Vladimir Geiger
Croatian Institute for History, geiger@isp.hr
After World War Two, the new communist government in
Yugoslavia took away all national and civil rights of the country’s German minority (Volksdeutsche),
as well as confiscating all of their property. The only Volksdeutsche who were not
victims of this collective retribution were those who could prove their participation
in, or at least assistance to, the Partisan movement. For the rest, their fate
included the confiscation of their property, expulsion, and internment in camps.
Ultimately, the history and fate of Croatian and Yugoslav Volksdeutsche at the end of
World War Two was intimately, exclusively, and one-sidedly tied to the collapse of the
Third Reich, as was generally the fate of Germans in eastern and southeastern Europe.
It has been estimated that out of the 500,000 Volksdeutsche who lived in
the territory of Yugoslavia before the end of World War Two, some 240,000 were
evacuated before the arrival of the Red Army and the National Liberation Army, i.e.,
Yugoslav Partisan units, never to return to their ancestral homes. Around 200,000
Volksdeutsche, not including those individuals mobilized into various military units,
fell under the control of the communist government in Yugoslavia. About a quarter of
that number died in internment camps, while the rest disappeared during the postwar
ethnic cleansing or fled into exile. According to German/Volksdeutsche figures, of the
195,000 Volksdeutsche who remained in Yugoslavia, from the end of 1945 until early
1948 around 170,000 individuals were interned in camps.
Documentary sources and eyewitness accounts confirm that entire Volksdeutsche
families, the elderly, and women with children, regardless of age, were sent into the
camps. Based on the available sources, most of the deaths in the camps were due to
diseases, such as typhus, fatigue, cold, and hunger. Even though liquidations were
neither massive nor frequent, there were cases of abuse and killing. About 50,000 to
60,000 members of the German minority in the camps died from ill-treatment, cold,
hunger, typhus, and dysentery. The death rate of the Volksdeutsche in Yugoslav camps
was around 30%. At present, 70% (48,687) of the victims have been identified by name,
and the newest research is definitely expanding these figures.
At least 10,000 to 20,000 Croatian Volksdeutsche, for the most part
civilians who remained in their native villages, were interned during 1945, 1946, and
1947 in transit and work camps, in which at least several thousand lost their lives.
Based on the available sources, the largest camps for German minorities on Croatian
territory during that time period were Josipovac near Osijek, Valpovo, Velika Pisanica
near Bjelovar, Krndija near Đakovo, Šipovac near Našice, Pusta Podunavlje in Baranja,
and Tenja/Tenjska Mitnica near Osijek.
This article focuses on the prisoners and victims in the Krndija
internment camp, which operated from August 1945 until May 1946, including data on
their numbers as well as age, sex, and background statistics.
A
German village transformed into a camp
For the fate of Germans in Croatia, the village of
Krndija in Slavonia (four kilometers northwest of Punitovci in the Đakovo area) is
paradigmatic. Once a mostly ethnic German settlement, which grew quickly after being
founded in 1882/1883, it disappeared literally “overnight.” Its population moved or
fled at the end of October 1944, while the Yugoslav communist authorities subsequently
transformed Krndija into a camp for the remaining Germans in the region during 1945
and 1946.
From August 1945 until May 1946, the abandoned German
village of Krndija became one of the largest internment camps in Croatia and
Yugoslavia for the remaining Volksdeutsche population (mostly the elderly, women, and
children) from Slavonia and Syrmia (Đakovo, Vinkovci, Slavonski Brod, Županja,
Slatina, Virovitica, Požega, Vukovar), central Croatia (Zagreb, Novska, Kutina,
Garešnica, Daruvar, Bjelovar, Sisak, Kostajnica), and the Bosnian Posavina (Bosanski
Brod, Bjeljina, Brčko, Prnjavor). The unfortunate camp inmates were faced not only
with unfavorable housing conditions, but had exceptionally bad nutrition, poor
hygiene, and a scarcity of medicine and medical services, suffered from various
diseases, and were subjected to a strenuous work regimen. They died mostly from
diseases (such as typhus), hunger, exhaustion, and the cold. During the winter of
1945/1946, especially from January 1946, an epidemic of typhus fever began to ravage
the camp and quickly reached terrifying proportions.
By the end of March and early April 1946, steps were taken to bring the epidemic under
control. Other than a few isolated incidents, which undoubtedly occurred, killings and
executions did not take place in Krndija. Dead inmates were buried at the local
cemetery, often without tombstone markings or names. It is estimated that from 1945 to
1946, between 3,500 and 4,000 inmates passed through the Krndija camp, and
approximately 500 to 1,500 of them lost their lives.
History books, journalistic works, memoirs, and
testimonies and eyewitness accounts by camp inmates, members of the camp
administration, and other contemporaries, as well as documents, provide very different
allegations, claims, estimates, and lists of names regarding the numbers and
demographics of the Volkesdeutsche victims in camps in Croatia from May 1945 to early
1947, including the Krndija camp. The exact number of Croatian Volkesdeutsche who were
interned in postwar camps, as well as the exact number of those who died, will
certainly never be fully confirmed. In addition to all of the available documentary
sources, testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and other related literature provide a
basic overview of both the Volkesdeutsche camps in Croatia in general as well as the
Krndija camp specifically.
Numbers and demographics
of
the Krndija camp inmates
As mentioned above, the most reliable sources and
estimates suggest that from August 1945 to May 1946, between 3,500 and 4,000
individuals passed through the Krndija camp, most of whom were the elderly, women, and
children.
According to a report from the Department of National Security of the
Slavonski Brod NO District from 18 September 1945, sent to the Interior Ministry’s
Department of Criminal Justice in Zagreb, the Krndija transit camp held 2,552
individuals.
Another report about the status of the German minority was sent on 12 November 1945
from the Interior Ministry of the People’s Government of Croatia in Zagreb to the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia (as well as the Federal Interior
Ministry of DF Yugoslavia in Belgrade). The report stated that as of 30 October 1945,
approximately 11,000 Germans, “German citizens, and those of German nationality” were
placed in various camps in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja, and Western Syrmia (the largest
camps were Valpovo and Krndija, with 3,806 and 3,500 camp inmates respectively), where
they were used for various work activities. It also noted that “whenever possible,
they [the Volksdeutsche inmates] are used as labor and are expected to support
themselves from their own work.” The minister of the interior of the People’s
Government of Croatia, Vicko Krstulović, stated in the report that “especially
accommodation and food supplies are a problem…For now we are placing them on special
estates as much as conditions allow.” He added that among the inmates there was a
significant number of elderly people and children, “who make up about 30% of the
inmates and who are for the most part in the Krndija camp, which has the best
conditions to hold them.”
