ABSTRACT Title of Document: THE FURTHEST WATCH OF THE REICH: NATIONAL SOCIALISM, ETHNIC GERMANS, AND THE OCCUPATION OF THE SERBIAN BANAT, 1941-1944 Mirna Zakic, Ph.D., 2011 Directed by: Professor Jeffrey Herf, Department of History This dissertation examines the Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) of the Serbian Banat (northeastern Serbia) during World War II, with a focus on their collaboration with the invading Germans from the Third Reich, and their participation in the occupation of their home region. It focuses on the occupation period (April 1941-October 1944) so as to illuminate three major themes: the mutual perceptions held by ethnic and Reich Germans and how these shaped policy; the motivation behind ethnic German collaboration; and the events which drew ethnic Germans ever deeper into complicity with the Third Reich. The Banat ethnic Germans profited from a fortuitous meeting of diplomatic, military, ideological and economic reasons, which prompted the Third Reich to occupy their home region in April 1941. They played a leading role in the administration and policing of the Serbian Banat until October 1944, when the Red Army invaded the Banat. The ethnic Germans collaborated with the Nazi regime in many ways: they accepted its worldview as their own, supplied it with food, administrative services and eventually soldiers. They acted as enforcers and executors of its policies, which benefited them as perceived racial and ideological kin to Reich Germans. These policies did so at the expense of the multiethnic Banat‟s other residents, especially Jews and Serbs. In this, the Third Reich replicated general policy guidelines already implemented inside Germany and elsewhere in German-occupied Europe. The Banat ethnic German collaboration did not derive from external factors alone. Ideological affinity between the ethnic German sense of self and aspects of National Socialist ideology, social dynamics within the ethnic German community, and the material privileges and perks the Reich extended, combined to ensure that ordinary ethnic Germans as well as their leaders proved willing and, even, eager to collaborate. Their collusion in the Reich‟s discriminatory and murderous policies escalated over time. It culminated in their participation in anti-partisan warfare in Southeast Europe. The bitterness and bad blood engendered by the ethnic Germans‟ choice to engage fully in policies proclaimed by the Reich resulted in their eventual expulsion and dispossession by the postwar Yugoslav authorities. THE FURTHEST WATCH OF THE REICH: NATIONAL SOCIALISM, ETHNIC GERMANS, AND THE OCCUPATION OF THE SERBIAN BANAT, 1941-1944 by Mirna Zakic Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2011 Advisory committee: Professor Jeffrey Herf, Chair Professor John R. Lampe Professor Marsha L. Rozenblit Professor Vladimir Tismǎneanu Professor Christopher R. Browning © Copyright by Mirna Zakic 2011 ii For my parents iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project consumed several years of part-time and one year of full-time research. It took me to sixteen archives and libraries in three countries on two continents. It would have been impossible without the aid and support of many institutions and persons. For their scholarly and personal support during my tenure as a doctoral student at the University of Maryland, I would like to thank my Doktorvater, Prof. Jeffrey Herf, whose academic incisiveness, moral support and faith in my abilities as a historian never wavered, and whose joy when I was offered a tenure-track teaching position was equaled only by my own excitement; also Prof. Marsha L. Rozenblit and Prof. John R. Lampe, who were always on hand with good humor and clarity of thought. Thanks are also due to Prof. Vladimir Tismăneanu of the University of Maryland and Prof. Christopher R. Browning of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for agreeing to be on my dissertation committee; and to Prof. Dr. Paul Nolte of the Freie Universität Berlin and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Herbert of the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg, for agreeing to provide letters in support of my visa application at a time when travel to the EU was a daunting prospect for a citizen of Serbia. Getting access to archival holdings can sometimes be a daunting prospect, as archivists and librarians feel a justified proprietary pride in „their‟ materials. It is therefore a relief and a pleasure for a researcher to encounter a genuine welcome inside an archive. I thank all the archivists, librarians and staff of various reading rooms who aided me in my efforts, but would especially like to salute the graciousness of the iv Interlibrary Loan staff at the McKeldin Library at the University of Maryland; Ms. Mareike