The
following information is a
summary and translation of
various portions of the
Bulkes Heimatbuch published
by the Heimatsausschusses
Bulkes in 1984.
Translated by Henry Fischer
The
Heimatbuch at this point deals with
daily life in the village over the
centuries and the customs and
traditions that were observed but I
will proceed to the period that
begins with the Second World War
that would have a devastating effect
on Bulkes and its German
inhabitants, the descendants of our
early settlers, who were now known
as the Danube Swabians.
As
a prelude to all that would now
befall Bulkes, on Palm Sunday, April
6, 1941 the Nazi invasion of
Yugoslavia began and fifteen of the
leading men of the community were
taken as hostages to Peterwardein.
In the fortress dungeon there they
were joined by five hundred other
hostages from the Swabian
communities throughout the area
including ten women. The oldest
hostage was an aged Roman Catholic
priest and the youngest a seventeen
year old student from Bulkes. All
kinds of threats of execution were
made but not carried out. After six
days and the capitulation of
Yugoslavia they were released.
The Batschka was annexed by Hungary
and the Danube Swabian population
came under the jurisdiction of the
Volksbund of Hungary led by Dr.
Franz Basch. This so-called
cultural association was in effect a
Nazi front organization that peddled
their racial and nationalist
ideology. By February 1942 Basch
and his cohorts in Budapest reached
an agreement with the Hungarian
government to allow the Danube
Swabians to voluntarily enlist in
the German Army that was now
desperate for reinforcements on the
eastern front. All men born
1912-1922 and later those born
1911-1923 were told to report in
Palanka and most of the men in
Bulkes did.
When they reported at the
recruitment centre in Palanka they
were called up into the German Army
but the greater portion of them
found themselves almost immediately
stationed in the Waffen-SS. All of
them were taken to the Waffen-SS
training camps in Vienna, Breslau
and Radom in Poland. But as the
situation on the eastern front
deteriorated all able bodied men in
Bulkes under 50 years of age were
forcibly recruited into the Waffen-SS
in late 1943 and early 1944.
The German front fell back in the
fall of 1944 and the Russian Army
moved closer and closer. Partisan
activity increased and it was
obvious that the Danube Swabians
would bear the brunt of any
reprisals in light of the hostility
the Serbs felt about the German Army
during the occupation. The majority
of the male population of the
village was at the front and there
was little local leadership
available to plan and carry out an
evacuation. But an effort was
made.
The first wagon trek left on October
10th and 11th
but only 53 persons were prepared to
leave their homes. In pouring rain
they left for Gajdobra where the
leader of the Bulkes wagon column
requested that the SS Commandant
force the community of Bulkes to
evacuate immediately. He promised
to do so because he also had orders
to that effect. As they left
Gajdobra drum beats announced that
everyone living in the village
should pack immediately and be
prepared to flee their homeland and
join the Bulkes’ trek.
They travelled on to Hodschag and
then to Sombor. Here again the
leaders of the Bulkes trek
approached the SS Commander to order
that the population of Bulkes should
flee. They were informed that the
order had already been given and
they could go on in peace because
the entire population of Bulkes was
being evacuated. On the way to
Bezdan they met many soldiers from
Bulkes with open-back trucks who had
been given permission to evacuate
their families and could still get
there in time before the Russians
arrived. Others had been given
access to horses and wagons to be
able to evacuate their families.
But all of their families refused to
leave and stayed at home not
prepared to flee into an even
greater danger. The soldiers
returned with their vehicles to
their military units without their
families. Many soldiers from Bulkes
were in Bezdan and joined their
retreating units that were quartered
in the town. They said their final
farewells as the trek from Bulkes
left and few of them were ever heard
from again.
The trek moved on to Baja on the
Danube and waited their turn to
cross the Danube into Hungary. They
moved on to Bonyhád and remained in
Cikó only 6 kilometres away for ten
days and rested. There they were
overjoyed when they learned that
another trek from Bulkes was on its
way. As the front moved closer they
had to leave Cikó for Keléviz on
Lake Balaton where they arrived on
the day of Bulkes’ Kirchweih.
