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Post World War II
Leidensweg
Extermination In the Yugoslavian Banat
Chapter 3: Genocide in the
Yugoslavian Banat,
translated by
Henry Fischer
South Western Banat
"Wholesale Murder"
Jabuka
The
Partisans arrested twenty-one of the
leading Danube Swabian men and women in
early October of 1944, including Dr.
Pete Weinz and his wife. For quite some
time there was no trace of them. In
January a “commission” arrived in Jabuka
in search of the graves of fallen
Partisans who had engaged the German
occupation forces in battle in the
vicinity of the village. They brought
along thirty Swabian men from the prison
camp in Pantschowa who were forced to
dig all over the place in search of such
graves. Left to the road that led to
Pantschowa they stumbled on twenty-one
corpses with fresh evidence of each of
them having been shot in the nape of the
neck. Among the bodies was one that was
a woman. It became obvious that the
corpses were those of the local Swabians
who had been arrested and had
disappeared months before. Especially
recognizable were the bodies of the
doctor and his wife. The body of the
woman wore only underpants and there was
still one earring in one ear. One of
the commission members noticed that and
stepped down into the grave and tore off
the remaining earring and stuck it into
his pocket. Not only the camp inmates
who were involved but also the
commission members were convinced that
the bodies had nothing to do with the
Partisans they were searching for
because they would not have fallen in
battle naked and tied to one another.
They then ordered a halt to further
digging and ordered that the grave be
covered again.
(Following the First World
War the Banat was divided
between Yugoslavia &
Romania, with two thirds
going to Romania & one
third annexed to Yugoslavia)
Österreichische
Historiker-Arbeitsgemeinschaft Für Kärnten und Steiermark
(Austrian Historian Working
Group for Kärnten and Steiermark)
Translated & contributed by
Henry Fischer
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