Josef Janko (ethnic group leader)

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Josef Janko

Josef "Sepp" Janko (born November 9, 1905 in Ernőháza , German  Ernsthausen , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary ; † September 25, 2001 in Belgrano , Argentina ) was initially a lawyer and court assessor . From 1939 he was federal chairman of the Swabian-German Cultural Association in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and from 1941 “ ethnic group leader ” of the German ethnic group in the Banat and Serbia for the Serbian part of the Banat occupied by the German Wehrmacht .

Life

Janko attended the community school in Zrenjanin (German Groß-Betschkerek ) from 1917 to 1919 and the secondary school in Žombolj ( German  Hatzfeld ) from 1919 to 1924 . He later studied law in Graz .

From innovator to chairman of the Swabian-German cultural association

Janko was then active in the National Socialist- oriented " renewal movement " that the dentist Jakob Awender , who worked in Pančevo (German Panschowa ), in the course of 1934 within the Swabian-German Cultural Association against the leadership at that time under Federal Chairman Johann Keks , Senator Georg Grassl and the MP Stefan Kraft had built up. Despite being expelled from the Kulturbund in January 1935, the “renewal movement” received further support from the NSDAP's foreign organization , the Volksbund für das Deutschtum Abroad and the German student body . The conflict between the “Kulturbund” and the “renewal movement” came to a head in the following years, as prominent officials of the Kulturbund, among others, had switched sides. The German Reich supported the concentration process within the ethnic group, so that Kraft renounced another candidacy for the election to Skupština in December 1938 and Keks resigned as Federal Chairman of the Kulturbund in April 1939. At the instigation of the “ Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle ”, his successor was Josef Janko, who was considered moderate and who had been one of the two German representatives in the Banat Council in Neusatz at the beginning of 1938, but had been a rather inconspicuous personality until then.

HABAG house in Novi Sad

In November 1940, Janko was given the task of influencing the fact that the ethnic Germans who were "patterned" by the SS and who had Yugoslav citizenship and those who were expected to be drafted in the spring of 1941 should not obey the Yugoslav draft. When the German Wehrmacht marched into Yugoslavia in 1941 , Janko and his employees barricaded themselves in the “Habag House” (cultural and cooperative center of the “AGRARIA”) in Novi Sad (German: Neusatz ). After the appearance of German troops on the southern bank of the Danube in Petrovaradin ( Peterwardein in German ) , the "German Civil Guard" set up by him occupied several public buildings, freed hostages and disarmed two Serbian regiments after negotiations.

Term of office as "ethnic group leader"

After the occupation of Yugoslavia, the Kulturbund was dissolved and Janko was appointed SS-Obersturmführer and “ethnic group leader” for the Serbian part of the Banat occupied by German troops. His deputies were Josef Beer and Franz Hamm .

As early as August 1941, the “Jewish question” was considered to be “definitely resolved” in the Banat. Before that, at Janko's suggestion, practically all of the approx. 4,000 Jews were initially concentrated in four localities and then the men and boys aged 14 and over were transported to various concentration camps near Belgrade. The women and children were later taken to concentration camps and murdered as part of the “ final solution ”.

It was agreed between SS Brigadefuhrer Hermann Behrends and Janko that two-thirds of the “Jewish property” could be claimed by the “ethnic Germans” and one third by the Hungarians, in accordance with the ratio of local Germans and Hungarians. In the first phase of the Aryanization there was a disproportionate enrichment of parts of the ethnic group leadership, which can be deduced from a report submitted to the Foreign Office on April 30, 1942:

“The fact, however, that these, up to now mostly wealthless, full-time or voluntary members of the ethnic group leadership suddenly owned land, had such a bad effect on the mood of the population that it finally became a question of prestige for the ethnic group leadership and ethnic group leader Dr. Janko felt compelled [...] to cancel all private contracts concluded by members of the ethnic group leadership for the acquisition of Jewish property. "

Shortly after the beginning of the Second World War , the Waffen SS began to recruit volunteers among the “ethnic Germans” from Yugoslavia working in the German Reich . In September 1940, the supplementary office of the Waffen-SS, in agreement with Janko, initiated the first measures to register the young “ethnic Germans”, which was slow until the start of the attack on Yugoslavia. The levy had to be kept secret from the Yugoslav authorities, as Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring had forbidden any official advertising for the Waffen-SS among the Germans of Yugoslavia with regard to the intended accession of Yugoslavia to the three-power pact . Against the background of the increasing partisan war in Serbia , Janko proposed during a visit to Berlin on November 6, 1941, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, the establishment of a homeland security regiment to be deployed only in the western Banat. This regiment with a strength of 3,000 men was to be under his control and used exclusively in the western Banat to fight partisans. Adolf Hitler approved this plan, but contrary to Janko's proposal, the members of the German minority were to be deployed not only in the western Banat, but in the entire occupied territory of the military commander in Serbia. While Janko was still assuming a "home guard" or "home guard", the warlike use of the recruits to secure the occupied territory, including the fight against insurgents, soon emerged. On March 1, 1942, Janko published the following appeal addressing the German minority as compatriots:

