The
Southern Banat
"A
Bloodbath
Without
Borders"
Kovin
Hundreds of years previously Danube
Swabian colonists had established what
began a major community on the north
bank of the Danube where formerly the
Turkish fortress Semendria had stood in
the midst of a swamp. It was known as
Kovin and five thousand Danube Swabians
lived here. But in the region about
Kovin there were other large Swabian
settlements at Ploschitz, Mramorak,
Bavanischte, Homolitz, Startschevo and
others whose population numbered in the
thousands.
The new
People’s Democratic Yugoslavian
government of Tito and the Partisans
systematically exterminated in excess of
ten thousand Danube Swabian men, women
and children living in this region. The
able bodied men from fifteen years and
older in these communities were to a
great extent shot or beaten to death.
Thousands of young Swabian women, both
married and single were dragged off from
their families and young mothers from
their children and were taken to Russia
as forced labor. Not a single teenage
girl or women returned home in good
health. The remaining Swabian
population was relentlessly driven out
of their homes and lost all of their
property. Everything they had was taken
away from them. Even the shoes and
clothes that they wore that were
demanded from them were handed over to
the Partisans. Now wearing only rags
they were dragged off to concentration
camps in the region of Kovin. This
provided the setting later for the
deaths of thousands of them, either as
individuals or in groups who were
liquidated by the Partisans who
slaughtered, beat, shot, tortured or
performed other gruesome deeds that led
to their deaths, while others were
simply left to die of starvation. Not a
single Swabian was left to live in Kovin
or the other communities in this
region.
On
October 13, 1944 the leading Swabians of
Kovin were taken from their homes and
were put to death in gruesome ways.
Among these first victims was Josef
Fitschelka who operated a soda factory.
He had to undress until he was naked in
the yard of the former landowner Franz
Schneider and then he was brutally
abused. The Partisans took a two handed
saw, held him down on his back and sawed
their way through his body across his
chest and stomach from left to right
while he was still living. He screamed
terribly. After him similar gruesome
methods were used in killing the other
rich people. Among them was the entire
family of the estate owner Franz
Schneider.
Immediately following this the Partisans
began to arrest all of the remaining
Swabian men in Kovin. They were all
imprisoned and for days they were
fearfully tortured. Early in the
morning at 2:00am on October 19th
two hundred and eighty of these men were
shot at the slaughtering range. Four
German prisoners of war were also
executed with them. Twenty other men
who were shot later had been forced to
dig the mass grave at the execution
site. When the pit was dug they were
ordered to move back fifty paces from it
and lie down sideways. The two hundred
and eighty selected victims and the four
German prisoners of war were fettered
and led there and were forced to undress
and in groups of ten they were ordered
to lie down in the pit. Whoever
disobeyed was fearfully abused. Once
the men were lying in the pit that
Partisans shot them from above. Then
the next group had to lie down on top of
the dead and severely wounded naked men
and they were shot in the same manner.
This went on like this until all of the
men had been liquidated. The twenty men
who were kept waiting, then shoveled
earth over the dead and badly wounded
men until the mass grave was completely
covered over.
On
October 20, 1944 another one hundred and
five Swabians from Kovin were shot in
the same manner.
Now
that most of the men from Kovin had
been exterminated, the Swabians from
the vicinity now had the full
attention of the Partisans. Day
after day, long columns of Swabians
from the surrounding district came
by wagon and on foot. They were
fettered and badly beaten and
bloodied. They were put in the camp
at Kovin and for days they were
terribly tortured before they too
suffered the same fate as the
Swabians from Kovin.
Ploschitz
Before the war
over one
thousand three
hundred Danube
Swabians lived
in Ploschitz.
When the
Partisans took
power they
arrested and
imprisoned many
of the Swabians.
On October 14th
the Partisans
had a party at
the local
village pub with
music and
dancing.
It was Sunday.
Next to the inn,
in various rooms
in the community
center the
Swabians were
imprisoned.
