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==Occupational regime in Bačka and Baranja==
==Occupational regime in Bačka and Baranja==
At first, these territories were placed under military administration and were administered by Hungarian military commanders of the occupying forces. Later on, the Hungarian civil administration was introduced. On 27 December, these regions, referred to as “Southern Territories” ({{lang-hu|Délvidék}}), were by an Hungarian law formally incorporated into Hungary.<ref name="Thomas & Szabo">{{cite book|last1= Nigel|first1=Thomas|last2= Szabo|first2=Laszlo|title=The Royal Hungarian Army in World War II|year=2008|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-1-84603-324-7|pages=14|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=mMDfQqkq2_EC&pg=PA14&dq=3rd+Army+1941+Yugoslavia#v=onepage&q=3rd%20Army%201941%20Yugoslavia&f=false}}</ref> This act, however, was not internationally recognized and these territories were de jure still internationally regarded as parts of Yugoslavia. The Hungarian authorities have introduced a genocidal policy and endeavored to magyarize these territories.<ref name="Lemkin"/> Although the plans to deport 150,000 Serbs (including colonists from [[Interwar period]], but also native inhabitants) to the [[Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia]] were opposed by the German command in Belgrade, the Hungarian occupational regime expelled 50-60,000 of them mostly to Serbia.<ref>{{cite book|last= Pavlowitch|first=Stevan K.|title=Hitler's new disorder: the Second World War in Yugoslavia|year=2003|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-04839-2|pages=84|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=R8d2409V9tEC&pg=PA84&dq=resistance+in+ba%C4%8Dka#v=onepage&q=Backa&f=false}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last= Troebst |first=Stefan|title=Vertreibungen europäisch erinnern?|year=2008|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-70050-4|pages=156|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Sk39Uq9ujX8C&pg=PA156&dq=Okkupation+der+Batschka+1941#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref>
At first, these territories were placed under military administration and were administered by Hungarian military commanders of the occupying forces. Later on, the Hungarian civil administration was introduced. On 27 December, these regions, referred to as “Southern Territories” ({{lang-hu|Délvidék}}), were by an Hungarian law formally incorporated into Hungary.<ref name="Thomas & Szabo">{{cite book|last1= Nigel|first1=Thomas|last2= Szabo|first2=Laszlo|title=The Royal Hungarian Army in World War II|year=2008|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-1-84603-324-7|pages=14|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=mMDfQqkq2_EC&pg=PA14&dq=3rd+Army+1941+Yugoslavia#v=onepage&q=3rd%20Army%201941%20Yugoslavia&f=false}}</ref> This act, however, was not internationally recognized and these territories were de jure still internationally regarded as parts of Yugoslavia. The Hungarian authorities have introduced a genocidal policy and endeavored to magyarize these territories.<ref name="Lemkin"/> Although the plans to deport 150,000 Serbs (including colonists from [[Interwar period]], but also native inhabitants) to the area governed by the [[Military Administration in Serbia]] were opposed by the German command in Belgrade, the Hungarian occupational regime expelled 50-60,000 of them mostly to Serbia.<ref>{{cite book|last= Pavlowitch|first=Stevan K.|title=Hitler's new disorder: the Second World War in Yugoslavia|year=2003|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-04839-2|pages=84|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=R8d2409V9tEC&pg=PA84&dq=resistance+in+ba%C4%8Dka#v=onepage&q=Backa&f=false}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last= Troebst |first=Stefan|title=Vertreibungen europäisch erinnern?|year=2008|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-70050-4|pages=156|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Sk39Uq9ujX8C&pg=PA156&dq=Okkupation+der+Batschka+1941#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref>


