure)
1 hoe
1 Backschiesser
= Loaf shooter. A long handled
wooden shovel to
insert loaves and retrieve them
from
beehive-like ovens for bread baking,usually
located yardside
in Hungarian homes.
1 Muldenkratzer
= Trough scraper. A metal scraper
for dough trough
1 Grabschippe =
Grabschauefel. A shove with
pointed front
edge like a spade or like a shovel
In addition,
each farmer received:
4 horses
1 uncovered
wagon
8 reins
2 harnesses
1 plow
1 sickle and
whetstone
1 anvil and
hammer
1 2-pronged hay
fork
1 axe
1hatchet
1 long and 1
short bridle
4 halters
1 wagon rope
1 harrow
2 scythe with a
wooden handle
1 regular pitch
fork
1 large and 1
small bore/drill
1 handsaw
1 knife
*The measures
are difficult to understand as they are
antiquated:
An Austrian
Hochacker = 1.44 U.S. acres (62,980.77 sq.ft.
A Hungarian
Jochacker = 1.08 U.S. acres (47,228.46 sq.ft.
A U.S. Acre =
43,560 sq. ft.
A session = 37
U.S. Acrea
Usually, a Joch (Yoke,
Joke-acre) was the area which a yoke
of oxen could
plough in one workday.
Another
important reason or event that should be borne in
mine in
understanding the Germanic immigration to the
eastern parts of
the Hapsburg Empire. IN 1781, the
Toleranzepatent
guaranteeing religious liberty was issued,
This meant that
the modern immigrants prior to 1781 were
exclusively
Catholic, whereas the latter immigrants
represented a
religious mix, with the Protestants (who were
a combination of
Lutheran and Reformed, with a tiny
Mennonite
minority) dominant at least in Glacier
The Thesesian
settlement was successful in establishing a life style that lasted for the next hundred and twenty-five years.
Although the Germans drained the swamps and built villages they were afflicted
with sever epidemics of swamp fever and cholera. And in 1788 the Turks returned
and destroyed over 100 villages. In 1777 the total population was 320,000 of
which 181,000 were Romanians, 78,000 were Serbians and 43,000 were Germans --
an excellent ethnic mixture.
After 1789, the
government-sponsored colonization was discontinued, but some settlers continued
to arrive in Hungary until 1829, after which only those with 600 Guilders cash
were allowed to migrate. During the colonization period, people from other
nationalities also settled in the plains of the Banat. Among them were Serbs,
Croatians, Bulgarians and Romanians, and to a lesser extent, Slovakians, Czechs
and a few French and Italians.
The Banat region
later came to be known as the "Breadbasket of Europe" as the
increased the economic prosperity of the Hungarian farmland with their hard
work after rebuilding after each colonization period.
The Habsburg
role in Hungary, which began in 1527, lasted for nearly four hundred years,
until the dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918. The German immigrants,
invited by the Habsburg's agents at the request of the Hungarian Parliament,
often lived peacefully side-by-side in the cities and villages with other
ethnic groups. There where many Hungarian authorities of Magyar descent,
however, who resented having to accept non-Magyar rule. And the
"Germanization" effect of the citizens by the Habsburg Monarchy. The
loyalty of the Swabians went to the Habsburg's, who were primarily responsible
for freeing the land of the Ottoman Empire, and for organizing the
resettlement
program.
In 1844, Hungary
passed the Language Act, which made Magyar the official language for the
government education and religion. This was the beginning of the
"Magyararization program." which was primarily against the
German-speaking people of Hungary. The Magyars wanted a greater independence
from Austrian Rule.
In 1867, a
compromise was reached with the Emperor Franz Joseph that resulted in the formation
of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. In 1868, the Nationality Bill assured
that all citizens of Hungary enjoyed equal rights, but also affirmed Magyar as
the official language. The Educational
Act of 1879,
made Magyar the compulsory language of Instruction, which enhanced the
assimilation of ethnic minorities. The German language could no longer be
taught in the schools or spoken or even having newspaper printed in the
language of the ethnic minorities. The Swabians were the largest minority group
in Hungary, and some particularly in the cities, became assimilated to the
point of
changing their
family names to Magyarized versions.
