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Archiver > BANAT > 2002-09 > 1030974416


From: "Carol Head" <>
Subject: [BANAT-L] Enthusiastic Greeting of Wehrmacht
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 09:46:56 -0400


I have just read the 3rd and 4th part of the review by Prof.
Andelkovic. It was quite an eyeopener for me, as nothing was ever
said to me by our Bachka relatives about those events in the
Bachka.

>>The Wehrmacht units were greeted with delirious
enthusiasm in Yugoslav Swabian villages and towns. However,
in Bacska there were sporadic instances of Volksdeutsche
helpful behavior toward local Serbs by protecting them from
local Hungarians and Hungarian army that occupied this part of
Yugoslavia, or by issuing to Serbs the Kulturbund membership
cards. After the April War, that lasted only 17 days, the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia was dismembered. Hitler disregarded
the desires of Swabians who hoped for an independent or
autonomous Swabian Donauland or Prinz-Eugen Gau, either
attached to the Reich or under its immediate control<<
It brings to mind the days around Easter 1941. I was 10, and I
remember the enthusistic crowd greeting the German soldiers
who were marching toward the Yugoslav barracks not far from
our apartment. I do not know how large the Austrian diaspora
of Maribor was, but in our neighbourhood there were a few.
However, the crowd included many of our Slovene neighbours.
I remember the soldiers carrying huge hams over their
shoulders. Slovenes, like the Croats were also hoping for their
own country. The political and military domination by Serbs
was much resented. Unlike the Croats, the Slovenes were in for
a shock. The Nazis rounded up all the local R.C. priests (and
later nuns), and marched them down to the barracks. There
they were set to clean toilets and other humiliating tasks. But
the Lutheran minister who was of German descent was left
alone.
The important Slovene citizens of the town were deported to
Serbia, though those married to ethnic Austrians were allowed
to stay. Within two weeks the first Chetniks and later Partisans
appeared in the hills of Pohorje.
The Germanization of Eastern Slovenia began once the Nazis
realized they couldn't send the majority of the population to
camps in Austria. People were no longer allowed to speak
Slovene; the children were sent to summerschool to learn
German, thus preparing them for school in September.Many
Slovene teenagers were denied a highschool education.

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