I don't know exactly when it was erected but it is the most dignified German cemetery in the Batschka that I've ever seen. Situated in a nature reserved area and a man watches everyone who visits the place. When we were there he asked us where we were from. And when I said that some of my ancestors are in that cemetery he got tears in the eyes and showed us all around.

Contributed by Andrea Ballreich

 

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Batschsentiwan, Batschka - Prigrevica, Vojvodina - The memorial garden
Photo by Unknown

The memorial garden site for the former Batschsentiwan, Batschka is located on the old site of the cemetery today's Prigrevica, Vojvodina. The former citizens of Batschsentiwan negotiated with the current town officials to salvage and refurbish such monuments which were at large being destroyed, moved or used for other purposes. Through the untiring efforts of the HOG Batschsentiwan and their present president Ernst Jäger, it was possible to interest such formers citizens who's grave stone were reparable to volunteer to bear the cost for doing so. With the erection of this memorial garden, the former citizens found a place they can visit in their old home town once called "Heimat." The dedication ceremony took place in May of 2005 and the pictures you see are from that event.

Contributed by Hans Kopp

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Budaörs (Hungarian Highlands) - Memorial to the Expulsion of the Germans
From: Donautal-Magazin Jg. 30, Nr. 140 dated 1. August 2006, pp. 8-9.
Gedenk Kreuz Kruschwel (more information)

Contributed by Nick Tullius

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Cincinnati, Ohio - Danube Swabians Memorial

Contributed by Hans Kopp

Cleveland, OH - Danube Swabians Memorial
Contributed by Photographer Hans Kopp

Elek (Bekes County, Hungary - Bronze Danube Swabian sculptures.
Danube Swabian Memorial 1939-1945, 450 names listed! (N. of Arad)
Contributed by Jody McKim, Photos by her cousins Axente & Renate Formann

Gakowa, 2004 - The Danube Swabians
Photos by Unknown

Inscription: A monument for our beloved, left behind in the death camp of Gakowa. We can forgive, but can not forget. May this symbol of faith and peace dwell in our hearts, only from the innermost of our harts we will find the strength, to bear our pain. May these leaves and flowers delight their souls. These leaves and flowers originate from the cemetery of Gakowa. Here lay our Danube Swabian compatriots, they will remain in our hearts forever. This cross has been raised in respectful and dignifying memory of them. The Danube Swabians are descendants of the ethnic German settlers, who were invited by the Habsburg emperors in the 18th Century to colonize the Panonian lowland. [Gakowa concentration camp March 1945 to January of 1948.]

   
Contributed by Hans Kopp

 

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Krndija Monument
Photos by Unknown
For the 3,000 Donauschwaben who found their resting place in the mass graves in the cemetery in Krndija (former Slavonia).

Nikolaus Lenau Memorial House - Lenauheim/Csatâd, Banat, Romania
Contributed by Photographer Jody McKim Pharr, 2004
(For more information and photos see: www.dvhh.us/lenauheim/nikolaus-lenau/index.htm) 
 

The Banater Schwaben Memorial located in the main Cemetery of Mannheim, Germany, was established 22 Jul 2001.  Dedicated to the Banater Schwaben and Berglanddeutsche who were victims of the World Wars, Yugoslavian extermination camps, abduction to Russia and Baragan deportation. The Mass was celebrated by Fr. Kaufmann from the homeland and Fr. Reinelt.   Richard S. Jäger, Chairman of H.O.G. Neupanat, was instrumental in erecting the monument inscribed with list of villages where these people lived. Memorial to the Banater Swabians Unveiled in Mannheim Main Cemetery by Richard S. Jäger, (German) Translated by George Brettrager see: North side of Monument inscriptions & South side of Monument inscriptions Monument Inscription Translation... Transcribed and Contributed by George Brettrager Banater Swabians and Bergland Germans THE VICTIMS of the World Wars 1914-1918  1939-1945 Of the extermination camps of the Tito regime 1944-1948 Of the abduction to Russia 1945-1949 Of the Baragan deportation 1951-1956 THE DEAD of the homeland of the flight and expulsion of the new homeland (DS Coat of Arms) FORGET THEM NOT

