Massacre at Pancevo - Color Footage

[Kim Sung]

An SS officer and nine of the local German population were killed by the Serbian resistance at Pančevo. As a reprisal, Serbian civilians were shot or hanged.

* This is not a movie. This incident was filmed by German cameraman Gottfried Kassel.

* Image Source: 'Colour of World War 2'

[Penn44]

How many Serbs did the Germans shoot or hang in reprisal?

Penn44

[G. Trifkovic]

How many Serbs did the Germans shoot or hang in reprisal?

Penn44

According to Wikipedia (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unternehmen_Marita):

In Pančevo wurden am 22. April 1941 wegen des Todes zweier Deutscher 18 Menschen erhängt und 18 Männer und Jugendliche an der Friedhofsmauer erschossen.

36 men.

Gaius

[Kentaurus]

I raised this topic not so long ago in this thread:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... =kentaurus

In a reply a book was quoted according to which Pancevo was not a warcrime. But according to the wikipedia article which is linked above it was war crime. Now I googled the author and his book from which was quoted in my thread. Frankly the guy sounds like a Nazi and his book looks like an attempt to whitewash the Wehrmacht and its crimes. But then again maybe Pancevo was covered by the laws of war which were in effect then. Can somebody post links which clear up that question. Thanks in advance!

[Kentaurus]

Here is the link to the video that contains the Pancevo footage which I already posted in my thread:

http://www.flurl.com/uploaded/World_War ... 85396.html

The footage starts around timecode 00:00:43 and finishes at around 00:02:25.

And here is a link to a short biography of Walter Post, author of "Die verleumdete Armee" ("The Slandered Army") which shows him to be at least a nazi sympathizer if not an outright Nazi:

http://lexikon.idgr.de/p/p_o/post-walte ... walter.php

And here is the quote from Post's book that Gebirgsjaeger posted in my thread:

Yugoslav forces had cleared Pancevo on 12 April 1941. On their retreat they killed nine Germans (Volksdeutsche/sog. Donauschwaben). Their bodies were found outside the village and taken back into Pancevo. There was a funeral for those killed on the morning of 22 April 1941. A military band of the Wehrmacht participated.

In the meantime the regiment "Grossdeutschland" had arrived in the area of and around Pancevo. With the exception of a medical company there where no SS units anywhere around Pancevo.

After "Grossdeutschland" had arrived there were several incidents involving snipers against German soldiers, mostly shooting from the villages cemetary onto a road used by German messangers. Two members of "Grossdeutschland" where killed.

The German "Standortkommandant" Oberstleutnant v. Bandelow, issued the following public order: "There have been repeated attacks and snipings against German soldiers in violation of international law. For every wounded or killed German soldier 10 Serbs will be hanged. If this still doesn´t stop the sniping we will double the number to 20."

During a search of the cemetary´s catacombs and a nearby restaurant the Wehrmacht soldiers arrested several ARMED citizens/civilians. Because the "Grossdeutschland" had no own military judge, the judge of the next Division, "SS Reich" was ordered to take up the case (SS-Sturmbannführer Rudolf Hoffmann). A regular German military trial was held and 36 Serbs were found guilty, 4 were not found guilty and released. They guilty were all sentenced to death according to the rules of landwarfare (Haager Landkriegsordung). The delinquents that wore there weapons open were sentenced to death by shooting, those who wore them concealed were sentenced to death by hanging.

The firing squad (Exekutionskommando) was formed under the command of the leader of Pionierzug III/GD. For every delinquent there were two German soldiers in the firing squad and the Leutnant was responsible for any "Fangschuss".The others were hanged by civilians the ethnic German Hermann Brumm und an Hungarian citizen. The whole execution was filmed and photographed by PK-man Gottfried Kessel of "Grossdeutschland".

After the war the whole incident was investigated by the German state attorneys in Munich and Darmstadt. On Sept 28th, 1973 the case against the SS judge Rudolf Hoffmann was closed and he was not found guilty of a crime because "from documents and witnesses we came to th result that the people killed on April 22 1941 in Pancevo were partisans. Such partisans could be sentenced to death according to international law. They were killed after the surrender of the Yugoslav army on April 17th 1941."

Source: Post, Walter "Die verleumdete Armee"

Are the statements in this quote regarding the lawfulness of the killings correct?

[armedbadger]

It may sound like a hopeless question but is there any records as to who these 36 serbs where? Their Names?
Im searching for info on my family in Pancevo at the time.
Thanks

[Dr Eisvogel]

It may sound like a hopeless question but is there any records as to who these 36 serbs where? Their Names?
Im searching for info on my family in Pancevo at the time.
Thanks

Not all of them were Serbs.