They remained there for three weeks
and the Hungarians were most
hospitable. Here they learned that
the other trek from Bulkes was
quartering in Nemésted and two days
later some girls from Bulkes walked
on foot from there. The leaders of
the two treks tried to arrange for
the two groups to travel together
but were unsuccessful as the second
trek was always one day ahead of the
others now. Four families from the
second trek joined up with the first
so that it now consisted of 25
families and 63 persons of which 13
were small children. It was winter
and it was cold as they headed for
Ődenburg (Sopron) and quartered
there for four days and left by
train for Glatz in Silesia. Later
when the Red Army rampaged into
Silesia they fled again assisted by
Pastor Jung from Torschau leading
them in their flight to Austria
where they were again told to move
on because there was no more room
for refugees anywhere and Pastor
Jung led the column to the Oberpfalz.
In terms of the second trek we need
to backtrack. The people who
remained in Bulkes no longer knew
who or what to believe or what to
do. A German army unit that passed
through Bulkes told the people to
stay because the Russians needed
farmers too. People were undecided
and alarmed that the German Army and
their officials were opposed to any
evacuation. The children of Bulkes
were to be taken to safety and after
a tearful wrenching parting the
hundreds of children were taken to
Palanka where they were to board
ships to take them to Germany. The
ships never appeared and the
children were brought back home.
Unknowingly for countless numbers of
them it was their death sentence.
The population was even more
determined to remain at home. The
soldiers who returned with vehicles
and wagons to evacuate their
families were turned down by all of
the villagers and they left their
families behind and returned to duty
with their empty trucks and wagons.
A messenger came by motorcycle on
the night of October 11th.
His message was simple, “Either
leave now for Germany or you’ll end
up in Russia!” In the midst of all
of this doubt and confusion three
families packed their wagons that
night. They left the next day and a
few other wagons filled with fleeing
Bulkes families followed them
later.
Russian units arrived shortly
after. It marked the beginning of
the end.
On November 16, 1944 drum beats were
heard throughout the village
announcing that all of the
remaining men in the village were to
gather at the community centre for
an important message. Added to the
announcement was the threat that if
any man did now show up he would be
shot. All of the men, except those
who had already gone out earlier to
work in their fields, assembled at
the community centre. Once they had
gathered the Partisans locked all of
the doors and no one was allowed to
leave. The commander of the
Partisans announced that all men
16-60 years of age must register
with a special commission that day.
All those able to work would have to
go on a work detail for a few days.
The men were herded into the school
building and locked in. They
encouraged each other that the work
detail would soon begin and then
they could go home. They were
alarmed to discover that the school
had straw on the floors and theirs
was to be an overnight stay. One
man said it all had the smell of
Siberia! One hour later the
Partisan Commander arrived along
with a Serbian doctor. They began
their work immediately. A list of
names was read. Anyone with a
noticeable or obvious disability was
set aside to be released later. The
able bodied remained in the school
under heavy Partisan guard
overnight. The families knew they
had been herded into the school but
had no idea that this was the last
night they would ever spend in
Bulkes.
On November 17th at 7:00
in the morning they were driven into
the yard of the community centre.
Drum beats sounded and the
announcement was made that the
families of those held overnight in
the school should bring winter
clothing and food for three days for
their men folk. All complied. Tear
filled eyes were to be seen even in
the hardest of men’s faces. Women
and children ran to the rows of men
to say farewell. It was to be their
last handshake, embrace and
goodbye. They left at 8:30 marching
in columns of five through the deep
snow on the way to Palanka. The
Partisans who guarded them were not
the kind they would meet later.
They let them rest and stopped to
eat. They arrived at the high
school in Palanka at 3:30 in the
afternoon and had endured cursing
from the local Serbian population on
the way through the town. The night
was terrible. The five leading men
of the village including the doctor,
druggist and teacher were separated
from the others. They were taken to
an unknown location and were never
heard from again. Others were
thrashed because they had hidden
some money or cigarettes.