The Germans
struggled against Magyarization actually petitioning the empire to have their
own German Count assigned and to be under the direct protection of the empire
rather that the Hungarians. This was extreme behavior for the Germans because
their natural tendency was not to be involved in politics but to focus on the
day to day business of farming and the daily life of their village
communities.. The Magyarization program due to their isolation and the
lifestyles less affected the rural Swabian villages.Danube Swabians in the
Twentieth Century
At the turn of
the century, Hungary was a large, ethnically diverse nation occupying over
109,000 square miles in Central and Eastern Europe. The population of more than
eighteen million was
49% Hungarian
Magyar),
17%Romanian,
13% German,
13% Slovak,
4%
Serbo-Croatian
and 4% from
other ethnic groups.
Ever since the formation of the Dual Monarchy
of Austria-Hungary in 1867 the Habsburg ruler, Franz Joseph, the Swabian
peasants of the Banat had enjoyed a period of economic prosperity due to
the thriving
agricultural economy of this region. At this time most Swabians were not
politically aware or nationality conscious, and they were proud of their
children who had moved to urban areas and found success via Magyarization.
Large tracts of
land in Hungary were still held in possession by the upper class and the Roman
Catholic Church, leaving very little farmland for sale and at very high prices.
As the population continued to grow, lack of available land eventually led to
wide-scale emigration, primarily to the
United States
and Canada, but also to other countries. In between the years of 1899 and 1911,
over 197,000 Germans left Hungary. For many, the goal was to earn enough money
to return to Hungary and buy land and some did return, but most stayed in their
new countries.
There were other
factors , which contributed to emigration from Hungary, in America the industry
was expanding rapidly, and steamship lines and manufacturers sent agents to the
villages to recruit factory workers. Compulsory military service caused some
young men to leave. Under Parliamentary law, military service began when a man
reached the age of 21. After three to 5 years active serve,
men were
transferred to the "Reserve", where they could be recalled for active
service until reaching the age of 45 years of Age. Others tired of the heavy
taxation, which resulted in poverty and inequality for the peasant class.
Emigration continued in the years immediately following World War I.
The best
characterization of the prevailing influence of the empire is captured in the
story Nervous Splendor, which interestingly takes place in Vienna the year
before the birth of Katharina (Kati) Dekold, which also was the birthplace, and
time of Adolph Hitler. Katharina and her parts of her
family wisely
left Europe before Adolph Hitler caused it to be torn apart.
World War I was
a turning point for Austria-Hungary and its ethnic groups. Even before the war
was over, nationalities within Austria-Hungary were eager for independence. In
October 1918, The Czechoslovak Republic was declared and the Yugoslav National
Council proclaimed independence
from the Dual
Monarchy. The Hungarian Republic was formed in November and in December, the
Romanian National Assembly declared unity with the geographic regions known as
the Banat and Transylvania.
When the war
ended, The Habsburg Empire or the Dual Monarchy was no longer in power, and
Austria-Hungary had been dissolved. Revised final boundaries for Hungary were
formed at the Treaty of Traianon in June 1920, and this resulted in the loss of
two-thirds of her former territory. The
land was awarded
to the victors of the newly created successor states: ROMANIA and a royal
dictatorship called YUGOSLAVIA in 1929. Land in Transylvania and most of the
Banat was awarded to Romania. Yugoslavia gained land in Southern Hungary,
including a strip of Western Banat.
Czechoslovakia
became a new country fashioned out of former Hungarian territory. The Swabian
villagers whose families had lived in Hungary for almost 200 years now found
themselves in three different countries and the three countries were
chauvinistic and mutually antagonistic states. The partitioning help deal a
severe blow to the Danube Swabians. Only 700,000 Danube Swabians
remained in
Hungary, 350,000 became "Romanian" and the remaining 555,000 became
the German national minority in Yugoslavia.
Despite the fact
the Danube Swabians had little to none contact of any type with Germany over
the centuries, the majority of the population in Hungary, Romania, and
Yugoslavia, they would become the black sheep and the unwanted in the next 20
years.