Shot:
Tihomir Humanović,
Ivan Grobanović,
Gojko Tesanović,
Sava Pantelić,
Dušan Hayić,
Đura Grujić,
Šandor Haker,
Toma Markov,
Štefan Perić,
Đuro Zgrni,
Marian Novak,
(Name missing???) Milenković,
Pera Medić,
Tihomir Dinković,
Radivoje Atanacković,
Drago Atanacković,
Vasa Avramov
Ištvan Pinter.

Note: I had to put the names of the shot into Nominative case. Due to the fact that Serbian language is not my mother tongue, I might have made some mistakes with the endings of the names. The surname Hayić seems wrong (probably it should be Hajić), but it's written like that in the original article. Tesanović might be Tešanović, but not necessarily.

Hanged:
Milutin Milivojević,
Milan Milanović,
Jokov Čardik,
Franja Koceš,
Milorad Covan,
Pera Azicki,
Đorđe Mirđić,
Vladimir Žestić,
Aleksandar Topolovački,
Jovan Maksin,
Mirko Skovran,
Ljubomir Ristić,
Milenko Jeftić,
Jovan Adamović,
Dušan Stojkov,
Kosta Radak,
Taja Ćosić
Darinka Šiškulovič.

Source: http://www.pancevackipres.com/sh/119/30/6228/

Vladimir Žestić and Jovan Maksin have streets named after them, the others don't even have a memorial tablet. The article is from June 4th 2010.

[Dr Eisvogel]

This is the video (Warning: it contains the scenes of shooting and hanging!) from which the still shots were taken:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tJyJ-_b ... re=related

The coffin covered with the Nazi German flag, which is shown in the first scenes, is carried out from the Magistrat (City Council) building. Currently, that same building houses the National Museum in Pančevo (Narodni muzej Pančevo).

The shootings took place at the Orthodox Cemetery.

[katerina01]

I am the grandaughter of Radivoje Atanacković, my father was an only child byut we have living relatives in Panchevo and Kovin I would dearly love to trace any of them can any one help

[Dr Eisvogel]

I am the grandaughter of Radivoje Atanacković, my father was an only child byut we have living relatives in Panchevo and Kovin I would dearly love to trace any of them can any one help

Please accept my deepest sympathy.

Could you write something about the social status and political views of your late grandfather. Do you have any family stories as to why your grandfather was selected by the Germans to be killed.

Regarding your request there is the phone book for Pančevo area:
http://www.telekom.rs/whitepages/SearchPage.asp?Mg=013

I have written your grandfather's surname and I got 20 different phone numbers for that surname in the town of Pančevo itself and 3 different phone numbers in Kovin.

Best regards,
Eisvogel

[katerina01]

Dear Eisvogel,

Firstly can I thank you for your reply to my post. Unfortunately I know very little about my grandfather. My own father died in 1989 but from what he told me he came from a wealthy family who lived in farm house and owned their own restaurant in Pancevo. My father was serving in the Yugoslave airforce at the time of his father arrest and shooting but was told that an informer (women) reported that my grandfather had spoken out against the germans and this being his crime? Apparently after the war the women in question was stoned by locals for this.

All lands and property were confiscated from my grandmother but she remained in Pancevo until her death in 1984. I am unsure of the correct spelling of my grandmothers name but I know it is similar to the english spelt Amelia, and that they rest in the Pancevo cemetary.

My own father was given the option of staying in Yugoslave and being captured by the Germans or deserting and joining up with the allies, which he did in 194, his story continued on until his death.

I am very grateful for the link you posted however, when inputting the details into the search criteria it shows no results. I think this may be a result from using an english keyboard and so I am sorry to ask but I would appreciate it if maybe could you copy the telephone numbers you found into a post on this site in order that I can start making some enquiries. Once again thank you for your help and time and I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards,

Ms K Atanackovic

[Dr Eisvogel]

Dear Eisvogel,

Firstly can I thank you for your reply to my post. Unfortunately I know very little about my grandfather. My own father died in 1989 but from what he told me he came from a wealthy family who lived in farm house and owned their own restaurant in Pancevo. My father was serving in the Yugoslave airforce at the time of his father arrest and shooting but was told that an informer (women) reported that my grandfather had spoken out against the germans and this being his crime? Apparently after the war the women in question was stoned by locals for this.

All lands and property were confiscated from my grandmother but she remained in Pancevo until her death in 1984. I am unsure of the correct spelling of my grandmothers name but I know it is similar to the english spelt Amelia, and that they rest in the Pancevo cemetary.

My own father was given the option of staying in Yugoslave and being captured by the Germans or deserting and joining up with the allies, which he did in 194, his story continued on until his death.

I am very grateful for the link you posted however, when inputting the details into the search criteria it shows no results. I think this may be a result from using an english keyboard and so I am sorry to ask but I would appreciate it if maybe could you copy the telephone numbers you found into a post on this site in order that I can start making some enquiries. Once again thank you for your help and time and I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards,

Ms K Atanackovic

Dear Ms Atanackovic,

thank you very much on the kind words. Also, thank you very much on shedding some light on the circumstances of your family, which are very interesting indeed. I am very grateful.

