Југословенски Банат 1941. године
The Yugoslav Banat 1941

Author(s): Zoran Janjetović
Subject(s): Civil Society, Military history, Political history, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije
Keywords: the Banat; occupation; Volksdeutsche; Hungarians; Germans; resistance movement; Jews;
Summary/Abstract: The Banat was a historical province with mixed population of the Serbs, Germans, Hungarians, Romanians, Slovaks and others. It was divided between Yugoslavia, Romania and Hungary in 1918. The reasons that made its division difficult persisted until 1941 and made the situation more complicated. The German minority that fell under Nazi influence during the 1930s sided with Germany on occasion of the attack of Axis powers in April 1941. Its para-military groups aided the aggressors. The stance of the Hungarians was similar. Hitler promised the Banat to Hungary but it remained part of the occupied Serbia because of Romania’s protests. The power in the province was in the hands of the Volksdeutsche who secured the privileged status. The Hungarians couldn’t influence the government much, and other nationalities even less. The main losers in the new situation were the Jews who were subject to various forms of maltreatement until August 1941 when they were shipped off to Belgrade. There they were gradually killed off by spring 1942, whereas their property was taken over by the Germans and to a smaller extent by the Hungarians. The Serbs were also discriminated against. Their revolt was led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, but due to its numerical weakness, unpreparedeness and lack of experience the actions of the resistance movement couldn’t cause much damage to the occupiers. By fall 1941 it was all but wiped out.

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