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Draft:Persecution of Germans in Yugoslavia (1944-1948)

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Persecution of Germans in Yugoslavia
Part of the Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944-1950)
Marshal Josip Broz “Tito”, primarily responsible for organizing the persecutions of Germans in Yugoslavia
LocationYugoslavia
Date1944-1948
TargetGerman civilians in Yugoslavia
Attack type
Mass murder, ethnic cleansing, forced labor, persecution, discrimination
Deathsc. 58,000-135,000[1][2][3][4]
Victimsc. 167,000 interned in concentration camps[5]
c. 245,000 deported or fled[6]
Perpetrators Yugoslav authorities under Tito
Yugoslav Partisans
MotiveAnti-German sentiment
Revenge for Nazi atrocities

Persecution of Germans in Yugoslavia


Background

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Before World War II, approximately 500,000 ethnic Germans lived in Yugoslavia.[7]


Following Germany’s defeat in World War II, German civilians in Yugoslavia were dubbed “enemies of the people” by Tito, and subsequently suffered persecution, forced labour, internment in concentration camps, and massacre at the hands of Yugoslav authorities and the Yugoslav Partisans.[8][9][10][11]

Massacre by Yugoslav Partisans

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Around 7,200 German civilians were massacred outright by the Yugoslav Partisans towards the end of the war.[9][8]

Systematic persecution by Yugoslav authorities under Tito

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Meanwhile, estimates suggest that from 1944-1948, around 167,000 Germans were interned in Yugoslav concentration/labour camps, while another 245,000 were deported or fled. In March 1945, Tito initiated a second phase in which ethnic Germans were packed into villages such as Gakowa and Kruševlje that were in turn converted into labour camps. All furniture was removed, straw placed on the floor, and the expellees housed like animals under military guard, with minimal food and rampant, untreated disease. Families were divided into the unfit; I.e. women, old, and children, and those fit, for slave labour. In total, roughly 50,000-128,000 perished in concentration camps and from various other methods of persecution. Around 2,000 Germans died in Soviet labor camps following their deportation by Yugoslav authorities.[8][9][10][11][12]

According to figures covering the period of late 1944, the Soviets transported 27,000 to 30,000 ethnic Germans, a majority of whom were women aged 18 to 35, to Ukraine and the Donbas for forced labour, with about 20% (5,683) were reported dead or missing.[13][8][9] Data from Russian archives from 2001 put the number of German civilians deported from Yugoslavia to the USSR in early 1945 for reparation labour at 12,579, with around 2,000 dying.[14]

Aftermath

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By 1950, it is estimated that only 82,000 ethnic Germans remained in Yugoslavia out of a prewar population of over 500,000.[15] Many also were able to immigrate to the United States, thanks to the Displaced Persons Act of 1948.[7]

References

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  1. ^ Steffen Prauser and Arfon Rees, "The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War" Archived 1 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine, cadmus.iue.it, European University Institute, Florence. HEC No. 2004/1, pp. 53–54; accessed 26 May 2015.
  2. ^ Leidensweg der Deutschen im kommunistischen Jugoslawien, authored by Arbeitskreis Dokumentation im Bundesverband der Landsmannschaft der Donauschwaben aus Jugoslawien, Sindelfingen, and by Donauschwäbische Kulturstiftung, Munich: Die Stiftung, 1991–1995, vol. 4, pp. 1018–1019.(in German)
  3. ^ Wildmann, Georg; Sonnleitner, Hans; Weber, Karl (2001). Genocide of the Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia, 1944-1948. Danube Swabian Association of the U.S.A., Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-9710341-0-5.
  4. ^ Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevölkerungsbilanzen für die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50, Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden (ed.), Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 1958, p. 46(in German)
  5. ^ Leidensweg der Deutschen im kommunistischen Jugoslawien, authored by Arbeitskreis Dokumentation im Bundesverband der Landsmannschaft der Donauschwaben aus Jugoslawien, Sindelfingen, and by Donauschwäbische Kulturstiftung, Munich: Die Stiftung, 1991–1995, vol. 4, pp. 1018–1019.(in German)
  6. ^ Wildmann, Georg; Sonnleitner, Hans; Weber, Karl (2001). Genocide of the Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia, 1944-1948. Danube Swabian Association of the U.S.A., Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-9710341-0-5.
  7. ^ a b Bundesministerium für Vertriebene (ed.), "Das Schicksal der Deutschen in Jugoslawien", in: Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa; vol 5, 1961. (in German)
  8. ^ a b c d "BBC - History - World Wars: European Refugee Movements After World War Two". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  9. ^ a b c d Steffen Prauser and Arfon Rees, "The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War" Archived 1 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine, cadmus.iue.it, European University Institute, Florence. HEC No. 2004/1, pp. 53–54; accessed 26 May 2015.
  10. ^ a b Leidensweg der Deutschen im kommunistischen Jugoslawien, authored by Arbeitskreis Dokumentation im Bundesverband der Landsmannschaft der Donauschwaben aus Jugoslawien, Sindelfingen, and by Donauschwäbische Kulturstiftung, Munich: Die Stiftung, 1991–1995, vol. 4, pp. 1018–1019.(in German)
  11. ^ a b Wildmann, Georg; Sonnleitner, Hans; Weber, Karl (2001). Genocide of the Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia, 1944-1948. Danube Swabian Association of the U.S.A., Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-9710341-0-5.
  12. ^ Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevölkerungsbilanzen für die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50, Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden (ed.), Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 1958, p. 46 (in German)
  13. ^ Bundesministerium für Vertriebene (ed.), "Das Schicksal der Deutschen in Jugoslawien", Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa; vol. 5 (1961)(in German)
  14. ^ Pavel Polian, Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR, Central European University Press, 2003, pp. 268–294; ISBN 963-9241-68-7; accessed 26 May 2015.
  15. ^ Richard Overy (1996). The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich (1st ed.). Penguin Books (Non-Classics). p. 144. ISBN 0-14-051330-2.


Category:Massacres in Yugoslavia Category:Anti-German sentiment Category:Yugoslav war crimes Category:World War II crimes in Yugoslavia