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The Northern Banat
"Where the lust for murder raged"
Sanad
The
far northern portion of the Banat
had a very small Danube Swabian
population. The liquidation of
these Swabians happened in their own
home communities or in the district
towns of Neu Kanischa and
Kikinda.
The
mixed language village of Sanad was far
to the north. On October 20, 1944 all
of the Danube Swabian men were arrested
and taken to Neu Kanischa and imprisoned
there. For several days they were
brutally beaten by the Partisans. On
October 25th all of them were
shot. Only one of the men was able to
escape and make his way to Hungary. Now
it was the turn of the Swabian women.
The
first group of Swabian women was also
taken to Neu Kanischa and shot. The
other women and children were driven out
of their homes on December 9th
of 1944. Most of them ended up in the
concentration camp at Kikinda. On
December 17th, late in the
evening sixty-four women were shot.
Among them were thirty-two women from
Sanad. Only five of the women from
Sanad remained alive in the camp at
Kikinda. In March of 1945 the new
authorities in Sanad discovered that
four Swabian women had hidden in one of
the homes in Sanad: a mother, her two
daughters and an old woman. They were
apprehended and taken to Neu Kanischa to
be shot. The Partisans decided
to be lenient and not shoot one of
the girls. She said she did
not want to live if the others were
to be shot. All four were
executed.
(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 |