I would suggest that the name of your late grandmother is either Amalija or Emilija (it's pronounced like Amelia in English).

Now, regarding your request. I copied the names and the phone numbers and since it is a lot of names, I would beg the moderators to tolerate this one time posting those names with capital letters!

Surname, name, phone number, address, town
ATANACKOVIĆ, ALEKSANDAR 013 346116 SVETOZARA MARKOVIĆA 230, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, BOSILJKA 013 2512580 BRAĆE JOVANOVIĆA 024, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, BRANISLAVA 013 342808 "7 JULA" 5A, PANČEVO*
ATANACKOVIĆ, BRANISLAVA 013 520027 DUNAVSKA 5, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, BRANISLAVA 013 355719 DUNAVSKA 9/17, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, BRATISLAV 013 365005 BORE STANKOVIĆA 5, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, DESANKA 013 348483 DOSITEJEVA 013, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, DRAGAN 013 354988 SVETOG SAVE 102A, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, IVANKA 013 320173 ĐURE DANIČIĆA 2, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, JUGOSLAV 013 377697 MIHAJLA PUPINA 15/12, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, LAZAR 013 348625 DUNAVSKA 9, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, MARIENA 013 367279 SPOLJNOSTARČEVAČKA 55, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, MILENA 013 334146 AKSENTIJA MAKSIMOVIĆA 21/4, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, NIKOLA 013 311452 KIKINDSKA 1, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, STANIMIR 013 355188 JOVE MAKSINA 49, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, STANIMIR 013 512462 STEFANA STRATIMIROVIĆA 008, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, VALERIJA 013 365097 VELJKA PETROVIĆA 6/1, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, ZORICA 013 519128 BANIJSKA 077, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, ĐURĐINA 013 311861 LAVA TOLSTOJA 007, PANČEVO
ATANACKOVIĆ, ĐURĐINA 013 334355 LAVA TOLSTOJA 007/00, PANČEVO

ATANACKOVIĆ, ANICA 013 741264 "28 MARTA" 18, KOVIN*
ATANACKOVIĆ, MITA 013 741288 VAŠARSKA 007, KOVIN
ATANACKOVIĆ, ZORKA 013 743363 SVETOZARA MARKOVIĆA 15, KOVIN

*the addresses with the asterisks are of the streets named after dates, so the dates=street names are in the quotation marks, in order to prevent mixing with the phone numbers

Best regards,
Eisvogel

[Johaaanan]

Here is the link to the video that contains the Pancevo footage which I already posted in my thread:

http://www.flurl.com/uploaded/World_War ... 85396.html

The footage starts around timecode 00:00:43 and finishes at around 00:02:25.

And here is a link to a short biography of Walter Post, author of "Die verleumdete Armee" ("The Slandered Army") which shows him to be at least a nazi sympathizer if not an outright Nazi:

http://lexikon.idgr.de/p/p_o/post-walte ... walter.php

And here is the quote from Post's book that Gebirgsjaeger posted in my thread:

Yugoslav forces had cleared Pancevo on 12 April 1941. On their retreat they killed nine Germans (Volksdeutsche/sog. Donauschwaben). Their bodies were found outside the village and taken back into Pancevo. There was a funeral for those killed on the morning of 22 April 1941. A military band of the Wehrmacht participated.

In the meantime the regiment "Grossdeutschland" had arrived in the area of and around Pancevo. With the exception of a medical company there where no SS units anywhere around Pancevo.

After "Grossdeutschland" had arrived there were several incidents involving snipers against German soldiers, mostly shooting from the villages cemetary onto a road used by German messangers. Two members of "Grossdeutschland" where killed.

The German "Standortkommandant" Oberstleutnant v. Bandelow, issued the following public order: "There have been repeated attacks and snipings against German soldiers in violation of international law. For every wounded or killed German soldier 10 Serbs will be hanged. If this still doesn´t stop the sniping we will double the number to 20."

During a search of the cemetary´s catacombs and a nearby restaurant the Wehrmacht soldiers arrested several ARMED citizens/civilians. Because the "Grossdeutschland" had no own military judge, the judge of the next Division, "SS Reich" was ordered to take up the case (SS-Sturmbannführer Rudolf Hoffmann). A regular German military trial was held and 36 Serbs were found guilty, 4 were not found guilty and released. They guilty were all sentenced to death according to the rules of landwarfare (Haager Landkriegsordung). The delinquents that wore there weapons open were sentenced to death by shooting, those who wore them concealed were sentenced to death by hanging.

