Vertreibung - Schicksal der Donauschwaben

At the end of World War II, the Danube Swabians of Yugoslavia faced hatred and revenge in their homeland, fueled by ideological fanaticism and exacerbated by the atrocities committed by the German occupiers. They suffered various fates: deportation for forced labor in Russia, and later the expulsion of the ethnic Germans from Hungary. They were mistreated, driven out, and murdered: of the original 550,000 Danube Swabians, only around 4,000 remain today. Until now, this has been a taboo subject. Now, Serbia is permitting the commemoration of the victims. Danube Swabian settlement areas: divided into three parts: the majority, around 600,000, lived in Hungary (Budapest, the Schildgebirge mountains, the Swabian Turkey region); 450,000 to 500,000 became part of Yugoslavia (Western Banat, Bačka, Syrmia, and the Slovenian part); and the remainder went to Romania (Eastern Banat).