According to a request for supplies from the People’s District Committee in Slavonski
Brod, in March 1946 there were 3,200 “captives,” or “inmates,” in the Krndija camp.
Serious estimates of victims in the Krndija camp from 1945 to 1946 vary
from several hundred
to at least 500,
from 500 to 1,500,
and even more than 2,000 individuals.
There also exist considerably larger, unsubstantiated, and exaggerated estimates and
claims about the number of camp inmates (up to 10,000) and the number of victims (up
to 5,000) in Krndija.
History books, articles in the press, memoirs, testimonies, and eyewitness accounts by
camp survivors provide various claims, allegations, estimates, and descriptions of the
Krndija camp in 1945 and 1946, especially regarding the functioning of and conditions
in the camp in addition to the number of inmates and victims. For example, former camp
inmate Peter Seiler estimates that there were about 3,000 individuals in Krndija, and
that between August 1945 and May 1946 about 1,300 people had died of “starvation.”
“The number [of inmates] was constantly changing,” Seiler recalls, adding that
“[b]ecause of frequent arrests new victims were always arriving.” According the
historiography of the Germans from the Danubian region of Croatia, which clearly
contains exaggerations, of the 4,000 original inmates of the Krndija camp, soon only
about 1,800 remained alive.
The list of names of inmates at Krndija during 1945 and 1946, while
certainly recorded, for the most part is missing and/or not accessible.
An unpublished, partially preserved, apparently official register
(currently located in a private collection) of one group of inmates is titled “House
pages Mbr. 28,” and provides information on a number of male inmates.
On 122 legible (typewritten) and 25 illegible and faded (handwritten) pages, various
details about the inmates are provided: first and last names, year and place of birth
(or residence), and comments by the elder of the group, Adolf Tachtler (b. 1887) from
Drenovci near Županja, about the absence, release, or death of particular inmates.
Among the group described in the document, there were Volksdeutsche from the towns of
Brežice (1), Bačka Palanka (1), Kikinda (1), Bjelovar (1), Pakrac (1), Daruvar (2),
Slavonska Požega (2), Zagreb (2), Beograd (3), Novska (3), Slatina (3), Prnjavor (4),
Garešnica (6), Vinkovci (42), and Đakovo (50). The inmates had the following birth
dates: 1878 (two men), 1879, 1882, 1883, 1884 (three men), 1885 (two men); 1886 (three
men), 1887, 1889 (three men), 1891, 1893 (five men), 1894 (four men), 1895 (three
men), 1896 (two men), 1897, 1898 (six men), 1899 (two men), 1900, 1901 (three men),
1902 (five men), 1903, 1904 (four men), 1905 (three men), 1906 (three men), 1907 (two
men), 1908 (two men), 1909 (four men), 1910 (four men), 1911 (two men), 1912, 1913,
1914 (two men), 1915 (four men), 1916, 1917 (two men), 1918 (two men), 1919 (three
men), 1920 (three men), 1921, 1923 (three men), 1924, 1925 (two men), 1926 (four men),
1927 (five men), 1928 (four men), 1929 (four men), 1930 (three men), and 1931. Thus,
in this group there was one child (fourteen and under), 118 men of working age (from
ages fifteen to sixty-five), and three elderly men (older than sixty-five); the
youngest was fourteen, while the eldest was sixty-seven.
Peter Seiler from Vinkovci kept records of some of the Krndija inmates,
about 1,000 individuals, most of whom were women and children. He noted that there
were 278 from Vinkovci, 295 from the area around Vinkovci, forty-five from the area
around Vukovar, seventy-five from Bjelovar, forty-eight from Kutina, forty-two from
Slatina, thirty-six from Brčko, and 172 from Županja.
Piecing together the list of names of inmates in the Krndija camp in 1945
and 1946 is possible, despite the lack of certain reliable sources, through the use of
a limited number of archival documents, names cited in camp release forms, camp
obituaries, inmate correspondence, diary entries, autographs in books, various lists
of the deceased in the camp, as well as testimonies and recollections of former
inmates and their contemporaries.
According to some sources, the list of inmates in Krndija (apparently with
information on the number of deceased, both those who died and those who were killed),
along with the remaining prisoners, was taken over by the Headquarters of the Tenja/Tenjska
Mitnica camp after the Krndija camp was dissolved in May 1946. For example, on 13
January 1946, the Interior Ministry’s Department for Prison Sentences reported to the
Presidency of the People’s Republic of Croatia about the fate of Josip Deutsch from
Daruvarski Sokolovac, a Canadian citizen sought by Great Britain’s consulate in
Zagreb. The report stated that “subsequent investigation in the records of the
disbanded work camp for German civilians in Tenjska Mitnica establishes that inmate
Josip Deutsch died from typhus fever in the Krndija camp on 2 February 1946.” On 17
January 1947, the Cabinet of the Presidency of NR Croatia informed the British
consulate that “the information was confirmed and is in the records of the disbanded
work camp for German civilians in Tenjska Mitnica.”
The final fate of the above-mentioned camp documentation is unknown. The Central
Department for Prison Administration of the Croatian Ministry of Justice, along with
local administrations and offices, claim that they do not possess documentation
related to the Krndija camp, stating that “the department does not have at its
disposal, nor does it possess any information about, the documentation.”
The Krndija internment camp is mentioned, either directly or indirectly,
by the “Commission for determining the crimes of the occupiers and collaborators” of
the District NOO for Slavonski Brod, which noted the numbers and/or names of local
ethnic Germans interned during August, September, and October 1945, the majority of
whom ended up in Krndija.
According to a report sent from the Slavonski Brod district to the Zagreb branch of
the Commission on 23 October, 1,551 ethnic Germans were interned in camps, in this
case most of them probably in the Krndija camp.
