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Following the German invasion of
Yugoslavia in 1941, the Banat was
always under occupation by German
troops. The Banat state
administration supported the regime
of the Serbian General Nedic in
Belgrade. When local Danube
Swabians in the Banat made
application to or approached the
state administration on issues of
concern to them it was done so in
the name of Serbian government in
Belgrade and would only affect areas
of the Banat in which they resided.
There was apprehension on their part
with regard to some of the measures
taken by the German occupation
forces and their commanders that had
adverse effects on their Serbian
neighbors and the Danube Swabians
sought to eliminate or weaken the
consequences of them if at all
possible. Often they were
unsuccessful and this created
negative feelings among the Serbian
population that became a Partisan
recruitment area.
The
Partisans introduced a systematic
extermination program to the extent
that only a small fraction of the
Danube Swabian population would
survive. But what characterized it
most were the gruesome and
bloodthirsty methods that were used
in carrying it out. The use of the
division of the region into the
former areas of administration
enabled this well planned operation
to be put into effect here as
elsewhere.
(Translator’s
note: A sentence consisting of
the next six lines in the text
follows for which I offer a simple
précis as follows). With the
benefit of hindsight this systematic
liquidation program was modeled on
the one that was operational in the
Batschka as previously cited. How
is it possible that one can speak of
this one area, the Banat in
comparison to others in Yugoslavia,
as the one where rivers of innocent
blood flowed? We need to reiterate
that in a single day in all of the
communities in a district the
liquidation squads appeared at the
same time with the request of the
local administrations for the arrest
and mass execution of Danube Swabian
men and women. This was carried out
even though in many communities the
local Serbian officials and
population protested against it and
as a result saved the lives of many,
but these genocide squads seldom
listened to any attempts at
intervention and proceeded in spite
of local opposition and liquidated
every Danube Swabian man, woman and
child. |
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