Back in Banat,
try and imagine what happened during and following two world wars. In this
period between the wars, the lifestyle of the Hungarian Germans in rural
villages in all three countries remained much as it had been for the last 150
years, and the isolated villagers were much less affected by the political
concerns, which arose in the cities. However, the rise of Hitler in Germany and
the outbreak of World War II forced even the rural Swabians to become more
conscious of their status as ethnic Germans did did. Hungary and Romania were
initially aligned with Germany, although they both changed alignment later,
while Yugoslavia sided with the Allies. In Hungary, with the full sanction of
the Hungarian government, Swabians could enlist either into the Hungarian army
or the German army.
During the World
War 2, Hungary sided with Germany to recover its lost territories in the fight
against Communism. Without consulting the Danube Swabians, the governments of
Royal Hungary, a kingdom without a king and the German Reich signed an
agreement where the Hungary’s |Germans had the option of being drafted into the
Hungarian army or to join the SS tank and ground support
groups. (See
Chapter on SS involvement) Since both countries were engaged fighting the same
enemy, it was not a hard choice to make. The Hungarian Germans did not speak
Magyar as a native tongue. So many of the Hungarian Germans, because of their
culture, ethnicity, and language had more in common with the Germans of the
Reich The National Socialist’s propaganda recruited Hungarian
Germans, by
bringing them into Germany for youth camps, summer schools and sporting
programs .
Many girls from
this area went to Germany for employment and then they also found men to marry
also. This is when Eva Riemschnieder left from Jasenvo, Yugoslavia with other
girls her age to Schleswig, Germany. The train that she was on stopped in
Schleswig where she got a job working on a farm and she meet Heinrich Brandt.
Then the Brandt family treated as if they were her family. Heinrich went off to
war as a Germany soldier and was injured while fighting for the German army in
the Soviet Union.
Many youths
volunteered freely for the German army to avoid the discrimination they were
sure to receive in the Hungarian army. Many were recruited to the Waffen Schutz
Staffen (Waffen SS, the military militia) In Romania, Swabians would also
enlist in the German army and remain Romanian citizens, and more than ten
percent of the German population did so.
Yugoslav Germans
also enlisted in the Waffen SS, many of them into the all Swabian-Prinz Eugun
Division, named after the Austrian military hero who had freed Hungary from the
Turks. After Germany overran Yugoslavia and occupied the country in 1941,
Yugoslavians of German descent were forced into the German Army and the SS.
Feelings among the Swabians, however was not unanimously in favor of the
National Socialist party, and there were as many that resisted the movement as
those who supported it.
NOW imagine how
the Germans were treated by the indigenous people and by the Russians.
The Communists
in Hungary classified the Swabians as "traitors" . Before the war in
Hungary a census was taken where each family had to list what there origin and
nationality was, if you spoke German you were not Hungarian so each family
listed themselves just like their ancestors had done before them GERMANIC. This
was their undoing as citizens.
The communist
puppet regime used the census as a basis for the expropriation and deportation
of the Hungarian Germans from Hungary. After three-quarters of the Swabians
were deported to refugee camps in what was Germany (now war torn and allied
troop occupied), where everything of staple existence was in short or limited
supply. The Americans told Hungary, "We can not take any more of the
refugees-you find a place for them". Hungary took them back but stripped
the refugees and former
citizens of
their citizenship and forced them to work for the state. When the deportation
stopped to Germany only one quarter of a million Hungarian Germans remained
living in Hungary and at
the beginning of
the war there were seven hundred thirty eight thousand or three quarters of a
million people. By the early part of the 1950s the remaining were given some of
their rights back but had to remain quiet and fit into the society without
making themselves known or speak the Germanic language.
Since 1990, the
Hungarian government has changed its policy on the treatment of its Germanic
minority and has gone to help the Hungarian Germans purchase back their
expropriated property. The Hungarian Germans, their children and grandchildren,
of whom only 11% still speak of form on
Swabian-Deutsch,
may learn GERMAN as part of their second language requirements in there
schools.
YUGOSLAVIA
In the pre-war
Yugoslavia Danube Swabians was the largest non-Slavic national minority in the
puppet government. The population only represented five percent of the country
population but in regions in which they lived they produced in the fields and
shops over three-quarters of the country’s agricultural
products and
by-products. Two of the major items that helped Yugoslavia in the
foreign/domestic trade were hemp (rope making) and sugar beets. Hemp became a
very important commodity during the years of 1932-1941. The Danube Swabians
held onto 90 percent of the market share and other
items that were
locally made in the Danube-Swabians villages and shipped out of the country
were home products such as wagons, tools, roofing materials, home baking items,
and farm implements.