The reports regularly noted that all of the remaining Volksdeutsche were located in
camps, except for those individuals from mixed marriages (although this was not always
the case), individuals who were in, or whose family members were in, the Partisan
movement or Yugoslav Army, and those individuals who had helped the Partisan movement.
The reports also mentioned the release of previously interned individuals who had
subsequently managed to prove their connections or assistance to the Partisans and
Yugoslav Army.
In the early post-war period, many individuals with German heritage or
German names were interned at the Krndija camp, even though they did not feel or
declare themselves as Germans. In the internment camps, including Krndija, there were
also many Germans who had emphatically embraced a Croatian identity. For example, a
report from the Municipal NO for Podvinje sent to the Commission in Slavonski Brod on
10 August 1945, describes the Germans in Podvinje in the following way: “They belonged
to the HSS [Croatian Peasant Party]. They were not members of the Kulturbund. During
the war and the occupation, they behaved properly towards the local population.”
Renown Croatian intellectual, Ivan Supek, described in his writings how one of his
cousins from the Đakovo region, Mišo Geiger, was a devoted follower of HSS founder
Stjepan Radić.
On 16 August 1945, the local Commission for war crimes in Bošnjaci reported to their
superiors in Županja that in Bošnjaci “the general conduct of the ‘Volksdeutsche’
before the war did not differ from the Croat townsfolk, and they did not assert
themselves as, or behave like, Germans.”
A report from the Commission for war crimes in the village of Rajevo Selo, dated 20
August 1945, described seventeen individuals from Rajevo Selo who were interned in a
camp (most likely Krndija), adding that “these individuals are not guilty of anything
beyond being members of the Kulturbund.”
According to Mate Šimundić, in April 1945 the new authorities drafted
lists of those individuals in Đakovo and the surrounding region who were members of
the German and Austrian minority. This was not difficult, since most were members of
the association called Kulturbund, which was already established in the first
Yugoslavia. However, there were also those who had never joined this association. Many
of them had German last names, but had considered themselves Croats; they did not even
understand a word of German. Some spelled their names Becker, Bogner, Hatwagner,
Hoffer, Litz, Mayer, Müller, Pless, Spitzer, Zechmeuster, and so forth, while others
wrote Beker, Hatvanger, Lic, Majer, etc. They tried in vain to convince the
authorities that they were neither Germans nor Austrians, because their fathers and
grandfathers also had not considered themselves anything but Croats. Soon all of those
on the lists were arrested and taken to the Krndija transit camp. Entire families were
taken.
In a letter dated 15 January 1946, Krndija prisoner Marija Mira Knöbl wrote to her
grandmother and grandfather in Đakovo about her experience in the camp: “Only now do I
remember those wonderful days of freedom, in a world where people thought and felt as
I do, and not behind this barbed wire fence with all these Swabians [Germans], whom I
always hated and never identified with.”
On 23 February 1946, Ana Antes (b. 1924) died, apparently of typhus fever,
in the Krndija camp, and a few days later, on 27 February, so did her father, Stjepan
Antes (b. 1902) from Satnica Đakovačka.
According to the Municipal NOO for Satnica Đakovačka, in a report to the District NOO
in Slavonski Brod sent on 10 June 1945, Stjepan Antes had been among twenty Germans
(Swabians) who had remained in his village “and whom the Municipal NOO considers
eligible for protection because they committed no offense against the National
Liberation Movement or against the interests of the village.” Stjepan Antes is claimed
to have “helped the National Liberation Movement, knew about the work of its members,
always avoided the occupiers, and gave war credits.” The District NOO in Slavonski
Brod forwarded the report on 13 June 1945 to the County NOO in Đakovo to be verified
and decided upon. On 19 June, the answer from Đakovo was that they “have nothing
against the wishes of the inhabitants of Djak[ovačka] Satnica.”
Despite all of this, after the transfer of all remaining Germans to transit and labor
camps, Stjepan Antes ended up in Krndija with his family; his wife Ana née Haupert and
daughter, also named Ana.
In practice, justification for internment in camps or the confiscation of
property of the German minority was simply the fact that they were Germans, or at
least the government considered them to be so. In 1945, Josip Najbert from Đurđanci,
near Đakovo, and his family were interned in Krndija in 1945 despite the fact that he
was a member of the NOO.
According a 3 May 1946 report of the Educational Department of the County NO for
Vinkovci, Gotfrid Muter, a teacher from Ostrovo (near Vinkovci) who had been interned
in Krndija from 19 January until 29 April 1946 because of his German background, had
previously been considered “having very good character traits” by the local Ostrovo
NO.
At a plenary meeting of the city council held in Požega on 2 October 1945,
board member Franjo Pipinić raised the question of the arrests, expulsions, and
internment in Krndija of those individuals who were considered Germans without basis.
“Regarding the expelled Germans from Požega who were taken to the internment camp,
this action should be reconsidered, because among them are people who were never
Germans, never identified themselves as Germans, nor did they ever commit any offense
against the National Liberation Movement…how did it come to pass that even these
people were sent into the camps?,” asked Pipinić. Another board member, Tomo Ščulac,
commented that there were in fact incidents that those kinds of people had been
interned in camps. So as to avoid any misinterpretations, he explained that the city
NO was not to blame because the entire action was carried out by a specific
commission, which enforced the directive too strictly and excessively, leading to the
imprisonment of those people in the camp. He described that many of the mistakes had
already been corrected, and gave the names of people who had been released from the
internment camp. The requests of the remaining mistakenly interned people were already
directed to the appropriate places in charge of releasing them from the camp, while
requests that had been returned néeding additional information were going to be
quickly resolved. As a conclusion, board members Franjo Pipinić and Zvonko Kuntarić
“recognized comrade Ščulac for his proper position and for intervening on behalf of
innocent people. It was concluded that the city council, which knew its people the
best, should energetically involve itself in resolving their situation and ensure that
they return to their homes.”
On 13 October 1945, the department for public order and security of the
District NO of Slavonski Brod explained its decision to release Agneza (b. 1882) and
her daughter Jelena “Jelka” (b. 1909) Kurtnaker from the Krndija camp. The two women
from Požega, who had been interned because they “belonged to the German ethnic group,”
were found to “have not been members of the Kulturbund,” nor did “they commit any
offense against the National Liberation Movement.”
