Novi Sad massacre
The Novi Sad massacre was a war crime committed by the Hungarian occupiers, who belong to the Axis powers, against the people of Novi Sad during World War II . 1246 local civilians (mostly Jews or Serbs ) were murdered from January 21 to 23, 1942 by Hungarian units under General Ferenc Feketehalmy-Czeydner . The bodies were then thrown into the Danube .
According to investigations by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, 15 perpetrators from the Hungarian army and gendarmerie, including Sándor Képíró , were involved in the massacre.
prehistory
In April 1941, German troops with the support of Italian and Hungarian armies occupied Yugoslavia in the Balkan campaign and divided the country. The Batschka (Hungarian Bácska), to which Novi Sad (Hungarian Újvidék) also belongs, was annexed by Hungary .
course
In January 1942, Yugoslav partisans carried out a series of sabotage operations in the Novi Sad area, killing several Hungarian gendarmes and soldiers. The Hungarian chief of staff Ferenc Szombathelyi then ordered a “retaliatory action” in the Batschka, which was carried out under the leadership of Lieutenant General Ferenc Feketehalmy-Czeydner , Major General József Grassy , Colonel László Deák and captain of the gendarmerie Márton Zöldy . The three battalions received support from local police, gendarmerie and home guard units. In the village of Žabalj , in the vicinity of which the partisans had been observed, the entire population was massacred on the orders of Feketehalmys. A pogrom took place in Novi Sad from January 21 to 23, killing almost 800 people, including 550 Jews and 292 Serbs. The total death toll by the end of the action on January 31 was up to 4,000.
Post-history
The Novi Sad massacre sparked protests in Hungary, including the leader of the opposition party of small farmers, Endre Bajcsy-Zsilinszky . Feketehalmy was retired but initially went unpunished. On December 14, 1943, a trial was opened against 15 officers in Hungary. Feketehalmy-Czeydner was sentenced to 15 years in prison, seven co-defendants received sentences of over ten years each. On January 15, 1944, Feketehalmy-Czeydner fled to Vienna with three other convicts, where they were given political asylum. Adolf Hitler did not comply with an extradition request by the Hungarian government .
Feketehalmy-Czeydner became an American prisoner of war in May 1945 and was extradited to Hungary together with Szombathelyi in 1945. A people's court sentenced Szombathelyi to life imprisonment. In January 1946 the Hungarian authorities extradited Feketehalmy-Czeydner, Szombathelyi, Grassy, Deák and other Hungarian soldiers to Yugoslavia. The extradited Hungarian soldiers and two Serbs from Novi Sad were sentenced to death there for war crimes and hanged in Žabalj on November 5, 1946.
Sándor Képíró , who was also involved in the massacre, managed to escape to Austria in 1945 and to Argentina in 1948. He later lived in Budapest and was exposed. Képíró filed a complaint against the head of the Wiesenthal Center , whereupon a trial was opened against him in early 2011. It was about defamation and character assassination. On May 5, 2011, a case against Képíró was opened in Budapest, which ended in an acquittal on July 18 of the same year. Képíró died on September 3, 2011 at the age of 97 in a Budapest hospital.
In 1975 Novi Sad was awarded the title of People's Hero of Yugoslavia . The massacre is one of the most discussed crimes in Hungary during World War II and provided the background for several stories and films, such as Cold Days . A memorial was erected at the crime scene.
literature
- Chapter The Délvidék Massacres , in: Randolph L. Braham : The politics of genocide. The Holocaust in Hungary . Columbia University Press, New York 1981, pp. 207-215
Web links
- Budapest General Staff Court, December 1943: Promemoria about the attacks that took place in Zsablyaújvidek in January 1942 (Zsablya = Žabalj, Újvidek = Novi Sad; PDF; 28 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b History of Novi Sad ( Memento of the original from April 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ A b Hungarian Is Faced With Evidence of Role in '42 Atrocity. New York Times Online, October 1, 2006
- ↑ Borders visit alerted Nazi hunters to Europe's 'most wanted war criminal'. Andrew Keddie, Simon Wiesenthal Center. January 20th, 2008 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ According to the archived copy ( memento of the original from January 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. the accused were the generals Ferenc Szombathelyi, József Grassy, Ferenc Feketehalmy-Czeydner, Captain Márton Zöldy and Major Nagy, the member of the National Assembly of the Batschka Popović and the merchant Perepatić.
- ↑ Spiegel 04/2011
