Vukovar-Srijem County

Located on a hill overlooking the Danube river, which forms the border with the Vojvodina region of Serbia.

VUKOVAR and ILOK (Part 2/2) ILOK - WYLOK - VJOLK - Reminiscences of a visit in 1999: The return drive was more pleasant passing the lovely country sites through villages of Sarengrad and Sotin but soon we were back to the realities of war after as we drove straight trough the torn City of Vukovar. The return drive was more pleasant passing the lovely country sites through villages of Sarengrad and Sotin but soon we were back to the realities of war after as we drove straight trough the torn City of Vukovar Regional History of Vukovar & Ilok. (neat site, photos: Kurt McCrary)

After the revolution of 1848/49 the “Voivodate of Serbia and Temes Banat” was created and used German as the official language. The new “voivodate”, with Temeswar as its capital, included not only the Banat, but also the Batschka and the districts Ruma and Illok of the Comitat Syrmia, and reported directly to the Imperial Government in Vienna. (read more at "100th Year Banater Swabian in Austria 1907-2007" by Dr. Hans Dama)

Official the tourist pages of the town of Ilok (Croatian) (English) (German)

German community:  Before World War II Šidski Banovci was mostly populated by Germans. According to the census of 1910, Banovci had 990 residents, and 668 were Germans. They had developed a social life and a multitude of public institutions. The most important was the local Protestant church. Next door to the church was the school, which served as the city hall, and a bank was nearby. Local residents cherished traditional values, it was a village that maintained its strong work ethic. In late 1944 villagers had just barely escaped from Sidski Banovci. This was similar to that experienced by thousands of other ethnic Germans in the latter stages of World War II. The new post-war government declared that ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia were no longer citizens and confiscated their property. By 1945, nearly 500,000 Germans had been expelled the term that would be used in Article XIII of the Potsdam Agreement was “transfer”—from Yugoslavian territory. The residents of Sidski Banovci had some advanced warning from the German Army that they would have to leave their homes and evacuate the village. On October 17, with the Sidski Banovci church-bells pealing, a caravan of 40 to 50 families formed and proceeded out of the village and into the uncertain terrain ahead. They headed northwest toward Hungary. Huber family (Wilhelm Huber was born in 1824 and became the first Huber to settle in Sidski Banovci), in book The Past Rebuilt-The Huber Family Journey to Success, will describe their memories of that period.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banovci,_Vukovar-Syrmia_County )