§ Location: The Hauptfriedhof (main cemetery) is in the NE side of town, just north of the Neckar River, on Hauptstrasse.  Go east on Hauptstrasse from B38 north of the Neckar; or north on B38A from the Mannheim airfield to Hauptstrasse, then west.  Within the cemetery it is just north of a colonnade which houses really old stones in the cemetery.   Most Mannheimers would know the way to the Hauptfriedhof. § Inscriptions, translations and photos were kindly contributed by George Brettrager, of Loves Park, Illinois, whose villages of interest are Glogowatz and Neupanat in Banat. See: banater-schwaben.org/index.php?id=103

Memorial to the Banater Swabians

Unveiled in Mannheim Main Cemetery

by Richard S. Jäger, First Chairman of AKdFF & Chairman of H.O.G. Neupanat
Translated and Contributed by George Brettrager

            On Sunday the 22^nd of July 2001, the Kreisverband[1] Mannheim of the Landsmannschaft der Banater Schwaben e.V.[2] issued an invitation to a memorial event on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the deportation of 10,000 Banater Schwaben to the Baragan Plain.[3]  Three thousand Germans from the Banat live in Mannheim and Baden-Württemberg is the sponsor state of the Banater Schwaben.  More than 500 participants—among them a Swabian lady still living in the Banat—followed the appeal of the Kreisverband under the leadership of the district chairman Richard S. Jäger to the memorial event.

            After the solemn entry of the banner delegations, couples dressed in traditional costume, the priests and honorary guests, the memorial event took place.  The choir of the Banater Schwaben sang the song “O Baragan, o Baragan, jetzt sind wir in der Wüste dran”[4] at the opening.  After the greeting to the honorary guests, the district chairman of the Banater Schwaben, Richard S. Jäger, outlined the life of suffering of his compatriots after the Second World War.  “Nobody has had to pay as cruelly for the most brutal war of all times as the expatriate Germans.  Revenge and retaliation were practiced on you; even six years after the end of the war—when peace prevailed in the rest of Europe—ten thousand innocent people, children and old people, were deported to the wide Plain of Baragan in the vicinity of the Black Sea just because they were Germans.  Not until 1956 were these innocent people allowed to return to the Banat homeland.  Already in January 1945, eighty thousand Germans from Romania were abducted to the Soviet Union for 5 years of forced labor; 15,000 were starved to death there.”  State Legislature Representative Klaus Dieter Reichardt—also on behalf of the representative of the state government for expelled people and emigrants, Secretary of State Heribert Rech MdL[5]—and CDU[6] party Chairman Dr. Sven-Joachim Otto—also on behalf of the mayor of the City of Mannheim—invited by Kreisverband Mannheim of the Landsmannschaft der Banater Schwaben e.V., unveiled a memorial stone in the main cemetery.  This draws attention to the fate of the Germans who fled and resettled from Romania, the former Yugoslavia and, to a smaller extent, from Hungary, who—as District Chairman Richard S. Jäger emphasized—“have found a new, very good home in Mannheim.”  “Expulsion and trampling of human rights under foot must be prevented in Europe forever,” Party Chairman Dr. Otto described a lesson from history like that; which the party chairman of the SPD,[7] Dr. Frank Mentrup, also endorsed in his greeting.  He also reminded that one is not allowed to treat people inhumanely on the basis of ethnic origin, of background.

            Klaus Dieter Reichardt cautioned against conducting the necessary battle against the extreme right excesses in German politics and at the same time forgetting the battle against extreme left excesses.  “As it was right to fight the Republicans[8] politically, it is wrong to make the PDS[9] acceptable politically.”