Around midnight
a pack of
Partisans got
their commander
to allow them to
get some of the
Swabians from
over in the
community
center.
The first was
Martin Repmann
the rich
butcher.
He was led to
the office of
the community
center.
Without any
reason at all,
and pure
bravado, a woman
Partisan hacked
off the finger
of his one hand
with a sword in
the presence of
the village
authorities.
Following that
another Partisan
severed his hand
up to his wrist.
Other Partisans
drew out their
knives and
stabbed him
while at the
same time they
bashed in his
head with their
rifles.
Gypsies later
dragged his body
out to the dump
and buried him
were dead
animals were
left to rot.
The second
victim to be
brought in was a
married woman,
Lina Klein.
She was stripped
naked by the
drunken
Partisans, who
dragged her out
to the yard of
the community
center.
The Partisans
crowded around
her and stabbed
her with a knife
in the area of
her vagina, and
hacked off a
finger of her
one hand.
They broke her
other hand.
They were still
not satisfied
with their
bloody
handiwork.
They stabbed her
numerous times
around the
throat.
She bled
profusely, but
was still not
dead. Only
after a drunk
Gypsy stabbed
her in the back
with a long
knife did she
finally
collapse.
In the presence
of some two
hundred
witnesses,
mostly Serbian
Partisans and
Gypsies her body
was dragged to
the well where
more Partisans
used her corpse
for target
practice with
their pistols.
Their third
victim that
night was Ernst
Schreiber the
watchmaker.
He was literally
butchered by the
Partisans with
their knives.
Now that the
Partisans had
quenched their
lust for blood
on their Swabian
victims they
went on with
their party at
the pub.
On the following
day the arrest
of the other
Swabians in
Ploschitz
continued.
These prisoners
were fearfully
tortured and
abused over the
next several
days and then on
October 19th
they were force
marched over to
Kovin. At
that camp they
were badly
mistreated and
beaten and
individually or
in groups they
were killed.
On October 23
there were only
forty-two
Swabians still
alive in
Ploschitz.
On that day they
were fettered
and driven on
foot to the dump
and shot there.
The method of
their
liquidation was
a carbon copy of
the procedures
used several
days before in
the shooting of
the Kovin
Swabians.
Among the
victims from
Ploschitz was
the photographer
Stefan Luftikus.
While they were
being forced to
undress and be
fettered, he
called out to
the Partisans,
“During the four
year occupation
by the Germans
we protected and
defended you
Serbs and
nothing happened
to a single one
of you.
And now, in
thanks for that
you now want to
kills us?”
Right after
speaking these
words he was
killed.
Mramorak
Mramorak was one of the two largest
Lutheran Danube Swabian communities in
the Banat along with Franzfeld.
After
the Partisans had taken the Swabians
from Ploschitz to Kovin large numbers
were also taken in fetters from Mramorak.
These too had earlier been driven out of
their homes by the Partisans and
imprisoned. After horrendous abuse by
the Partisans, hundreds of Swabians from
Mramorak were driven on foot to the
Serbian village of Bavanischte where
they again were mistreated, beaten and
tortured and on October 20th
they were shot en masse. After that the
surviving arrested Swabian men and women
in Mramorak were taken to Kovin. All
day long they were newly tortured in
horrendous new ways and some among them
were murdered. On October 28th
thirty-seven women and teenage girls
from Mramorak were shot. Prior to their
execution they were beaten and tortured
unmercifully in the jail at Kovin and
stripped of all of their clothes because
the Partisans wanted them for their own
wives and girlfriends. They force
marched the naked women and girls,
beating and thrashing them along the way
to the place of execution, the local
dump and animal cemetery. Others had
been forced to shovel out a mass grave
for them. They, like the men, the day
before them were driven to the mass
grave awaiting them. They too had to
lie down in the grave as the men had and
then they were shot. Any who resisted
were shot on the spot and tossed down
among the other naked women and girls
who had preceded them. Among the young
girls was Susi Harich one of the most
popular girls in Mramorak. At first she
was simply shot and badly wounded to
make her suffer. She called up to her
executioners, “Shoot me in the head,”
and a Partisan stepped forward and
killed her with one shot of his pistol.
