Участие немецкой национальной группы и Югославии в хозяйственно-военной службе Третьего Рейха [Participation of the German National Group and Yugoslavia in the Economic and Military Service of the Third Reich]

Abstract

The article covers only the main activities of the German national group in Yugoslavia in the implementation of tasks related to the economic activities of the Third Reich during the occupation of Yugoslavia during the Second World War, with a special review of the role of the German national group in Banat, which was the most numerous and came to power already in April 1941 and dominated almost unlimitedly until the defeat of the occupation regime. During the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the German national group, which, according to data from 1936, numbered 600 thousand inhabitants, i.e. 4.4% of the total population of Yugoslavia, was organized into the Kulturbund (Swabian-German Cultural and Educational Union), which had an educational character at the time of its emergence in the summer of 1920. After the National Socialists came to power in Germany, the Kulturbund in Yugoslavia gradually began to acquire the character of a fascist organization. By the end of 1937, it included 256 local groups: 55 in Banat, 60 in Bačka, 17 in Baranja, 91 in Croatia, Slavonia and Srem, 22 in Slovenia, and 11 in Belgrade and Bosnia. When the Kulturbund was headed by Dr. Sepp Janko, the number of local groups increased significantly, so that in March 1940 their number reached 337, and in March 1941 the Kulturbund already united 402 local groups with 450 thousand members.