During the four years of occupation, the Axis forces committed numerous war crimes against civilian population: about 50,000 people in Vojvodina were murdered and about 280,000 were arrested, violated or tortured. The victims belonged to several ethnic groups that lived in Vojvodina, but the largest number of the victims were Serbs, Jews and Romani people.
Total number of victims
According to historian Dragoljub Živković, approximately 55,000 civilians died in Vojvodina during the Axis occupation. Of those, approximately 17,000 were Jews. According to demographer Slobodan Ćurčić, the total number of the people killed by the occupiers between 1941 and 1944 in the entire Vojvodina was 55,285, including:
In March 1944 German units that occupied Horthy's Hungary entered Bačka and Gestapo men were with them. Without any delay the most cruel measures were introduced: the plunder of Jewish property was completed to be absolutely total; Jews had to wear the yellow mark; they were all confined to transit camps before very long to be taken, sometime in June 1944 first to Hungary and then to concentration camps in Austria and Germany. Most of them ended their journey in Auschwitz. Very few of them succeeded to survive and to return. Genocide in Bačka claimed a total of 14,000 Jewish victims. According to available data out of the Jewish victims of genocide 3,800 were from Banat, 11,000 from Serbia and about 260 from Sandžak. Out of about 82,000 members of the Jewish community in Yugoslavia only 15,000 survived World War II which means that 79,2% perished.
Victims in Banat
The total number of the killed people in Banat was 7,513, including:
2,211 people who were killed directly
1,294 people who were sent to concentration camps and killed there
1,498 people who were sent to forced labour and killed there
152 people who were mobilized and later killed
2,358 killed members of the resistance movement
Of the total number of the victims, 4,010 were men, 631 were women, 243 were old people, and 271 were children.
Victims in Syrmia
The total number of the killed people in Syrmia was 28,199, including:
9,805 people who were killed directly
9,683 people who were sent to concentration camps and killed there
491 people who were sent to forced labour and killed there
1,618 people who were mobilized and later killed
6,602 killed members of the resistance movement
Of the total number of the victims, 14,484 were men, 3,662 were women, 1,279 were old people, and 2,172 were children.
Liberation struggle
The resistance movement against Axis occupation was started in summer of 1941 by the communists. The resistance in Banat and Bačka was soon defeated, while resistance in Syrmia had more success. The Syrmian resistance movement grew into a popular uprising, and a large liberated territory was established in Syrmia. On liberated territory, a partisan authority was organized, which included mass anti-fascist organizations, publishing activity, and education. The experiences of the resistance movement in Syrmia were transferred to Banat and Bačka in the summer of 1944; before the SovietRed Army arrived in October 1944, Vojvodina already had its new institutions of people's administration. The liberation movement was organized into 18 Vojvodinian brigades divided into 3 squadrons. 15,000 fighters of the resistance movement were killed during the liberation struggle.