They were released from Krndija the following day, on 14 October.
Jelena “Jelka” Kurtnaker, who considered herself a Croat, later testified that “she
only heard Croatian being spoken” in the part of the Krndija camp where she was
located.
Moreover, Josip Brandis, a member of the National Police and a guard at Krndija from
September 1945 until May 1946, also recalled that “[m]ost of the prisoners spoke
Croatian. I did not hear them speak any German.”
However, according to the statements of former prisoner Franjo Kifer from Treštanovci
near Požega, “German was spoken more often than Croatian in the camp.”
Since the camp inmates were separated into groups in Krndija, it is clear that in some
parts of the camp there were individuals, especially the elderly and children, from
“pure” German settlements who spoke Croatian poorly or did not know it at all.
In the internment camps, including Krndija, alongside a significant number
of “Croatianized” Germans, there were some individuals and families of Hungarian,
Ruthene, Czech, Slovak, and Jewish background who either felt or declared themselves
as Germans, or else their last names sounded German. That was the case of the
Kurtnaker family from Požega, ethnic Hungarians who had identified and considered
themselves to be Croats.
There are examples of Germanized ethnic Hungarians in Krndija as well, with last names
such as Batjani from Drenovci (near Županja),
Tot from Đakovo,
and Ihas(z) from Županja.
Ethnic Ruthenes (Hadaš and Hanželik from Rajevo Selo near Županja),
as well as Czechs/Slovaks (Franz and Katharina Duhatschek from Ilača near Šid)
were among those in Krndija. Interned Jews included Leopold Cider from Požega,
and Kristina Platner, Ana and Josip Švager, and Helena Tachtler née Rosa, all from
Drenovci near Županja.
These were all Jews who had either been Croatianized, or had married Germans.
Sources on the number and names
of
victims in Krndija
The names of the deceased in the Krndija camp were originally noted in the
parish office in Punitovci, based upon information received from the inmates
themselves.
However, the list of names is incomplete, because the parish leaders allegedly
prohibited the listing and noting of those who died in Krndija.
Some who perished in the Krndija camp were written into the Punitovci parish register
of the deceased on behalf of their relatives, while others were entered later when the
register was taken from the Church and held in the municipal offices in Punitovci.
Even at the very early stages when Krndija functioned as a transit camp
for Volksdeutsche being transferred from the camp in Velika Pisanica to the camp in
Valpovo, the names of those who died in Krndija, due to the lack of medicine and
doctors, were recorded by the authorities. According to Adam Albrecht from Osijek,
on 18 August 1945 his four year old sister died in Krndija, which was confirmed by the
recollections of Nikola Mak, also from Osijek.
The register of the deceased for Krndija identifies fifty-eight people by
name, mostly elderly individuals, women, and children.
Shortly after the camp’s establishment in the summer of 1945, the register noted that
twelve people (four men, eight women) died in August, thirty-four died in September
(eleven men, twenty-three women), and eleven in October (seven men, four women). The
first entry for 1945 was 25 August, while the last entry for that year was 8 October.
The final entry in the register is on 30 January 1946, when the death of a single
woman is noted. The register recorded the deaths of thirteen children (between the
ages of fourteen days to fourteen years), seven adults (between the ages of twenty and
sixty years), and thirty-two individuals over the age of sixty, as well as six people
of unknown age.
Individuals who died in Krndija in 1945 and 1946 were entered into the
registers of the deceased of the specific parishes where they were from, but only when
there was someone available to announce their deaths, and usually long after the fact.
For example, in early April 1946, based on information sent from the Krndija camp
headquarters on 1 March 1946 (numbers 566 and 569), the register of the deceased in
the Đakovo parish office noted the deaths of only two individuals, the previously
mentioned Ana and Stjepan Antes from Satnica Đakovačka. Ana died on 23 February 1946
and was buried in the Krndija cemetery the following day, while her father Stjepan
died shortly afterwards on 27 February, and was buried the same day.
An official list of deceased camp inmates (those who died or were killed)
in Krndija during 1945 and 1946 was certainly kept at one time. Namely, the
verification certificates of an inmate’s death, issued by the Krndija camp
headquarters upon the request of that person’s relatives, must have been based on
information that was meticulously recorded. However, the location of the official
list of victims in Krndija is currently unknown and unavailable.
Prisoner Adolf Tachtler from Drenovci noted, along with the comment “they
died in the camp” (Diese sind im Lager gestorben), the death of twenty (in fact
nineteen) inmates in the Krndija camp, but without including the date of death or
other information (such as the age, birthplace, or residence of the inmates). Other
than one person (last name of Petö), who is listed twice and whose gender is not clear
due to the illegibility of the first name in the document, nine women and nine men
died in Krndija.
This small, yet valuable list of people who died in Krndija is a vital source of
information on death in the camp, as seven of the victims are confirmed by other
sources, while twelve individuals are listed only in Tachtler’s notes.
Important and indispensable data about the Krndija camp in 1945 and 1946
(both greater and smaller overviews and claims about the camp) can be found in the
numerous Danube Swabian “home books” (Heimatbücher),
some of which include lists of those who died in Krndija.
Although these were based mostly on eyewitness accounts, testimonies, and claims by
former inmates, the information they provide are hard to disprove.
The material published by the German Red Cross (Deutsches Rotes Kreuz)
provides additional important facts about Krndija, as well as about other camps (both
civilian and military) for Germans in Eastern and Southeastern Europe after World War
Two.
Based on the incomplete and unverified figures cited in the missing persons lists
compiled by the German Red Cross in 1962 and 1963, the fate of twelve individuals (six
women and six men) who had been interned in Krndija was unknown.
However, the death of seven of those individuals was confirmed through other sources.
Of the Danube Swabian “home letters” (Heimatbrief or
Rundbrief)
of the Local Homeland Society (HOG), information on deaths in Krndija can only be
found in the Rundbrief for Tomašanci, Gorjani, and Ivanovci from 2002, which
has information about casualties from the village of Gorjani, confirming the names of
victims listed in other sources.