“In the spring of last year, the German Wehrmacht took our villages and homes under their protection. Germany is fighting a hard battle with its soldiers to save the whole of Europe from Bolshevism. In our country, too, the Bolshevik opponent tried in the past months and weeks to raise his head, to make the streets unsafe and to set fire to our villages. German troops, in conjunction with us and all the order-loving elements of the country, averted this danger. For us, however, it is now a matter of honor that we, following the traditions of our fathers, take over the protection of the house and yard ourselves.

I therefore call on you that all men between the ages of 17 and 50, as soon as the relevant age group is called upon, to report to their mayor and in Belgrade to the district leadership of the ethnic group for service with the weapon to protect our homes. No one who is healthy can exclude himself from this service. German national comrades, show yourself worthy of your fathers through manly commitment and deed! "

Himmler had the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen" set up, the command of which was taken over by SS group leader Artur Phleps and whose military substitute post in Zrenjanin was headed by the former chairman of the Swabian-German cultural association, Johann Keks . As early as April 1942, between 10,000 and 15,000 Yugoslav Germans registered, although Jankos believed that there was initially quite a enthusiasm for serving in the Waffen SS. The alleged “voluntariness” was quickly replaced by a downright terror of convictions, because as early as April 1942, Janko and the SS Supplementary Office began to oblige to duty with the weapon with regular drafting orders. In the western Banat and Serbia, around 22,000 younger and older men were recruited up to January 1944, of whom more than 15,000 were assigned to the Waffen SS, only 600 to the Wehrmacht and the rest to the "Banat Police", the customs border guard and the auxiliary police . If the draft was not obeyed, Janko promised “the strictest punishment.” From September 1942, all 17 to 60-year-olds not yet in active military service were obliged to serve in the newly formed “German Team” (DM). Their task was common to protect the German settlements from smaller partisan groups with the police On October 31, 1942, the SS division "Prinz Eugen" was filled to the full strength of 21,581 men, which more than doubled the number of the Wehrmacht divisions deployed in Serbia.

Janko pleaded for forced resettlements ("radical resettlement") of "impeccable in character," but "unreliable in terms of national policy", people with "belonging to Germanness" but who had entered into a mixed marriage or came from mixed marriages into German Reich, so that a “German upbringing of the children would be given” in order to be able to win over the Serbs “ Volksboden ”. Janko also included people from lower social groups who could hardly be brought into a socially superior position. This should affect 323 families with 1765 people as well as 812 individuals.

Secret Führer order

Immediately after the capitulation of Romania in 1944 and the declaration of war on the German Reich, Janko commissioned Jakob Awender to draw up a detailed evacuation plan for the western Banat , which envisaged a complete evacuation within three days. On the instructions of Hitler, Himmler issued a “particularly urgent order” on September 13, 1944 to bring the “ethnic Germans” to safety from the Red Army advancing rapidly through Romania towards the Banat. A maximum of 30,000 Germans were to be evacuated from the Romanian Banat and a maximum of 80,000 Germans from the Serbian Banat. The Waffen-SS, together with the Wehrmacht and Hungarian troops, undertook a counterattack near Timișoara , after which the Higher SS and Police Leader Hermann Behrends considered an evacuation of the Serbian Banat to be temporarily unnecessary. When the commander of the 5th SS Mountain Corps, SS-Obergruppenführer Artur Phleps, evacuated significantly more people in the Romanian Banat than allowed by Himmler, he ordered the evacuation to be suspended and a strict ban on evacuation from the Serbian Banat. Janko's request to the military commander in Serbia to relocate the SS division "Prinz Eugen" from the area around the Timok River to the Banat was rejected because the division was relocated to the city of Niš for military reasons . The general evacuation, however, was delayed again and again at the instigation of Behrend and his representative in Zrenjanin, SS Brigadefuhrer Fiedler, against whose orders Janko was unable to enforce. Only when the Red Army advanced north past Zrenjanin to the Tisza did Behrends approve the general evacuation of the Banat on the evening of October 1st. According to the secret monthly reports of the “Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle” for October and November 1944, only about 15,000 “Volksdeutsche” from Vojvodina and Serbia reached the territory of the German Reich. The part of the German minority that remained in the Banat after the invasion of the Red Army was exposed to mass shootings, arrests, abuse, looting, rape and internment by partisan units over the next few months.