During the war, the Hungarian fascist regime settled the [[Székelys of Bukovina]] on the land of expelled Serbs.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Palkó |first1=Zsuzsanna|last2= Dégh|first2=Linda|title=Hungarian folk tales|year=1996|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-0-87805-912-6|pages=xv|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=cnyzNWvVVIIC&pg=PR15&dq=Bacska#v=onepage&q=Bacska&f=false}}</ref> In 1941 more than 18,000 of them were reportedly settled in the Bačka and Baranja.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Jelavich |first1=Charles|last2= Jelavich|first2=Charles|title=The Balkans in Transition: Essays on the Development of Balkan Life and Politics Since the Eighteenth Century|year=1974|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-208-01431-3|pages=28|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=A0mWfovlJ9cC&pg=PA28&dq=Ba%C4%8Dka#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref>
During the war, the Hungarian fascist regime settled the [[Székelys of Bukovina]] on the land of expelled Serbs.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Palkó |first1=Zsuzsanna|last2= Dégh|first2=Linda|title=Hungarian folk tales|year=1996|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-0-87805-912-6|pages=xv|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=cnyzNWvVVIIC&pg=PR15&dq=Bacska#v=onepage&q=Bacska&f=false}}</ref> In 1941 more than 18,000 of them were reportedly settled in the Bačka and Baranja.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Jelavich |first1=Charles|last2= Jelavich|first2=Charles|title=The Balkans in Transition: Essays on the Development of Balkan Life and Politics Since the Eighteenth Century|year=1974|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-208-01431-3|pages=28|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=A0mWfovlJ9cC&pg=PA28&dq=Ba%C4%8Dka#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref>

Revision as of 20:49, 16 August 2012

Hungarian occupation of Bačka and Baranja, 1941-1944. Area of occupation is compared with area of municipalities where speakers of Hungarian were in majority according to 1931 census. Population whose native language was not Hungarian formed the majority of inhabitants in most parts of this territory that was occupied by Hungary.

The Hungarian occupation of Bačka and Baranja regions of Yugoslavia lasted from 1941 to 1944. It began on 11 April 1941 with the deployment of 80,000 troops. The Hungarian Third Army met no resistance. However, the local Volksdeutsche minority, which was mostly pro-Nazi oriented, had already organized a militia and quickly disarmed some 90,000 Yugoslav troops. Despite the absence of resistance in the beginning, the Hungarian troops engaged in wholesale killing of civilians, which struck local Germans as well.[1] Yugoslav sources estimate that about 3,500 civilians were killed in Bačka and Baranja in the first days of occupation.[2]

In the following period, Yugoslav partisans began subversive activity against the Hungarian occupational administration, which became more intensive after mid-December 1941. Their activity was to a large extent concentrated in the Serb ethnic area of southern Bačka in the historical Šajkaška region (e.g. in the settlements of Čurug, Žabalj, Mošorin, etc.), where Hungarian Army, gendarmerie and counterintelligence avenged their losses with increasing brutality. Due to these raids in January 1942 the Serb population was collectively called to account in many places, such as Bečej, Srbobran and Novi Sad.[3] According to Enikő A. Sajti, 2,550 Serbs, 743 Jews and 47 other people fell victim during January 1942 events.[4]

Background

After the Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Trianon, which defined border between Hungary and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Hungarian leaders who were not satisfied with these borders advocated their revision. The Paris Peace Conference divided regions of Bačka, Baranja and Banat between Hungary, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and Romania, and the area that was assigned to newly established South Slavic kingdom (including larger part of Bačka, smaller southern part of Baranja, and smaller western part of Banat) had a population of 1,52 million people and Serb ethnic plurality. Sizable Hungarian and German minorities also remained in the area. During the inter-war years the relations between these countries were greatly strained.[5][6]

Between 1938 and 1940, following German mediation in the First Vienna Award and the Second Vienna Award and the Hungarian invasion of Carpatho-Ukraine, Hungary enlarged its borders and included parts of southern Slovakia, Carpathian Ruthenia and northern part of Transylvania, which Kingdom of Romania was forced to cede to Hungary. Due to the German support to these border revisions, Hungary established even closer relations with Germany.[7] In December 1940, at the initiative of the prime minister, Count Pál Teleki, Hungary concluded a friendship and nonaggression treaty with Yugoslavia. Both countries were nonparticipants in the war, and the pact was meant to underscore their common nonbelligerent status.[8] Although the idea of the treaty was supported in Berlin and Rome, the treaty itself was received with mixed feelings. Germany was well on its way in preparing an attack on Greece, and taming Yugoslavia would obviously assist in these plans.[9] After the regime change in Yugoslavia and subsequent German invasion of the country in 1941, Pál Teleki was unable to stop his government from granting the Wehrmacht permission to cross Yugoslav border. Convinced that his country had dishonored itself beyond redemption, Teleki retired to his office and committed suicide.[10][11] The new prime minister of Hungary, László Bárdossy, ordered the Hungarian army to follow in the steps of the German Wehrmacht and to occupy northern parts of Yugoslavia.[12]

Invasion

Hoping for change of the Hungarian-Yugoslav border, defined by the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary entered into war on the side of Germany.[13] Under the pretext of protecting the Hungarian minority, on the 11th April 1941 the Hungarian 3rd Army occupied Bačka and Baranja regions, with Mobile, IV & V Corps and I & VII in reserve.[14][15][16][17]