Certain archival publications and published testimonies provide additional
names of those who died in Krndija, such as the collected volume Dokumentation der
Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mittleuropa, Volume V of Das Schicksal der
Deutschen in Jugoslawien,
and Volume II of Leidensweg der Deutschen im kommunistischen Jugoslawien.
These editions include some published testimonies and descriptions of Krndija, which
are mostly located in the federal archive (Bundesarchiv) in Koblenz, as well as
the names of some of those who died in the camp.
Volume IV of
Leidensweg der Deutschen im kommunistischen Jugoslawien
provides the most complete list of victims (101 individuals) who died in Krndija in
1945 and 1946, and estimates that the total number of victims could be as high as
300.
These statistics from 1994 were supplemented in Volume III of the same collection,
published in 1995, which notes the death of four other individuals (one woman and
three men) in Krndija.
The information on the victims in the Krndija camp cited in Volume IV and the
supplement to Volume III of Leidensweg der Deutschen im kommunistischen Jugoslawien
are also available on the internet.
Incomplete information on twenty-five other Krndija victims, from Hrastovac, Velika
Mlinska, Bastaji, Sokolovac near Daruvar, Daruvar, and Kakinac near Bjelovar can also
be found on the internet.
Volume IV of
Leidensweg der Deutschen im kommunistischen Jugoslawien
does not indicate the exact place of death for many of the victims, mentioning only
“unknown camp” (Lager unbekannt). Out of the victims listed in this volume, at
least twenty-seven (Anna and Georg Frudinger, and Eva Grünwald from
Bastaji; Georg and Magdalena Scherer, and Agathe Stiegler from Gorjani; Terezija
Rickert from Ivankovo; Franz Kiefer from Kešinci; Mathias Gäntner, Christian and Maria
Hahn, Peter and Theresia Halter, Anna Hirschenberger, Klara Kuhner, Rosalia Kulovic,
Franz and Peter Molnar, Anton and Maria Orusanski, and Anton and Marianne Seiler, all
from Mrzović; Martin Gauder, Jakob Kopp, and Adam Wellenreither from Privlaka; and
Veronika Ruppaner and Magdalena Utri from Retkovci) most likely died in
Krndija, based on other sources.
Additionally, some victims listed in this volume are claimed to have died in camps
other than Krndija, contradicting evidence elsewhere. For example, Franz “Franjo” Ries
from Vinkovci
is alleged to have died in Josipovac, while Ana, Josef, and Susana Martin from Jarmina
are listed as dying in Valpovo.
More recent overviews of the research to date and information about the
fate of Germans in communist Yugoslavia have brought to light different claims and
estimates. The publication Verbrechen an den Deutschen in Jugoslawien, 1944–1948,
estimates that about 3,000 people were interned in Krndija from 1945 to 1946, and
between 500 and 1,500 died from starvation, dysentery, and typhus fever.
The English-language Genocide of the Ethnic Germans in Yugoslavia, 1944–1948,
and Genocid nad nemačkom manjinom u Jugoslaviji, 1944–1948
also give the figure of approximately 3,000 inmates and at least 500 dead (but
probably more), from the same causes listed above.
There is no information or mention of victims from the Krndija camp in the
archive of the Saint Ladislav parish in Punitovci.
The names of some victims, however, are known from claims and testimonies of friends
and relatives of those victims. As the names are not listed in other sources, this can
be considered important information.
The names of some Krndija victims (individuals who were officially
declared dead) were occasionally published in Narodne Novine, the official
publication of the People’s Republic of Croatia, up until the present.
For example, one person mentioned in Narodne Novine in 1946 as having died in
Krndija is not listed anywhere else.
Some books about victims (žrtvoslov) published in Croatia provide
valuable information on the victims in the Krndija camp, especially those from Đakovo
and its surroundings,
the Cvelferija parish,
and Novska.
The rest of these books, of which there are many for various towns and regions across
Croatia, are Croatcentric and other ethnic groups, including Germans, with only a few
exceptions are in practice never mentioned.
Several lists of camp inmates, mostly unpublished and researched by
individuals from those specific towns and regions with former German minorities, have
played an important role in compiling data about the victims in the Krndija camp. The
following people have collected invaluable information on this subject: Stefan Schwob
(Dietenheim, Ulm, Germany) for Mrzović near Đakovo;
Rosa Selinsek-Mutlitz (Mainz, Germany) for Satnica Đakovačka, Tomašanci, Gorjani, and
Viškovci near Đakovo;
Tomo Šalić for Đurđanci near Đakovo;
Magdalena Märzluft (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States),
Waldraut Schlegel (Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, United States),
and Rosina T. Schmidt (Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada) for Hrastovac near Daruvar;
Katharina Ferber (Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada) and Rosina T. Schmidt for Velika
Mlinska near Garešnica;
Mirko Herschak (Wiesental, Germany) for Rajevo Selo near Županja;
and Terezija Letinić Ciglenečki (Požega),
Tomislav Wittenberg (Požega),
and Vladimir Geiger (Zagreb)
for Požega and surroundings. The mentioned facts confirm and supplement the previously
obtained information and understanding of the victims in Krndija.
The documentation and data of the discontinued “Commission for the
Establishment of War and Postwar Victims in the Republic of Croatia” is not currently
accessible, and it is uncertain how many victims from the Krndija camp were included
in the commission’s work. The research project “Victims of World War Two, the Postwar
Period, and the Homeland War” conducted by the Croatian State Archive and the Croatian
Institute for History is seeking to identify all of the victims of war by name, but
has not yet produced any new information regarding the victims of Krndija from 1945
and 1946 (except for the individuals already mentioned in Volume IV of Leidensweg
der Deutschen im kommunistischen Jugoslawien).
Currently it is known that seven obituaries, all privately owned by
relatives of Krndija victims, are preserved; one is from September 1945, while the
rest are from 1946 (two from January, three from February, and one from March). These
obituaries provide birth dates of the victims (1874, 1876, 1879, 1893, 1906, and 1909)
and their gender (three women and four men).
Death certificates of camp inmates are important sources in completing the
book of victims for Krndija. Namely, some victims of Krndija are listed in the
literature as having died in other camps, which confirms their deaths but inaccurately
records where they died. For example, Josip and Ana Burg from Vrbanja, near Županja,
died in Krndija in early February 1946 from typhus fever, but until a confirmation of
their death was found in the headquarters of the Krndija camp, they had been listed as
having died in the Zvečevo camp.