Fossenberger of the Political Archive of the German Foreign Ministry; Ms. Dragana Dragińić, Ms. Zorica Netaj, Ms. Jelena Ivanović and Mr. Dimitrije Spasojević of the Archive of Serbia and Montenegro; Ms. Svetlana Đukić and Ms. Arinka Balint of the Historical Archive of Zrenjanin; Ms. Eva Terheń-Teleĉki and Mr. Slobodan Stanić of the Historical Archive of Kikinda; Ms. Obrenija Stojkov of the Vojvodina Museum; Mr. Miroslav Marlog of the Vojvodina Archive; and the entire staffs of the German Federal Archive‟s branches in Freiburg and Bayreuth, the National Library of Serbia, and the Military Archive in Belgrade. For material aid and the faith in my scholastic abilities it demonstrated, I would like to thank the Department of History and the Graduate School at the University of Maryland for providing me with several years of graduate funding, including two full- time fellowships in 2005-2006 and 2009-2010, a Prospectus Development Grant in 2008, and the Mary Savage Snouffer Dissertation Fellowship in 2010-2011; the Conference Group for Central European History for a dissertation research grant which allowed for two additional months of research in Germany in 2009; and the Cosmos Club for awarding me the Cosmos Club Foundation Young Scholars Award in 2008. Last but by no means least, an immense debt of gratitude is due to my parents, Emina Sućeska Zakić and Mirko Zakić, who instilled in me a cosmopolitan intellectual spirit from a very young age, and whose faith and pride in my achievements is undiminished by their early, bittersweet acceptance of the prospect that I would join the „brain drain‟ leaving former Yugoslavia. v CONTENTS Dedication…………………………………………………………………………………ii Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………..iii Table of Contents……………………………………………….………..……………….v Abbreviations: Archives and Libraries………………………………………………….viii Note on Terminology……………………………………………………………………...x Introduction…………………….………………………………………………………...1 Sources………….……………………………………………………………….10 Literature.………………………………………………………………………..13 Volksdeutsche in the Nazi Worldview…………………………………………..24 Chapter I Contested Ground: The Serbian Banat in the Third Reich‟s Diplomatic Relations with Yugoslavia, Hungary and Romania before and during the April War…..40 Wartime Diplomacy……………………………………………………………...42 Chapter II Divided Loyalties: Yugoslav Volksdeutsche before and during the April War………………………………………………………………………………………69 From Staatstreu to Volkstreu………………………………………………....….72 The Coming of War……...……………………………………………………..108 Liberation/Occupation………………………………………………………….130 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...140 Chapter III The Dawn of the „Banat Era‟: The Volksdeutsche Administration Comes of Age, 1941-1942…………………………………………………………………………143 Volksdeutsche Administration: Preconditions……………………………….....146 Volksdeutsche Administration: Establishment and Consolidation……………..163 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...199 vi Chapter IV „Sweetmeats . .‟: Volksdeutsche Duties and Privileges…………………..202 Volksdeutsche among Themselves……………………………………………..207 Volksdeutsche Economies……………………………………………………...224 Oranges and Schools……………………………………………………………252 Reactions: Ethnic Hungarians, Ethnic Romanians, Serbs…………………...…261 Conclusion………………………………………………………………..…….276 Chapter V „. and the Lash‟: The Volksdeutsche Police, Anti-Partisan Action, and the Holocaust in the Serbian Banat………………………………………………………...279 Deutsche Mannschaft…………………………………………………………..282 Banater Hilfspolizei…………………………………………………………….294 Partisans………………………………………………………………………..301 Holocaust and Aryanization……………………………………………………309 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...338 Chapter VI „The Furthest Watch of the Reich‟: The Banat Volksdeutsche‟s National Socialism………………………………………………………………………………..340 Nazification and Implied Tensions……………………………………………..344 Heimat……………………………………………………………………….....352 Unsere Soldaten………………………………………………………………...368 Banditen……………………………………………………………………......380 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...391 Chapter VII „My Life for Prince Eugene‟: The Waffen-SS Division “Prinz Eugen” and the End of the „Banat Era‟………………………………………………………..…….394 Volksdeutsche Peasants into Soldiers………………………………...………...397 This Land is Too Big for Us………………………………………..….…….…402 “Prinz Eugen” (Re)Born………………………………………………………..406 “Prinz Eugen” in the Field……………………………………………………...425 To Evacuate or Not to Evacuate……………………………………………..…445 Conclusion……………………………………………………….……………..460 Conclusion…………………………………………………….…………………..…....462 Appendix I Guide to Place Names……………………………………………………...471 Appendix II Postwar Fates of Some Major Personages………………………………...476 Glossary………………………………………………………………………………...481 vii Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………491 viii ABBREVIATIONS: