1944-1945 Killings in Bačka

The 1944-1945 ethnic cleansing in Bačka were the killings of several tens of thousands of ethnic Hungarians in Bačka allegedly organised by members of the Yugoslav Partisan Movement after they gained control over the area between 1944 and 1945.

Introduction

During World War II, in 1941, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Yugoslavia. The Vojvodina region was divided into three occupation zones: Banat was placed under direct German control, Bačka was attached to Horthy's Hungary and Syrmia was attached to the Independent State of Croatia. Since the beginning of the occupation, the occupying powers committed numerous war crimes against the civilian population of the region, especially against Serbs and Jews. [Zvonimir Golubović, Racija u Južnoj Bačkoj, 1942. godine, Novi Sad, 1991.] Therefore, many citizens of Vojvodina belonging to all ethnic groups joined the partisan resistance movement to fight against occupation. [Milorad Grujić, Vodič kroz Novi Sad i okolinu, Novi Sad, 2004.] The victims of the Axis troops were mostly civilians, while some were the fighters of the partisan resistance movement. [Slobodan Ćurčić, Broj stanovnika Vojvodine, Novi Sad, 1996.]

At the end of 1944, Axis troops were defeated by the Red Army and the whole of Vojvodina came under the control of the Yugoslav partisan forces. On October 17, 1944, by the order of Josip Broz Tito, the Banat, Bačka and Baranja regions were placed under military administration. About the establishment of this military government, Josip Broz Tito said the following: "The liberation of Bačka, Banat and Baranja requires the quickest possible return to normal life and the establishment of the people's democratic power in these territories. The specific circumstances under which these territories had to live during the occupation, and a mission to fully avert all adversities inflicted to our people by the occupying forces and foreign ethnic elements colonized here, requires that, in the beginning, we concentrate all power in order to mobilize the economy and carry on the war of liberation more successfully". [Jelena Popov, Vojvodina i Srbija, Veternik, 2001.]

Events

The partisan troops in Bačka had a very strict order, they had to "show the strongest possible determination against fifth columnists, especially against Germans and Hungarians".

The term "fifth column" is applied to the subversive and resistant forces and organizations left behind by a retreating enemy. The National Committee for People's Liberation and the Red Army had agreed on the necessary cooperation in due time.

Brigadier General Ivan Rukavina was appointed commander of the military administration. He was in constant and direct contact with Tito, the supreme commander. In his first decree, he ordered his troops to "protect the national future and the South Slavic character of the territories" . This sentence was meant to encourage the alteration of the existing ethnic makeup of the region, which - according to Serb claims - was a results of the Axis ethnic policy of genocide and colonization during the war, but one should not forget that Vojvodina (Vajdaság in Hungarian) belonged to Hungary for several centuries before.

In the October 28, 1944 issue of "Slobodna Vojvodina", the newspaper of the People's Liberation Front in Vojvodina, one member of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia summarized the intentions suggested from above, with the obvious aim to raise spirit for revenge by exaggerations and distortions:

Although we destroyed the occupying German and Hungarian hordes and drove them back to the west, we have not yet eradicated the roots of the poisonous weeds planted by them... The hundreds of thousands of foreigners who were settled on the territories where our ancestors had cleared the forests, drained the swamps, and created the conditions necessary for civilized life. These foreigners still kept shooting at our soldiers and the Soviet soldiers from the dark. They do everything they can to prevent the return to normal life, preparing, in the midst of this difficult situation, to stab us in the back again at the appropriate moment... The people feel that determined, energetic steps are needed to ensure the Yugoslav character of Bačka.

While according to Hungarian sources, a high level of order were kept during 1941-44, where the police kept a strict order, regardless of nationality.

The vengeance on the Hungarians, the idea of the vendetta, was in the minds of the partisan commissars who were in constant touch with their commander, General Rukavina. During the war, families of many members of the partisan army were victims of fascist Hungarian troops, thus, the idea was often seen among them as a personal revenge for the lost members of their families. The personal revenge here meant the killing of innocent Hungarian population (women, children) just because the same happened to Serb people in 1942 by fascist Hungarian army. Rukavina in turn had to inform Marshal Tito about all his decisions and all the military achievements of his subordinates.

The Yugoslav government, as soon as it got in touch with the new temporary democratic Hungarian government, declared its demand for a population exchange. They offered forty thousand Hungarians living in Bačka for the same number of South Slavs who were to move there in their place.

The killings were motivated both by revenge, and by the wish to lessen the number of Hungarians in their "homeland", where all their ancestors used to live for centuries. The yugoslav partizans committed all the various brutalities one can imagine. All this without any official process or any sentence. The thousands of victims were not buried normally, and they have never been given the last honour of life. Although this was a genocide, and thus still it can be brought to internationla court - this has never happened.

Controversy about number of victims

Various sources provide very different numbers of people killed. The estimates range from 40,000 Dimitrije Boarov, Politička istorija Vojvodine, Novi Sad, 2001.] to 50,000. [ [http://www.huncor.com/delvidek4445/delvidekindex2.htm Memorial site of the victims] ]

According to some sources, the most probable number of people killed is between 20,000 and 25,000, [Dragomir Jankov, Vojvodina - propadanje jednog regiona, Novi Sad, 2004.] [http://www.krater.hu/pprint.php?print=102&PHPSESSID=086c47ea596fafd2ed0f5f10ca1a0262] while others claim that the most probable number is about 35,000 (Cseres Tibor gives an exact estimate of 34,491 persons killed). [Cseres Tibor: Vérbosszú Bácskában. Magvető, Budapest, 1991. (Vendetta in Bačka, see above)]

Killings

Hungarian houses were sacked and a number of Hungarian civilians were executed and tortured. [Kasaš, Aleksandar: Mađari u Vojvodini 1941–1946. (Novi Sad, 1996) Filozofski fakultet u Novom Sadu, Odsek za istoriju.] Some women and children were raped. [Kasaš, Aleksandar: Mađari u Vojvodini 1941–1946. (Novi Sad, 1996)] Some men who were able to work were deported to Siberia. [Karapandžić, Borivoje: Jugoslovensko krvavo proleće 1945. Titovi Katini i Gulagi. (Beograd 1990: Mladost).]

Bibliography

*Fifty thousand Hungarian martyrs report about the Hungarian Holocaust in Jugoslavia, 1944-1992 - ed. István Nyárádi, 1992
*Márton Matuska: Days of the revenge. Forum Publisher, Novi Sad, 1991
* [http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/cseres/ Tibor Cseres: Serbian Vendetta in Bacska]

Notes

ee also

*Allied war crimes during World War II
*Occupation of Vojvodina, 1941-1944
*Foibe massacres

External links

* [http://www.huncor.com/delvidek4445/delvidekindex2.htm Memorial site of the victims]
* [http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/cseres/ Cseres Tibor's book on the web]