Admiral Miklós Horthy wrote in his diary:

April 10th, the Independent state of Croatia was proclaimed. At the same time we received a growning number of reports of acts of violence perpetrated by local partisans on the Hungarian people on Yugoslav soil.[18]

The fast maneuvres of the German army forced the tactical withdrawal of the Yugoslav forces confronting the Hungarian army units in the Bačka without clashes. Therefore the Hungarian General Staff regarded only the Chetnik units and the Partisan voulunteers as a significant enemy.[19][20]

Horthy continues:

Wishing to end the ravages of anarchy. I only then gave orders to my troops to occupy the Bačka and to protect life and property of the large number of Hungarians living in this area, which had been torn away from the Fatherland in 1918.[18]

On 12 April, the 1st Parachute Battalion captured canal bridges at Vrbas and Srbobran. Meanwhile, Sombor and Subotica were also captured. Finally, on 13 April, 1st and 2nd Motorized Brigade occupied Novi Sad, going on to take a part in conquering of the rest of Yugoslavia with German forces.[17] News of successful victory of armed forces in Yugoslavia were welcomed rapturously in the Hungarian Parliament.[7]

Occupational regime in Bačka and Baranja

At first, these territories were placed under military administration and were administered by Hungarian military commanders of the occupying forces. Later on, the Hungarian civil administration was introduced. On 27 December, these regions, referred to as “Southern Territories” (Hungarian: Délvidék), were by an Hungarian law formally incorporated into Hungary.[17] This act, however, was not internationally recognized and these territories were de jure still internationally regarded as parts of Yugoslavia. The Hungarian authorities have introduced a genocidal policy and endeavored to magyarize these territories.[5] Although the plans to deport 150,000 Serbs (including colonists from Interwar period, but also native inhabitants) to the area governed by the Military Administration in Serbia were opposed by the German command in Belgrade, the Hungarian occupational regime expelled 50-60,000 of them mostly to Serbia.[21][22]

During the war, the Hungarian fascist regime settled the Székelys of Bukovina on the land of expelled Serbs.[23] In 1941 more than 18,000 of them were reportedly settled in the Bačka and Baranja.[24]

The Resistance

Opposing the mass destruction of Yugoslav citizens and magyarization, local Yugoslav partisans were committed to united Yugoslav resistance to the usurper.[25] After the resistance broke out in Hungarian-annexed Bačka and Baranja in the second half of 1941, the Hungarian military personnel, like in other occupied zones, reacted with heavily repressive measures.[2] Even before the Partisans of Vojvodina managed to stand on their own feet, the German and Hungarian occupiers largely destroyed their movement in the lowlands of the Banat and Bačka by the end of 1941.[26] The resistance, however, had much larger success in Syrmia.

The Terror Regime

Less than a year of the beginning of the occupation, in January 1942, the Hungarian army and gendarmerie massacred more than 3,300 people in and around Novi Sad on the excuse of searching for partisans.[27] Raids were carried out in Šajkaška from January 4 to January 19, 1942; in Novi Sad from January 21 to January 23; and in Bečej from January 25 to January 29. The raids were ordered by lieutenant-general Ferenc Feketehalmy-Czeidner, major-general József Grassy, colonel László Deák and gendarmerie captain Márton Zöldy, but, according to historian Zvonimir Golubović, they were planned by the highest military and civil officials of Hungary, including Chief of Staff Ferenc Szombathelyi, Minister of Internal Affairs Ferenc Keresztes Fiser, Minister of People's Defense Károly Barta, President of the Hungarian government László Bárdosi, and Regent Miklós Horthy himself.[28] With little evidence about the location and identity of the Yugoslav partisans, the raid in Novi Sad was carried out over a three-day period in the form of mostly random savagery that costed many lives. Victims of these raids were primarily Serbs and Jews, but also members of other ethnicities: Roma people, a small number of Russian refugees who had fled Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution, and even some local Hungarians.[29]

