"Genocide Carried out by the Tito Partisans" Österreichische Historiker-Arbeitsgemeinschaft Für Kärnten und Steiermark (Austrian Historian Working Group for Kärnten and Steiermark)
Chapter Four: Syrem, Slavonia, Baranya: The Cauldron - Translated by Henry Fischer

Srem: When the Beasts Ruled
“Whoever cannot work will not be allowed to live”
Semlin | Ruma | Mitrowitz | Vukovar

Ruma

     Before the war, there were over ten thousand Germans living in Ruma.  The community, which was located in one of the most beautiful of all of the regions of Srem   formed the center of the German settlement in the area.  No sooner had the Partisans set up their military government on October 25, 1944 when they began the roundup of the local German population throughout the area and began to liquidate them.  They dragged off the German populations from Nikintzi, Grabovtzi, Kraljevtzi, Hrtkovitzi, Ptintzi, Wrdnik and many other villages herding them to an assembly area, and not only the men, but the women and children as well.  They were all imprisoned in the Hrvatski Cathedral at first.  Then they had to undress until they were naked, and left their clothes behind and were marched out to the brickyards where ditches had been dug, and as each group arrived they were shot.  The next batch to be executed had to lie down on top of the corpses of the group just executed before them.  Those who protested or refused to co-operate were bayoneted to death and thrown into the pit.  Many were severely wounded when they were thrown in.  They were still alive and cried out and moaned as the next group lay on top of them and suffocated them.  About 2,800 Germans died in this way on the first day.  Many other Germans from the vicinity were also shot individually, stabbed or beaten to death.

[Published at DVHH.org, Sept. 2006]