"Genocide Carried out by the Tito Partisans"
Österreichische
Historiker-Arbeitsgemeinschaft Für Kärnten und Steiermark (Austrian Historian Working
Group for Kärnten and Steiermark)
Chapter one
Internment:
2: Concentration Camps
Translated by
Henry Fischer
The Concentration Camps were introduced
in the Banat, when all the remaining
Danube Swabian population was driven
from their home communities to a central
camp. This was carried out in Werschetz
on November 18, 1944 and then proceeded
to be carried out everywhere. In the
Batschka it began on November 29, 1944
in the southern districts in Palanka and
several of the villages around Neusatz.
In a planned approach all of the rest of
the Batschka followed suit, with
Stanischitsch the last to be effected in
August 1945. This community had a large
Serbian population that spoke out
against the expulsions of the Danube
Swabian population. At the same time
the actions were also begun in Syrmien
and Slavonia, so that by September 1945
no person of “German origin” was at
liberty anywhere in Yugoslavia.
In every district there was at least one
Forced Labor Camp. But those unable to
work were driven into the concentration
and internment Camps that in effect were
designed to be extermination camps and
often served several districts. These
extermination camps were located at:
Banat
Batschka
-
Jarek (Backi Jarak)
-
Sekitsch (Sekic)
-
Filiopovo
-
Gakowa (Gakovo)
-
Kruschevlje (Krusevlje)
Slavonia
-
Pisanitza (Pisanica)
-
Valpovo
-
Jenje
The number one rule and order in these
camps was that no inmate could leave
except in the company of a guard. All
outside contacts were forbidden and to
go out begging for food was punishable
by death. The Partisans themselves
called the camps, “extermination
centers” and they were mills grinding
out death.
In systematic fashion in both the forced
labor and concentration camps all of the
possessions of the inmates were taken
away from them except what would be
necessary to clothe their naked bodies
at burial. Food was practically
non-existent and as a result thousands
would die of malnutrition, disease, cold
and starvation.
They would receive soup two times a day,
usually with a sprinkling of beans,
peas, oats, barely or wheat cooked along
with the clear water. There was a daily
bread ration, but not always, a small
piece the size of two matchboxes. Both
the bread and soup contained no salt and
the soup was without lard. The rate of
death was horrific. Every day a hole
the size of a room in a house was dug
and the bodies of the dead were sewn
into rags in their clothes or naked and
were thrown into it the next day. Some
mothers accompanied all of their
children to one of these mass graves,
while more often a child would be forced
to toss the body of their mother and
other siblings into one of these graves,
only to end up in another one
themselves. For the Danube Swabians
victims there was no cemetery or funeral
of any kind.
Next:
3.
The Closing
of the Camps
[Published at www.dvhh.org,
Sept. 2006]