In April of 1941
German and Hungarian forces broke into Yugoslavia and the Royal Yugoslav army
disintegrated within four days. When the war was approaching against Germany
over 90% of the Swabians did their duties as conscripted soldiers to fight for
their country that they were born in or was raised in. What is very unique is
that the SERBIANS (majority of population) from the same regions fought in the
Yugoslav Army. The SERBS reasoning for a low turnout was because of the
HITLER/STALIN
NON-AGGRESSION PACT. TITO, urged his Communist followers (SERBIAN) not to fight
against the Germans since they were "ALLIES" of Moscow. Thus he was
telling his supporters that going to the recruitment stations and fighting in
the Yugoslav army and defending the country was being a "TRATOR". By
1944, "TITO", had the audacity to call the Danube Swabians enemies of
the state for not resisting the aggressors of the country of Yugoslavia.
After Hitler’s
invasion of Russia, the Yugoslav Communists, now on the side of the Soviet
Union, entered the war/conflict that 8 months early they had no intention to be
a part of. They were
major resistance
groups (guerrilla warfare) in the unoccupied mountains of Bosnia. They made
over 250 attacks on the German Supply lines to the Grecian Islands. The main
force of the Partisans was to fight hand to hand or actually from behind
windows, shooting into camps at night, waiting for brigades to pass them to
shoot the soldiers in the back., attacked isolated bases and when the
outnumbered German soldiers surrendered the Partisans would kill them on the
spot by means of torture and
MUTILATED in
methods that civilized people find revolting but to this day in some parts of
the world and history has been done. (Idi AMIN, Mexico Drug Lords, Chinese and
Japanese in World
WAR II) The
Partisans did not believe in the International treaties on human rights.
Because they were signed in Switzerland and the Swiss people spoke GERMAN as
their official language. Plus
Switzerland was
not neutral as according to TITO. (NAZI Gold of the 1996/97 scandal)
The German
occupation had created high levels of resentment among the predominantly
Serbo-Croatian population. The Germany Army had executed thousand of Yugoslav
hostages in retribution for the killing and wounding of German soldiers during
the occupation. The Germans shoot 10 hostages for every German Soldier who not
just killed but MUTILATED. This practice that the German High Command believe
would slow down the killing enhanced the hatred of the SLAVS and then the
battles fought with cruelty and hatred on all sides. These battles took place
over 1600 km (1000 miles) away from the area that the Danube Swabians lived and
the were not involved in the
conflict or knew
about the Mutilations and the retribution killings.
In September of
1944, Tito’s Anti-Fascist Council gathered at a secret meeting spot in Bosnia
and passed a resolution (which was passed on to the Allied High Command in
London-Churchill
and Eisenhower
initialed in September 1944) which consisted of 48 pages but three major
aspirations. When the Yugoslav state would be re-established after the defeat
of GERMANY, those of "GERMANIC". Origins ( 700,000 Yugoslav Citizens)
were to be disposed and deprived of all human rights, including the right of
life. Their property was to be distributed among Tito’s rough
fighters who did
the mutilation and hand to hand battles. The partisan fighters where Tito’s
major supporters. Over 70% of his support came from his partisan’s soldiers.
The resolution and the
three major
points would be achieved through
Mass
Liquidations
Mass
Deportations
Exterminations-By
the means of Starvation and Forced Labor in
Concentration
Camps or Labor Camps
The Partisans would
acquire all of the best homes in each village of the country as well as all the
property including land and animals. Tito, gave his supporters and his fighters
something GREAT to FIGHT FOR. By killing innocent people, away from the
conflict and if they were former neighbors or
family, they
could receive property and land for not having to work hard to gain it. They
went for it. All they had to do was to KILL and Kill and KILL again and again.
When the Soviet
Red Army drove through the neat and tidy Danube Swabian villages and towns in
what was Hungarian Batschka and Baranaya, Serbian BANAT and Croatian Syrmia and
Slavonia they drove through the town and hurt few people or caused discomfort.