Homolitz
In
one day, October 22, 1944 the Partisans
killed two hundred and eighty-seven
Danube Swabians including very many
children in the village of Homolitz.
Thirteen year old Knabe Moradolf was
among them. They were all taken from
their homes, one at a time, imprisoned
in the town hall and mistreated and
abused. The next morning they were
fettered and then driven on foot to the
brickyards at dawn. There they had to
strip themselves of all of their clothes
and then in groups they were driven to a
large pit that had been used in the
production of bricks. There they were
encircled by Partisans who mowed them
down with machine guns and their bodies
were thrown into the pit.
Startschevo
As
the first of their extermination efforts
in Startschevo the Partisans proceeded
much as they did at the same time in the
entire district around Kovin and
arrested and killed ten of the leading
Swabians who lived there. A few days
later, all men fifteen years of age and
over were driven together at the local
Guesthouse at night, and were fearfully
tortured and abused over a period of
time as was true in all of the other
Swabian communities in the district. At
a later date, all of them had to strip
naked and leave their shoes and clothes
in the Guesthouse. The Partisans bound
them to one another with wire and before
dawn the naked prisoners were force
marched to the place of execution and
old brickyard with constant beatings and
thrashing from whips along the way.
Near a large pit they were forced to
halt. Under the pressure of the
constant beatings of the Partisans with
their rifle butts, groups were forced to
the edge of the pit and were shot before
sunrise. Not a single man from the age
of fifteen upwards was left alive in
Startschevo. Among the victims was one
of the leading Swabians in the village,
whose family does not want his name to
be mentioned and his two sons. While
the father was wired together with his
oldest son, his younger son, not yet
fifteen years old was bound to a very
physically large man. The method of
shooting used by the Partisans was
simultaneous and directed at whole
groups and this large man was hit and
fell headlong into the pit. At the same
time he pulled the young boy in after
him who had not been hit by the spray of
bullets all around him. Other naked
dead men and badly wounded others fell
on top of both of them. After the
shooting ended, the Partisans and the
Gypsies who had also beaten some of the
Swabians to death, left without filling
in the mass grave. The young boy made
use of the blood running all over him
from the others to free himself from his
fetters. He crawled out of the grave
and left quickly stark naked. He found
sanctuary with some relatives and a few
weeks later he left Startschevo and
found safety and a hiding place in
Pantschowa.
Bavanischte
From
the village of Bavanischte there were
also Danube Swabians who had been
fearfully tortured by the Partisans and
taken to Kovin in fetters in October of
1944. They suffered the same fate as
all of the other Swabians in the
district of Kovin and were treated
brutally and shot. Especially gruesome
was the fate of Swabian women and young
teenage girls. On October 29, 1944 the
Partisans put to death twelve young
girls and women from Bavanischte at the
dump outside of Kovin. They had been
imprisoned in the courthouse at Kovin
from the time of their arrival from
Bavanischte and had been there for some
time. They had been molested and abused
fearfully. On the night of October 29th
the Partisans took them out of their
place of imprisonment and stripped them
of their clothes. Most of the teenage
girls were from among the prettiest in
the area and the married women were
among the healthiest. The Partisans
wanted to rape the prettiest among them,
Julianna Dines who was eighteen years
old. But she resisted with all of her
might and strength against the attempts
the Partisans and Gypsies made to rape
her and she screamed frightfully. In
their fury because they were unable to
achieve their goal, the Partisans took a
pair of pliers, held her down and tore
out a piece of flesh just above her
vagina and she began to bleed
profusely. During that same night all
of the women and young girls were
fettered, stripped naked and driven on
foot to the place of execution and
shot. But Julianna was first shot in
the foot to make her suffer and left to
lie there beside the grave. The young
Swabian was brave to the end and called
out to the Partisans who were mostly
Gypsies to shoot her in the head. Which
one of them finally did.