The Liberation and aftermath

Occupation of Bačka and Baranja regions lasted until 1944. Fearing that Hungary might conclude a separate peace with the Allies, in March 1944, Hitler launched Operation Margarethe and ordered German troops to occupy Hungary and its annexed territories. A couple of days after the Red Army entered the Banat on October 1, 1944, the German evacuation of Bačka, including the local Volksdeutsche, began.[30] With the advance of Yugoslav partisans and Soviet Red Army, some of the Germans of Bačka left from the region and some other, despite the situation, stayed.[31] In October 1944, Banat and Bačka were captured by Soviet troops. After a few weeks, they withdrew and ceded the full control to Yugoslav partisans.[32] About 60,000–70,000 Germans were evacuated from Bačka; while additional 30,000–60,000 Germans from Bačka were serving in the Wehrmacht at the time.[1] The first period of communist administration until spring of 1945 is characterized by persecutions targeted against one part of local population, with mass executions, internments and abuses.[32] Victims of communist regime were of different ethnic backgrounds and included some members of Hungarian and German minority, but also members of majority Serb population. Hungarian writer Tibor Cseres in his book [33] describes, in detail, crimes he claims the Yugoslav communists committed against the Hungarian minority.[34]

After the liberation of Yugoslavia, the military and national courts in Bačka prosecuted war criminals and traitors who during the period of occupation killed about 10-20,000 innocent men, women, and children from all parts of Bačka. The Security Service of Vojvodina captured the majority of these defendants. Meanwhile, some of those who were responsible for the genocide in southern Bačka were captured in, and extradited from, newly-formed People's Republic of Hungary.[35] Prof. Dr. Sándor Kaszás from Novi Sad University in his book Mađari u Vojvodini: 1941–1946 [Hungarians in Vojvodina: 1941-1946] (Novi Sad, 1996) listed a total of 1,686 executed war criminals by name.[36]

In accordance with the provisions of Article 14 of the Armistice Agreement, the Hungarian authorities extradited to Yugoslavia several top-ranking officers charged with complicity in the massacre of thousands of Serbs and Jews in the Bačka. The accused, including Gen Ferenc Szombathelyi, the former chief of the General Staff; Gen. Ferenc Feketehalmy-Czeydner, the commander of the Fifth Army Corps; Maj. Gen. József Grassy; and Capt. Márton Zöldi, were first tried in Hungary.[37] The National Court of Hungary in Budapest found Ferenc Feketehalmy-Czeydner guilty as the main perpetrator of war crimes and sentenced him to death by hanging and the confiscation of his property.[35]

  • Monument to the victims in Novi Sad.
    Monument to the victims in Novi Sad.
  • Monument of the 1942 raid victims near Žabalj
    Monument of the 1942 raid victims near Žabalj