            The district chairman of the CDU, Professor Dr. Egon Jüttner, reaffirmed in his greeting: “The CDU remains especially closely connected to the exiles and emigrants who have found a new home in Germany and have given up revenge.”  He demanded the reversal of the cut in the means for cultural and historic work of the exiles and that the City of Mannheim now, through the city archives, works up the history of the displaced persons who came to the city after 1945 was universally approved on the initiative of the CDU district council faction.  Other honorary guests were the CDU City Councilwoman Regina Trösch and Wolfgang Schwöbel, manager of the Mannheim cemeteries.  For the federal association of the Landsmannschaft der Banater Schwaben, the deputy federal chairman Bernhard Krastl spoke; he thanked the district chairman and the entire Kreisverband for the exemplary work in the service of our ethnic group.  Others present were: Josef Jerger, state chairman of the Donauschwaben[10] in Rheinland-Pfalz, and Johann Leitenbor, chairman of the Kreisverband Frankenthal and many HOG[11] chairmen.

            After the memorial speeches, a solemn Mass took place, celebrated by homeland priest Kaufmann and Fr. Reinelt from the St. Laurentius Church in Mannheim-Käfertal.  Fr. Reinert, who experienced the fate of the exiles from the Sudetenland[12] himself, said in his sermon, “like 50 years ago, we celebrate the Mass today in the open air, when tens of thousands of people were abandoned in a desert steppe, had to dig themselves a hole in the earth and only one protected them, Our Lord Jesus Christ.  Faith and trust in God were for the Banater Schwaben—like for most of the exiles—the last glimmer of hope.”

            Three former deportees laid down a wreath with 50 red roses for their fellow sufferers who died in the deportation during the song “Ich hatte einen Kameraden.”[13]  The ceremony was surrounded musically by the “Evangelischen Stadtposaunenchor Mannheim e.V.,”[14] under the direction of Josef Krug and the Banater Choir from Frankenthal under the direction of Mrs. Muhl.  A really special thanks to Wolfgang Schwöbel, manager of the Mannheim cemeteries, who cosponsored this impressive ceremony.

            The collection—which was intended for the erection and care of the memorial—produced 1405.7 DM.[15]  Please direct other donations for the memorial to Landsmannschaft der Banater Schwaben – KV Mannheim, Konto 34045941 BLZ 67050505 with the Sparkasse Rhein-Neckar-Nord.  Sincere thanks to all contributors.

The Board

Ridgewood, NY - Linden Hill Cemetery
Contributed by Photographer Thomas C. Stalzer, 06 Sep 2011

Rudolfsgnad
Photos by Unknown
On November 4th, 2001, in a dignified ceremony, the 12,000 dead of Rudolfsgnad were remembered;
3,000 are buried at the cemetery of Rudolfsgnad (Knicanin) while 9,000 lie in mass graves on the Teletschka.
 

The Corpus Christy erected on the wall is original from Batsch-Brestowatz and was on a cross in front of the church prior to 1945. It was found in a dump by Franz Wesinger who smuggled it to Germany were it was re-gold plated and erected as lasting monument to our loved ones our faith and suffering.

The walls are in memory of the victims of the post "World War II" victims in Communist Yugoslavia.
Imprinted in the walls are the names of the towns and the number of victims the towns have suffered.

St. Louis, MO - Danube Swabian Memorial
Contributed by Photographer Connie Nisinger

Teletschka Grave Sites
Photos by Unknown
(Dr. Georg Wildmann) The monument at Teletschka is at the mass grave sites near Rudolfsgnad,
the former Banat were 9,000 Donauschwaben victims found their last resting place.

Tscherwenka - Memorial in the cemetery
Contributed by Photographer Noelle Giesse

Ulm, Germany - Emigrant Monument
Contributed by photographer Jody McKim Pharr, 2004
Located along the banks of the Danube River. The Homeland Association of the Banater Swabia lays a wreath.
Wall of Honor For The Donauschwaben
Adjacent to the above Emigrant Monument.

 
 Below: Click on each village name to enlarge the insert.

den Toten Banater Swaben

X Apatin Altpalanka Obrovac Gakowa X Bukin Neudorf Gajobra Rudolfsgnad

 

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