The death certificates issued by the Krndija camp headquarters, signed by
camp director Ivan Tomljenović and his successor Milan Komlenović, are a valuable
source and provide many important details. Along with the first and last name, age,
birth place, and residence of each deceased inmate, these documents include the date
of death, occasionally the cause of death, and the date and place of burial (the camp
section Krndija’s cemetery). As far as it is known, based upon witness testimonies,
death certificates were issued by the camp authorities only when requested by
relatives of the deceased inmates. Thus, for the majority of victims in Krndija, a
death certificate was never issued. Since these certificates were kept exclusively by
the families of those interned in Krndija, most of whom later moved to Germany, this
kind of document is generally unavailable.
List of names of the Krndija camp victims,
1945–1946
In the historiography and various primary sources mentioned above, from
memoirs to witness testimonies, there are various claims, allegations, estimates, and
specific details about the Krndija camp in 1945 and 1946, especially about its
activities and conditions, as well as the number of inmates and victims. The list of
Krndija camp victims by name, based on many and various sources, is unfortunately
incomplete and imperfect, but it is the only one so far organized in this way.
According to the available figures and sources, a total of 338 individuals died in
Krndija between 1945 and 1946, of which 152 were men, 183 were women, while the gender
of three deceased inmates remains unknown.
The age of 204 of the victims has been determined, which includes nineteen
children and young adults under the age of fourteen (ten girls and nine boys). Three
of them were infants less than a year old (two girls, one boy), including one that was
born in the camp. Ten of the children were six years old or younger; four boys (two of
them two years old, one age three, and one age five) and six girls (three were one
year old, two were four years old, and one was six years old). The largest group of
victims, 116 individuals (sixty-seven women and forty-nine men), were of working age
(between the ages of fifteen and sixty-four), including thirty-six women of
childbearing age (between the ages of fifteen and forty-nine). Finally, there were
seventy-one victims (thirty-one women and forty men) who were older than sixty-five.
In Krndija the death of women, children, and the elderly was particularly
tragic, and the fate of women with children is especially illustrative of this fact.
For example, Katharina Helmlinger was born on 8 December 1945 to Josef and Katharine
Helmlinger née Ebling, from Vučevci near Đakovo. Not long after she was born, her
mother Katharine died, on 31 January 1946.
During 1945, Eva Kehl née Faust and her young daughter Anna, from Hrastovac near
Daruvar, both died in the camp.
Because of horrible conditions, especially the lack of food, six-month old Anton
Holterer from Stari Mikanovci near Vinkovci died shortly after arriving in the camp.
The death of children was described by Jelena “Jelka” Kurtnaker in her written
recollections, in the story “Camp Notes” about the death of two girls, and in the
story “Unnamed,” about the death of a newborn girl.
At a time when Germans and their children were dying in Yugoslav camps
from hunger and various diseases (especially typhus fever), the regime enacted the
first communist Yugoslav constitution on 31 January 1946, which emphasized social care
for mothers and children. Notably, Article 24 declared that “[t]he state naturally
protects the interests of mothers and their children,” while Article 26 asserted how
“underage individuals are especially protected by the state.”
The birthdates of the oldest of the camp’s victims are as follows:
1859 (one woman), 1860 (one woman, two men), 1861 (one man), 1863 (one
woman, two men), 1865 (three women, two men), 1866 (one man), 1867 (two women, one
man), 1868 (two men), 1869 (two women, two men), 1870 (one woman, three men), 1871
(four women, one man), 1872 (five women, one man), 1873 (one woman, three men), 1874
(one woman, two men), 1875 (four men), 1876 (four women, three men), 1877 (one
woman, three men), 1878 (two men), 1879 (three women, two men), and 1880 (one woman,
three men). The oldest victims in Krndija, that is, those over the age of eighty,
were: Katharina Schadt (1859) from Vinkovačko Novo Selo, Barbara Riss (1860) from
Gunja near Županja, Leopold Reif (1860) whose birthplace is unknown, Ljudevit
Griesbach (1860) from Zagreb, Batjani (a man whose first name is unknown) (1861) from
Drenovci near Županja, Julijana Hengel (1863) from Vinkovci, Ivan Koller (1863) from
Vinkovci, Ludvig Zveng (1863) from Stanišić near Sombor, Liza Michel (1865) from
Drenovci near Županja, Marija Wildinger (1865) from Bijeljina, Paula Winkler (1865)
from Đakovo, and Ivan Bohner (1865) from Vrbica near Đakovo.
For 111 victims in Krndija, the date of death is unknown, while 118
individuals died between the founding of the camp in August 1945 and the end of the
year, and another 109 died during 1946, that is, until the camp was disbanded in May
1946. For a significant number of victims (119 individuals), the exact time of death,
more or less, is known. According to that information, in 1945 thirteen inmates died
in August, thirty-five in September, nineteen in October, and seven in December. In
1946, eleven inmates died in January, twenty-one in February, nine in March, two in
April, one in May, and one in July due to the consequences of camp conditions.
According to various sources and claims, at least fifteen people were
killed in the Krndija camp: Karl Mich(e)l, a fourteen-year old from Vinkovačko Novo
Selo (on 24 September 1945); Rosa Zimmermann, a nineteen-year old (on 4 October 1945);
Adam Herge(r)t (Hergöd), a forty-year old from Vinkovačko Novo Selo (on 11 October
1945); Johann Sutter, age unknown, from Vinkovačko Novo Selo (on 11 October 1945);
Theresija Osvald, age unknown (in October 1945); Petar Kleisinger, his wife (ages of
both unknown), and their twenty-one year old son from Tominovac near Požega (in the
winter of 1945); Rosalia Lohner, from Vinkovci (on the night of 23/24 December 1945);
Adam Schmidt (Šmit), a youth of unknown age from Đakovo (on the night of 23/24
December 1945); Ivan (Hans, Hansi) Alich, a thrity-six year-old from Brestača near
Novska (on 2 January 1946); Karl Bader, a fifteen year-old from Vinkovačko Novo Selo
(on 3 January 1946); Franz Koch, a twenty-one year-old from Krndija (in 1946); Josip
Petters, a fifty year-old from Piljenice near Novska (in 1946), and, during an escape
attempt, Anna Birkenbach, a young woman whose exact age is unknown from Mlinska near
Garešnica (at the end of 1945 or early 1946). There are also some signs that there
were suicides among the inmates. Based on the statements of former inmate Lorenz Gratz
from Tomašanci near Đakovo, a prisoner from Vođinci near Vinkovci killed himself.