Then the Partisians bands followed in its wake usually a day or two behind the
Soviets. In this manner the Partisans took
possession of
their Promised Land. But first they had to LIQUIDATE the Swabians. The methods
varied from one place to another, but the result was the same, death, often by
the way of torture. It happened so frequently that it was the rule rather than
the exception.
The first
victims were usually the mayor, the town council, priests, teachers, merchants
or anyone the Partisans took exception to from the village. The victims hands
would be tied with barbed wire and they were taken to a building where they
would be slaughtered by the blood thirsty PARTISANS who had long ago lost any
sense of humanity. With their victims lying helpless in the center of the room,
the thoroughly
drunken men and women would dance a SLAVIC dance "KOLA" in a circle
and would sing songs. From time to time they would break off and in frenzy took
turns stabbing their prisoners to death, while relishing in the screams and
moans of their victims.. The heavy endowed Partizankas (Female Partisans) took
Particular delight in cutting off the Gentiles of the Victims (male or
female) while
they still showed signs of life.
When all of the
men in a community had been rounded up, those who appeared to be better off
than the others, the hated "capitalists" were selected. They were
marched out of town and at some point they were forced to dig their own graves,
and were then shot and buried. The others were deported to slave labor camps in
Yugoslavia and Russia, were they were usually worked to death. Young
women between
the ages of 13 and 30 were rounded up and sent to Russia in cattle cars, where
they slaved away for years in had labor in ancient coal mines and building
sites. Then they were release after five years. One in four was never to see
their home or family again. Broken and ailing women were transported to Germany
or to concentration camps.
Others, the
handicapped, women with small children and the aged were forced out of their
homes by course, well-armed Partisans. I can and can you imagine the tearing
and the wailing utterly defenseless women of small children whose husbands and
fathers are away, who are probably caring for their parents or grandparents,
when they are given only a few minutes to leave their home forever. House,
furniture, photo-albums, gardens, pets, domestic animals and thousands of
memories had
to be left
behind. They marched along dusty road in columns of four. Accompanied by very
heavily armed escort. Some of the villagers had escaped with the help of retreating
German soldiers
only later to be to be caught. The ones caught were either killed as with Anton
Dekold or sent to concentration camps. Others who made it past the Partisans
were on the road for months with very little food or clothing. Practically all
the women bore physical and mental scars from what they went through and would
suffer from it the rest of their lives
Approximately
37,000 to 47,000 were deported to the Soviet Union and others placed into concentration
camps which had been made from Swabian villages, resulting in 41,000 to 50,000
children being separated from their parents. Hundreds of thousands died in
camps from
starvation,
malnutrition and disease, but thousands escaped and went to Germany. The camps
were finally closed down in the spring of 1948, by the Tito regime. After the
camps were closed all of the dead which were placed in burial houses ( see
Later Chapter) were placed in large mass graves where no marker was placed to
remind passer-by of the atrocities committed there. The emaciated few who were
still living in the camps (under 1400) escaped into nearby Hungary and making
their way
to the west by
1949/50. Only 6 percent of the pre-war German population remained in Yugoslavia
by 1949.
IN a recent book
about Danube Swabian, which is, titled "Strangers in the Fatherland"
It talks about what exactly happened to the Swabians and what happened to their
former homelands. The Gentle, orderly Industrious, Tolerant, Peaceful and religious,
are all Gone. And since the BUSY BEES (Danube Swabians workers) have left, The
Danubian Basin is no longer than land of milk and honey. In Hungary, the land
granted to them by a former king, was taken away by the Communist regime. In
Romania, their beautiful villages were bulldozed, the farms collectivized, and
they were treated like SLAVES.
Prior to World
War II, approximately 1.5 million Danuabe Swabians lived in Hungary, Romania
and Yugoslavia. The result of war deaths, expulsion, deaths in labor and
concentration camps and emigration was a reduction of three-quarters of that
number. IN 1993 the estimate of how
many Swabians
remained was 8000. Of the approximately one million refugees who went to
Germany and Austria, about 250,000 later emigrated to other countries,
including the United States, Canada, Australia, France and South American
countries.
Sadly, the day
is bound to come early in the next century that one of our descendants or that
of my grandparents will ask," Just who were the Danube Swabians?"