On November 18th at 7:00
in the morning the men were ordered
out into the yard of the school and
were subjected to a harangue. They
were lined up in five columns to
march to Neusatz and did so under
Partisan guard at 8:00 and were
locked up in the tobacco factory at
Neusatz that night. They had passed
through areas where German troops
were still active. Several
Partisans were killed and wounded
and they took out their anger by
beating the Swabians. Seven men who
could not keep pace were executed on
the spot. Swabians in the area gave
the men food and water, clothing and
bedding when they had the chance as
they passed through their villages.
On November 19th they
left at 7:00 in the morning. Their
extra clothing and any remaining
food were taken away from them.
They were set to work on repairing
the dam system on the Danube. This
became their life, day in and day
out for the next month.
On Christmas’ Eve, 1944 all of the
men younger than 45 years of age
were separated from all of the
others. On Christmas Day the
younger men were loaded on wagons
and taken to Russia as slave
labourers. The older remaining men
were made available for farm and
factory work and they were bid for
like slaves at a slave market, which
in fact is what they had become.
Meanwhile in Bulkes on the evening
of December 26th the
order was given that all women 18 to
30 years of age were to report next
day at the community centre with a
change of clothing and food for two
weeks. Mothers and children of
those involved accompanied the
frightened young women. Partisan
guards herded the women out of the
village. Many of the women had to
leave small children behind. It was
a horrendous farewell. On one side
of the street the young women stood
with their knapsacks on their backs,
guarded and threatened by Partisans
and on the other side crying
children and weeping parents walked
along with them to the outskirts of
the village but were not allowed to
go any farther. They went on foot
from place to place. It was a
sorrowful journey. At night they
slept on straw in empty houses of
Swabians who had been deported,
driven out or had escaped by flight
or evacuation.
On January 10, 1945 they were loaded
on freight trains in Baja filthy
with frozen manure. It was ice cold
inside and they did not have enough
warm clothes. They were locked in
for three weeks, terrified and
helpless, having no idea where they
were going or what lay ahead of
them. It was Russia. They worked
on construction in the Donets Basin
along with Danube Swabians from the
Tolna villages of Hungary, both men
and women.
A second group of women in Bulkes
from the ages of 18 to 40 years had
been taken weeks before to be
agricultural workers in Yugoslavia
would soon follow the others to
Russia. Their journey to Russia was
just as awful. When they arrived in
Russia they were separated and
divided up in various camps. They
worked on construction, in saw mills
and the coal mines doing the work of
men while being starved. Heads were
shaved when typhus broke out, the
ultimate degradation for a Swabian
woman who took pride in her long
hair. There was no water for
washing, and lice, rashes and the
epidemics that followed claimed
countless victims. In Barrack 1026
over 500 died of hunger, cold and
illness. Added to their suffering
was the constant anxiety about the
children, husbands and families they
had left back home.
It was in their third year of
captivity that they first received
news from home and their families.
What they heard was even worse than
they had feared. They no longer had
a homeland, their families had been
expelled from their homes, aged
parents and their young children
were interned in camps throughout
Yugoslavia and many had already
died. With this horror in their
hearts and on their minds they
laboured in Russia until the fall of
1949. After the women from Bulkes
were released from Barrack 1026 they
were imprisoned in Hungary for ten
months and had to work hard until
they were released to join their
families. That is, if they could
find them.
One of the deportees later wrote:
“All of us girls and women between
18 and 30 years of age in Bulkes had
to report at the community centre on
December 27, 1944 at 8:00 in the
morning. We brought along a change
of clothes and food for three days.
All of our families who came to say
goodbye were driven off by the
Partisans. The noon hour bells in
our church tower began to ring as
seventy-seven of us had to leave.
We knew then that we would never
hear the bells again.
We were marched to Petrovica, Kulpen,
Schowe and Altker. Dirt and mud
were flung at us by outraged Serbs
along the way. We stayed overnight
in Altker which was totally
deserted. The second night we spent
in Werbass and then the next night
we were in Kula. Wagons took us to
a camp that was surrounded by barbed
wire in Topola. We were imprisoned
there for days. Drunken wagon
drivers drove us to Sombor. In
Hodschag we were supposed to be
entrained along with the other but
older women from Bulkes who were 30
to 40 years of age. But they
arrived late. In all of the
confusion escape would have been
possible but we were exhausted and
frightened. Bulgarian troops tried
to get the Partisans to free the
women who had left children at home
but it had no effect on the
Partisans. We were turned over to
the Russian military at Baja. Our
names were registered and rings,
watches, earrings, knives and such
were all confiscated. They told us
we would have no use for them where
we were going. It was then when we
found out that we had been sentenced
to five years of labour to
reconstruct the Soviet Union.