Allegedly Marika Pilli and Petar Šulc, both from Đurđanci near Đakovo, also committed
suicide while interned in Krndija.
Most of the victims in the Krndija camp were from
Slavonia and Syrmia, although they also came from other parts of Croatia, particularly
central Croatia, Baranja, and western Croatia, as well as the Posavina region in
Bosnia and Bačka in Vojvodina (Serbia), while the origin of twenty-nine individuals is
unknown. The Krndija victims came from Đakovo (24), Vinkovci (22), Ciglenik near
Požega (20), Mrzović near Đakovo (18), Jarmina near Vinkovci (16), Drenovci near
Županja (14), Vinkovačko Novo Selo near Vinkovci (13), Tomašanci near Đakovo (12),
Mlinska near Garešnica (11), Cerić near Vinkovci (10), Hrastovac near Daruvar (9),
Gorjani near Đakovo (8), Požega (8), Ilača near Tovarnik (7), Drenje near Đakovo (6),
Vučevci near Đakovo (6), Rajevo Selo near Županja (5), Brestača near Novska (4),
Osijek (4), Semeljci near Đakovo (4), Velika Kopanica near Đakovo (4), Antunovac near
Pakrac (3), Bastaji near Daruvar (3), Satnica Đakovačka near Đakovo (3), Kešinaci near
Đakovo (3), Privlaka near Vinkovci (3), Tominovac near Požega (3), Treštanovci near
Požega (3), Viškovci near Đakovo (3), Vukovar (2), Bjeljina (2), Brčko (2), Đurđanci
near Đakovo (2), Gunja near Županja (2), Krndija near Đakovo (2), Podgajci near
Županja (2), Retkovci near Vinkovaci (2), Slatina (2), Slavonski Brod (2), Sokolovac
near Daruvar (2), Stanišić near Sombor (2), Vrbanja near Županja (2), Vrbica near
Đakovo (2), Županja (2), Bjelovar (1), Bošnjaci near Županja (1), Budainka near
Slavonski Brod (1), Budrovci near Đakovo (1), Cerna near Županja (1), Daruvar (1),
Forkuševci near Đakovo (1), Ivankovo near Vinkovci (1), Kakinac near Bjelovar (1),
Kravice near Osijek (1), Kruševlje near Sombor (1), Nova Pazova (1), Piljenice near
Novska (1), Popovac near Batina (1), Potnjani near Đakovo (1), Pridvorje near Đakovo
(1), Račinovci near Županja (1), Resnik near Požega (1), Riđica near Sombor (1), Sisak
(1), Slavonski Šamac (1), Soljani near Županja (1), Stari Mikanovci near Vinkovci (1),
Sušak (1), Šibovska near Prnjavor (1), Špišić Bukovica near Virovitica (1), Štitar
near Županja (1), Velimirovac near Našice (1), Virovitica (1), and Zagreb (1).
Five men and two women who are mentioned in the
literature as possible victims in Krndija (Johan Bajer, Elizabeta Hadas, Josip
Hanželik, and Franjo Najberger from Rajevo Selo,
and the married couple Batjani and Filip Hohman from Drenovci),
are known to have been taken to Krndija in either 1945 or 1946, and since their exact
fate is unclear, it can be assumed that they died in the camp. For some individuals,
there exists various, contradictory, and sometimes confusing information about the
moment of death in Krndija. For example, in the “home book” from Tomašanci, villager
Jakob Bischof is listed as having died in Krndija on 7 January 1945/1947, but in
Volume IV of Leidensweg der Deutschen im kommunistischen Jugoslawien, published
at a later time, the time of death is given as only 1946.
According to statements made by Rosa Selinsek-Mutlitz, he died on 7 January 1945 in
Krndija, which is clearly impossible because the camp did not exist at that time.
Another example is the case of Martin Hubert from Gorjani, who is listed with
different birth dates (1879, 1883, and 1884) in different sources, different dates for
his death (1946 and 1948), and different places where he died (“unknown camp,”
“Krndija,” and “Rudofsgnad”).
Magdalena and Georg Scherer from Gorjani are recorded as having died in different
locations and under various conditions, such as “unknown camp,” “in a Yugoslav camp or
killed after being expelled,” “Velika Pisanica,” and “Krndija”).
Similar contradictory accounts exist for Agatha Stiegler, also from Gorjani.
At least two people, Anna Kah and Kristina Ochsenhoffer (both from Hrastovac), died
shortly after being released from Krndija in 1945 or 1946.
Although the Danube Swabian literature lists them as victims of the Krndija camp, at
least two men, Josef Ament (b. 1883) and Paul Haas (b. 1891) from Tomašanci, died in
Krndija in 1948 while doing forced labor.
Antun and Ana Verhas from Đakovo are also buried in the cemetery in Krndija (in
separate graves marked with crosses and their names), and although they were inmates
in the camp in 1945 and 1946, they died much later in Krndija where they were working.
Presently, in the camp section of the cemetery in
Krndija there are only about fifty preserved and marked graves of camp inmates (either
buried individually or in groups), of which thirty-five have the names of those buried
in the graves (thirty-nine individuals) still visible. On 1 November 1997, the first
commemoration for the victims of the camp was held in Krndija. In the camp section of
the cemetery, a monument to the victims from 1945–1946 was unveiled on 7 October 1999.
Since the raising of the monument to the victims of Krndija, the camp cemetery in
Krndija has been maintained by members of the Đakovo branch of the German National
Community and Country Organization of Danube Swabians in Croatia.
Sažetak:
Od potkraj
1944. do početka
1948. u logore
je od
oko 195.000
u Jugoslaviji
preostalih folksdojčera
internirano oko
170.000. Prema
svim pokazateljima
u jugoslavenskim logorima
je stradalo
oko
50 do 60.000
folksdojčera.
