Up to the
end of WWII most of the Yugoslavian ethnic Germans fled or were thrown out of
their homes by the partisans due to the war situations to Austria and Germany
where they awaited the war end. Between them there was a large number
Slavonia’s Donauschwaben. The Allied occupying forces in Austria and Germany
urged and insisted that those refugees return to their homes in Yugoslavia at
the war’s end.
However,
the new Yugoslavian government was strongly opposed to the return of ethnic
Germans, whom they have thrown out in the first place. On 22nd of
May 1945 a decision was made to prevent the return of all Yugoslavian ethnic
Germans by the Yugoslavian Democratic Federal government as well as by the
Yugoslavian Army headquarters in Belgrade.
To most of
those returning Yugoslavian citizen of ethnic German etnicity, who left the
country at their own initiative or were forced by the partisans to do so
during the war, the return to Yugoslavia was strongly forbidden. They were
stopped at the Austria-Yugoslavia border or Hungary-Yugoslavia border. Most of
them had to return to the refugee camps in Austria or Germany.
Marija
Fischer, nee Kalajkovic from Kula vividly describes those times and events:
The Recollection of
Marija Fischer, nee
Kalajkovic from Kula
Because my
husband, Friedrich Fischer, lost his life during one of the air bombings on
Linz/Danube, I went to my parents to Nussbach, county of Kirchdorf on the
Krems (Austria), where they found refuge after evacuation from Croatia. On 5th
of July 1945 mayor Edlinger visited us and said: All the Croats had to go home
on the 6th and had to assemble in front of the city hall at seven
in the morning with their hand luggage for repatriation to Yugoslavia.
After we
assembled the next morning the city hall secretary told us, that we would be
transported directly to our homeland. With the cars of the American occupying
forces we were transported to the train station, embarked on the train and via
Linz, Salzburg, Marburg, Steinbrück we reached Zagreb on the 8th of
July 1945 at eight in the morning. Just prior to the Yugoslavian border we
changed into different train cars.
In Agram
(Zagreb) we were sent with our luggage to a close-by military barrack. Each
person received a small loaf of bread and bean soup. In the afternoon we again
received each a small loaf of bread. Around 16h we were told to assemble in
the yard, so a name list could be made. During the day an announcement through
the loud speakers was made numerous times that we were to donate some cloths
and other items to the partisans. Since all of us had only hand luggage with
us, and no one had anything that they could do without, no donations were
made. The making of the name list was interrupted quite a few times so there
was already tension in the air, which escalated with each interruption.
We were
pushed back inside after the list was completed and the guards were posted.
Shortly thereafter an order was issued that we were to pack some food and
assemble in the yard again. Two hours later we were brought once again to the
train station and into the railway cars. Firmly guarded we headed via Varazdin
– Csakatornya towards the Hungarian border. At Medjumurje prior to the boarder
we had to leave the train and marched the 25 kilometers across the boundary.
Russians
took us over in Hungary and boarded us again into trains. We had to change the
trains numerous times and marched in between. The frustration grew and it
became so unbearable that two men cut their own throats. One of them was from
Kula, one died and the other was sent to a Hungarian hospital. During that
trip between 8th of July to 13th of July 1945 we
received no food. We were also not able to purchase anything. In Zagreb we had
to leave our luggage behind.
On 13th
of July at 11h in the morning I fled from the transport in Öldenburg and
arrived in Nussbach robbed out and starving.
There were
about 1700 persons in the transport, all Danube Swabian refugees from
Yugoslavia.