At night the seventy-seven women
from Bulkes, along with Danube
Swabian men and women from Tolna
County in Hungary were loaded in
cattle cars. These people had been
able to bring whatever they could
carry but by now none of us from
Bulkes had any food left. Some of
the people in our car were terribly
sick and seven of the women were
removed from the train including
four women from Bulkes and they
remained behind.
We travelled through Romania. We
were given black bread and dried
mutton as food. The train stopped
at open water and we collected water
in our dishes, pots, etc. A hole in
one corner of our car served as out
toilet.
At the Russian border we were
transferred to larger Russian cars,
sixty of us in each. We slept
sitting up and often our clothes
froze overnight if we leaned up
against the walls. We arrived at
the camp on February 2, 1945 and
disembarked in knee deep snow among
mountains of coal. We were in Camp
32 with a population of 1,500 Danube
Swabian men and women. The first
death occurred on February 14, 1945
as a result of an injury on our
journey to Russia. It was the first
of many.
I was released from the camp at
Stalino on November 11, 1949 and was
sent to Germany by way of
Frankfurt-on-Oder. As our train
entered the city the church bells
began to ring as we survivors from
Bulkes began to cry remembering the
last time we heard bells on the day
we left home.”
Following the deportations to the
Soviet Union in early 1945 the local
population in Bulkes experienced
various forms of repression and
harassment at the hands of the
Partisans. On April 15, 1945 the
1,275 inhabitants of the village
were interned. There was first a
selection process and 345 of them,
of whom 305 were women and 40 older
youths and older men were designated
as able bodied and remained behind
in Bulkes for distribution to
various labour camps in the region.
The oldest among them, some 80
persons were sent to Bukin and
Obrowatz three weeks later and the
survivors were taken to Palanka a
year later. Around two hundred of
the others were brought to Palanka
in June of 1945 and placed in
various jobs in Palanka’s
agricultural programme. About
fifty–five women remained in Bulkes
until August and were then sent to
Neusatz and its vicinity and put to
hard labour.
The great majority of Bulkes’
population some 930 persons
consisting of old men and women and
365 children and infants under the
age of fourteen were taken to the
mass extermination camp set up in
the Lutheran village of Jarek on
April 15, 1945. Later other people
from Bulkes came to Jarek from other
camps so that approximately 1,000
people from Bulkes were interned
there.
In the period from April 15, 1945 to
April 15, 1946 a total of 654 of the
inhabitants from Bulkes died in the
hell hole of Jarek, including 172
children below the age of
fourteen. The death toll among
them would have been even higher if
many of them, mostly older children
had not sneaked out of the camp at
night to beg for food around Tenerin
where the population tried to
provide them with food.
The some three hundred Bulkes
survivors at Jarek were transferred
to the death camps at Gakowa and
Kruschiwl on April 15, 1946. More
deaths occurred there numbering 36
persons including eleven more
children. A total of 183 of the 365
children perished in the various
camps accounting for more than half
of them. Later in 1946 about one
hundred of the surviving younger
children were taken out of the camp
and placed in so-called children’s
homes in northern and western
Yugoslavia where they were raised as
Serbo-Croatian orphans. Years later
some of them were successfully
reunited with their families. From
March 1947 to the beginning of 1948
many of the survivors escaped across
the nearby Hungarian border. This
was possible as more and more of the
younger adults who had been in the
labour camps in Jarek, Neusatz and
Palanaka were transferred to Gakowa
who took the elderly and surviving
older children with them.
[Contributed and translated by Henry
Fischer ~ Published at DVHH.org 11
Oct 2008]
Next:
Bulkes - The
Story of One Young Survivor