Najmanje oko
10.000 do 18.000
od 20.000
preostalih hrvatskih
folksdojčera
ostalo je,
nakon zatvaranja
austrijske granice
i prestanka
primanja prognanika
iz Jugoslavije u
ljeto
1945., internirano u
logore.
Prema svim
pokazateljima,
najveći
logori za
pripadnike njemačke
manjine na
području
Hrvatske bili
su od svibnja 1945. do
siječnja 1947. Josipovac
kod Osijeka,
Valpovo,
Velika Pisanica
kod Bjelovara,
Krndija kod
Đakova, Šipovac
kod Našica,
Pusta Podunavlje u
Baranji i
Tenja/Tenjska
Mitnica kod
Osijeka.
Za sudbinu hrvatskih Nijemaca paradigmatsko je selo
Krndija u Slavoniji,
4 km sjeverozapadno
od Punitovaca
u Đakovštini.
Nekada pretežito
njemačko
naselje,
koje se je od
nastanka u
1882./83. brzo
širilo,
nestalo je
“preko
noći”,
naime stanovništvo
je iselilo/izbjeglo
potkraj listopada
1944., a jugoslavenska
komunistička
vlast je Krndiju
nakon Drugoga
svjetskog rata pretvorila u logor za u zavičaju
preostale Nijemce.
Od kolovoza
1945. do svibnja
1946. napušteno
njemačko
selo Krndija kod
Đakova,
jedan je
od najvećih
logora u Hrvatskoj
i Jugoslaviji
za preostalo
njemačko
stanovništvo.
U Krndiji
je najprije
osnovan logor
za ratne
zarobljenike (njemački
i hrvatski
vojnici)
i političke
zatvorenike Hrvate.
U logor
za folksdojčere,
naime za
za preostalo
njemačko
stanovništvo
Slavonije i
Srijema,
zapadne Hrvatske
i bosanske
Posavine,
Krndija je
pretvorena 15.
kolovoza 1945.
Na tešku
sudbinu logoraša
utjecali su,
osim nepovoljnih
uvjeta smještaja,
izrazito slaba
prehrana,
nedovoljna higijena,
pomanjkanje
lijekova i
liječničke
pomoći,
razne bolesti,
te naporni
radovi na
koje zatočenici
nisu bili
naviknuti.
Umiralo se većinom od bolesti, posebice tifusa, premorenosti, zime i
gladi. Od zime 1945./46., posebice od siječnja 1946., počinje harati epidemija
pjegavog tifusa i ubrzo poprima zastrašujuće razmjere. Potkraj ožujka ili početkom
travnja 1946., nakon poduzetih potrebnih mjera tifus je uklonjen. Logoraše su pokapali
na mjesnom groblju, mnogi i bez nadgrobnih oznaka ili natpisa.
Procjenjuje se da
je kroz
logor Krndija prošlo
oko 3.500
do 4.000
logoraša,
te da
ih je
oko 500
do 1.500
u logoru
smrtno stradalo,
uglavnom od
izgladnjelosti,
dizenterije i
tifusa.U logoru
Krndija 1945./46. prema
svim do sada
dostupnim poimenskim
pokazateljima,
različitim
izvorima,
stradalo je
338 osoba,
od toga
152 muških,
183 ženskih,
a za
3 stradale osobe
spol nije
poznat.
Starosna dob poznata je za 204 osobe
stradale u logoru Krndija 1945./46. Prema tim
pokazateljima, u logoru Krndija je stradalo: 19 djece i mladih (do 14 godina života).
Od toga je među stradalima 3 dojenčadi (do 1 godine života), od kojih je jedno dojenče
u logoru i rođeno. Zatim je među stradalima 10 djece predškolske dobi (do 6 godina
života). Slijede najzastupljenije u logoru stradale skupine, 116 osoba radne dobi (15
do 64 godine života), od toga 36 žena plodne dobi (15 do 49 godina života), te 71
osoba starije dobi (stariji od 65 godina), od toga 12 osoba starijih od 80 godina. Za
111 osoba stradalih u logoru Krndija vrijeme smrti nije poznato, 108 osoba stradalo je
od osnutka logora u kolovozu do kraja 1945., a 109 osoba stradalo su tijekom 1946. do
ukidanja logora. Za veći broj stradalih (119 osoba) u logoru Krndiji poznato je točno,
ili približno točno, vrijeme smrti. Prema različitim izvorima i navodima, najmanje 15
osoba ubijeno je u logoru Krndija 1945./46. Logor Krndija raspušten je u svibnju 1946.
Osobe koje nisu puštene na slobodu, prebačene su do potkraj svibnja 1946. u druge
logore (Podunavlje u Baranji, Tenja/Tenjska Mitnica kod Osijeka, Gakovo u Bačkoj i
Knićanin/Rudolfsgnad u Banatu).
Na logorskom dijelu groblja u Krndiji ostalo je do
naših dana sačuvano tek pedesetak obilježenih logoraških grobova (pojedinačnih ili
skupnih), od toga 35 grobova ima sačuvan nadgrobni natpis sa imenom/imenima 39
logoraša. U Krndiji
je 1.
studenoga 1997.
održana
prva komemoracija
žrtvama logora 1945./46.
Na
logorskom dijelu
groblja u Krndiji
otkriveno je
7. listopada 1999.
spomen-obilježje
(spomenik)
stradalim/žrtvama
logora 1945./46.
s natpisom
na hrvatskom
i njemačkom
jeziku.
Interview with Jelena “Jelka” Kurtnaker in
Požega, 27 June 2002, by V. Geiger. See V. Geiger, “Nijemci Požege i Požeške
kotline 1945–1946: dokumenti i sjećanja/iskazi,” p. 473.
Notes by Rosa Selinsek-Mutlitz, titled “Personen die im Vernichtungslager Krndija
von 1945 – 1948 gestorben sind” [Satnica Đakovačka, Tomašanci, Gorjani, Viškovci],
Mainz – Bretzenheim, s.a.
T. Šalić, “Đurđanci u prostoru i vremenu,” in T. Šalić and A. Pavić,
Đurđanci
kod Đakova (Đakovo, 2006), pp. 86 - 88.