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Ramet, Sabrina P (2006). The three Yugoslavias: state-building and legitimation, 1918–2005. Indiana University Press. pp. 137–8. ISBN 978-0-253-34656-8.
  2. ^ a b Tomasevich, Jozo (2001). War and revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: occupation and collaboration. Stanford University Press. pp. 169–72. ISBN 978-0-8047-3615-2.
  3. ^ Kocsis, Károly; Hodosi, Eszter (1998). Ethnic Geography of the Hungarian Minorities in the Carpathian Basin. Simon Publications LLC. p. 153. ISBN 978-1-931313-75-9.
  4. ^ Sajti, Enikő A. (1987). Délvidék, 1941-1944: A magyar kormanyok delszlav politikaja. Kossuth Könyvkiadó. p. 153. ISBN 978-963-09-3078-9.
  5. ^ a b Lemkin, Raphael (2008). Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. pp. 261–3. ISBN 978-1-58477-901-8.
  6. ^ Dunn, Seamus; Fraser, T. G. (1996). Europe and ethnicity: the First World War and contemporary ethnic conflict. Routledge. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-415-11996-2.
  7. ^ a b Pogany, Istvan S. (1997). Righting wrongs in Eastern Europe. Manchester University Press ND. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-7190-3042-0.
  8. ^ Balas, Egon (2008). Will to Freedom: A Perilous Journey Through Fascism and Communism. Syracuse University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-8156-0930-8.
  9. ^ Wylie, Neville (2002). European neutrals and non-belligerents during the Second World War. Cambridge University Press. p. 171. ISBN 978-0-521-64358-0.
  10. ^ Eby, Cecil D. (1998). Hungary at war: civilians and soldiers in World War II. Penn State Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-271-01739-6.
  11. ^ Coppa, Frank J. (2006). Encyclopedia of modern dictators: from Napoleon to the present. Peter Lang Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-8204-5010-0.
  12. ^ Granville, Johanna Cushing; Garthoff, Raymond L. (1998). The first domino: international decision making during the Hungarian crisis of 1956. Texas A&M University Press. p. 204. ISBN 978-1-58544-298-0.
  13. ^ Tattay, Levente (2010). Intellectual Property Law in Hungary. Kluwer Law International. p. 24. ISBN 978-90-411-3383-0.
  14. ^ Abbott, Peter; Thomas, Nigel; Chappell, Mike (1982). Germany's Eastern Front Allies 1941-45, Vol 1. Osprey Publishing. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-85045-475-8.
  15. ^ Wehler, Hans Ulrich (1980). Nationalitätenpolitik in Jugoslawien. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 50. ISBN 978-3-525-01322-9.
  16. ^ Portmann, Michael (2007). Serbien und Montenegro im zweiten Weltkrieg 1941-1945. GRIN Verlag. p. 76. ISBN 978-3-638-70869-2.
  17. ^ a b c Nigel, Thomas; Szabo, Laszlo (2008). The Royal Hungarian Army in World War II. Osprey Publishing. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-84603-324-7.
  18. ^ a b Horthy, Nicholas (2000). Admiral Nicholas Horthy: memoirs. Simon Publications LLC. p. 226. ISBN 978-0-9665734-3-5.
  19. ^ Komjáthy, Anthony Tihamér (1993). Give peace one more chance!: revision of the 1946 Peace Treaty of Paris. University Press of America. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-8191-8905-9.
  20. ^ Cseres, Tibor (1991). Vérbosszú a Bácskában [Vendetta in Bačka]. Magvetö Publications. pp. 61–5.
  21. ^ Pavlowitch, Stevan K. (2003). Hitler's new disorder: the Second World War in Yugoslavia. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 84. ISBN 978-3-447-04839-2.
  22. ^ Troebst, Stefan (2008). Vertreibungen europäisch erinnern?. Columbia University Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-231-70050-4.
  23. ^ Palkó, Zsuzsanna; Dégh, Linda (1996). Hungarian folk tales. Univ. Press of Mississippi. pp. xv. ISBN 978-0-87805-912-6.
  24. ^ Jelavich, Charles; Jelavich, Charles (1974). The Balkans in Transition: Essays on the Development of Balkan Life and Politics Since the Eighteenth Century. University of California Press. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-208-01431-3.
  25. ^ Udovički, Jasminka; Ridgeway, James (2000). Burn this house: the making and unmaking of Yugoslavia. Duke University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-8223-2590-1.
  26. ^ Banac, Ivo (1988). With Stalin against Tito: Cominformist splits in Yugoslav Communism. Cornell University Press. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-8014-2186-0.
  27. ^ Kádár, Gábor; Vági, Zoltán (2004). Self-financing genocide: the gold train, the Becher case and the wealth of Hungarian Jews. Central European University Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-963-9241-53-4.
  28. ^ Zvonimir Golubović, Racija 1942, Enciklopedija Novog Sada, knjiga 23, Novi Sad, 2004, page 221
  29. ^ Segel, Harold B. (2008). The Columbia literary history of Eastern Europe since 1945. Columbia University Press. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-231-13306-7.
  30. ^ Wolff, Stefan (2000). German minorities in Europe: ethnic identity and cultural belonging. Berghahn Books. p. 152. ISBN 978-1-57181-738-9.
  31. ^ Ronen, Dov; Pelinka, Anton (1997). The challenge of ethnic conflict, democracy and self-determination in Central Europe. Routledge. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-7146-4752-4.
  32. ^ a b Ther, Philipp; Sundhaussen, Holm (2001). Nationalitätenkonflikte im 20. Jahrhundert: Ursachen von inter-ethnischer Gewalt im Vergleich. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 69. ISBN 978-3-447-04494-3.
  33. ^ Titoist Atrocities in Vojvodina, 1944−1945: Serbian Vendetta in Bácska (Buffalo, New York 1993)
  34. ^ Segel, Harold B (2008). The Columbia literary history of Eastern Europe since 1945. Columbia University Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-231-13306-7.
  35. ^ a b Klajn, Lajčo (2007). The past in present times: the Yugoslav saga. University Press of America. pp. 133–6. ISBN 978-0-7618-3647-6.
  36. ^ Portmann, Michael (2007). Communist Retaliation and Persecution on Yugoslav Territory During and After WWII (1943-1950). GRIN Verlag. p. 19. ISBN 978-3-638-66048-8.
  37. ^ Braham, Randolph L. (2000). The politics of genocide: the Holocaust in Hungary. Wayne State University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-8143-2691-6.
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