Escape

Janko arrived in Vrbas (German: Werbaß ) on October 2nd together with an ambulance from Zrenjanin. He then came to Kleinsölk in Styria, where he held Austrian citizenship. He was investigated for war crimes in the Wolfsberg camp in Carinthia (British zone), but no charges were brought against him in Austria. In 1951 he managed to flee to Argentina via Genoa by ship with a Red Cross passport , made out in the name of José Petri . In Argentina he successfully applied for citizenship as Josef Janko, which he received in 1955. He worked as a lawyer in Villa General Belgrano , on the side he published books, but did not hold any offices after the war.

Publications

  • Hans Diplich (ed.): Speeches and essays (= book series of the German ethnic group in the Banat and in Serbia; Volume 2). Printing house of the ethnic group leadership, Betschkerek 1943 and Ladislaus Frank, Belgrade 1943. Was placed on the list of literature to be segregated in the Soviet occupation zone after the end of the Second World War .
  • Path and end of the German ethnic group in Yugoslavia . Stocker , Graz and Stuttgart 1983.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marc Zirlewagen: Biographies of the clubs German Students: Volume 1 - Members AL. Books on Demand, 2014. ISBN 3-73572-288-1 , p. 371
  2. ^ A b Stefan Karner: The German-speaking ethnic group in Slovenia . Aspects of their development 1939-1997. Klagenfurt 1998, note 95, p. 45
  3. ^ Arnold Suppan : Hitler - Beneš - Tito: Conflict, War and Genocide in East Central and Southeast Europe. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2014. ISBN 3-70017-560-4 , p. 1025.
  4. ^ Suppan, p. 1026
  5. ↑ Suppan, p. 1027
  6. ^ Johann Böhm : The German ethnic groups in the independent state of Croatia and in the Serbian Banat: their relationship to the Third Reich 1941–1944. Peter Lang, 2012. ISBN 3-631-63323-8 , p. 14.
  7. ^ Michael Portmann : Serbia and Montenegro in World War II 1941-1945. GRIN Verlag, 2007. ISBN 3-63870-869-1 , p. 276.
  8. ↑ Suppan, p. 1022
  9. ^ Thomas Casagrande: The Volksdeutsche SS-Division "Prinz Eugen": the Banat Swabians and the National Socialist war crimes. Campus Verlag, 2003. ISBN 3-59337-234-7 , p. 177
  10. ↑ Suppan, p. 1034
  11. ↑ Suppan, p. 1035
  12. ↑ Suppan, p. 1036
  13. ↑ Suppan, p. 1037
  14. ^ Suppan, p. 1038
  15. ↑ Suppan, p. 1041
  16. ^ Karl-Peter Schwarz : Review: "Suppan, Arnold: Hitler - Benes - Tito." In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of April 29, 2014, p. 6
  17. ↑ a b Suppan, p. 1455
  18. ↑ Suppan, p. 1456
  19. ^ Suppan, p. 1457
  20. ^ Zoran Janjetović , The Conflicts Between Serbs and Danube Swabians . ( Memento from December 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Influence of National Socialism on Minorities in Eastern Central and Southern Europe. Editors: Mariana Hausleitner , Harald Roth , IKS Verlag, Munich 2006
  21. ^ Suppan, p. 1457
  22. ^ A b Edith Blaschitz: Austrian National Socialists in Argentina after 1945. In: Oliver Rathkolb: Revisiting the National Socialist Legacy: Coming to Terms With Forced Labor, Expropriation, Compensation, and Restitution. Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2002. ISBN 1-41283-323-X , p. 237.
  23. ^ Klaus Popa : Völkisches Handbuch Südosteuropa. Online encyclopedia of ethnic German Southeast Europe. , Letter IJ, p. 11 ff, 16
  24. ↑ polunbi.de , German Administration for National Education in the Soviet Zone of Occupation, List of Literature to be Separated, Second Addendum , Berlin: Deutscher Zentralverlag, 1948.

Web links

Commons : Sepp Janko  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ José stood for Josef and Petri was the maiden name of his wife Leni Petri († 1986), with whom he was officially married in 1936. (cf. Hans Rasimus: Als Fremde im Vaterland , Munich 1989. p. 568)
personal data
SURNAME Yanko, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Janko, Sepp (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ethnic group leader of the German ethnic group in the Banat and Serbia
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Ernőháza , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 2001
Place of death Belgrano , Argentina