The firing squad (Exekutionskommando) was formed under the command of the leader of Pionierzug III/GD. For every delinquent there were two German soldiers in the firing squad and the Leutnant was responsible for any "Fangschuss".The others were hanged by civilians the ethnic German Hermann Brumm und an Hungarian citizen. The whole execution was filmed and photographed by PK-man Gottfried Kessel of "Grossdeutschland".

After the war the whole incident was investigated by the German state attorneys in Munich and Darmstadt. On Sept 28th, 1973 the case against the SS judge Rudolf Hoffmann was closed and he was not found guilty of a crime because "from documents and witnesses we came to th result that the people killed on April 22 1941 in Pancevo were partisans. Such partisans could be sentenced to death according to international law. They were killed after the surrender of the Yugoslav army on April 17th 1941."

Source: Post, Walter "Die verleumdete Armee"

Are the statements in this quote regarding the lawfulness of the killings correct?

Kentaurus,

"There have been repeated attacks and snipings against German soldiers in violation of international law. For every wounded or killed German soldier 10 Serbs will be hanged. If this still doesn´t stop the sniping we will double the number to 20." is a definition of a war crime order. Serbia was only going to be acquainted with those when a '100 for 1' standard had come, ending in over 10.000 victims within following couple of years ( Kragujevac, Kraljevo, itd. ).

It is also true that any person ''without an uniform'' ( irregular armed forces ) fighting in a war does not have Geneva Conventions protected status ( in other words, may be rightfully sentenced to death ).

However, the fact that 36 civilians ( 34 men, 1 under age, 1 woman ) were executed in a retribution for 2 German soldiers killings makes the incident a war crime.

Some more interesting info of the case:
* German nationals mentioned which were also killed earlier actually died after being trialed and sentenced to death by Yugoslav's army court of 8th infantry regiment- more precisely, 1 was shot in an armed conflict while involved in a failed attempt of local German population to dissarm the 8th regiments' soldiers on April 11th, 8 more were captured and sentenced to death on the same ocasion.
* Those 2 German soldiers whose killings triggered everything were actually shot and found dead two days earlier at Novoseljanski road, quite far away from the Ortodox cemetary which was mentioned as the place of sniper attacks. Later testimonies suggested that they had been killed by still armed ''left overs'' of Yugoslav Royal Army.
* Rudolf Hoffmann's investigation was quite a long one: 1967- 1973 ( he wasn't the sole suspect at these investigations, also more than just this incident were in focus there ). He was not charged because of lack of evidence. However, Joseph Feigel ( a local German national ) and Horst Hochenberg ( a member of the firing squad ), both direct whitnesses of the events, testified in the investigation that the executed were collected randomly from the streets of Panchevo, and also that the trial itself was a mascarade with Bandelow shutting the accused up before they had a chance to talk and Hoffmann giving the sentences as ''you take the bullet, you hang''.
* The under age victim was a 15 years old boy which was found at his house while a sabre was hanging on the wall ( it was actually his father's sabre- he was an army officer, died a few years before the war ), which was found as sufficient grounds to consider him armed. The executed woman was selling vegetables at the local market when arrested. Anyhow, do those people from the film look like they have just crawled trough the tunnels under a cemetary sniping German soldiers to you? No snipers were found with anyone by the way. 2 of those were school teachers, some of them were Croats and Hungarians ( therefore with no clear reason to shoot their allies Germans ).
* Gottfried Kessel did shoot the camera footage of the event but it was Gerhard Gronefeld who made the photos. They both kept it quiet for quite some time and came open only some 15 years ago ( 1996 Kessel, 1997 Gronefeld ). They have also both confirmed that the victims have been picked up randomly in their later news interviews.
* The statement that was given as legal grounds not to charge Hoffmann ( "from documents and witnesses we came to th result that the people killed on April 22 1941 in Pancevo were partisans. Such partisans could be sentenced to death according to international law. They were killed after the surrender of the Yugoslav army on April 17th 1941." ) is a bit peculiar since the uprising in Serbia started at July 7th same year and it was even later that the terms 'partisans and cetniks' diversed since at the beginning those people were all resistance, so it seems that Muchen and Darmsadt state attorneys found partisans in Serbia 4-5 months before there actually were any existing.
* The memorial plate of the incident and victims was actually put at the spot of the events in April 2011.

Most of the sources are in Serbian language, most of it coming from direct whitnesses like one Mr. Vitomir Sudarski, or historian Kosta Nikolic from Sebian Institute of History.
It might be that interviews with Gerhard Gronefeld or Gottfried Kessel are the closest to you, it's easy to google it. There is also a book from the German historian researcher, one Joseph Frank, expected by the end of this year ( he has already given a statement that the executions were a war crime ).

Respect,

Ivan

[G. Trifkovic]

Hi Ivan,

nice to have you with us.

Serbia was only going to be acquainted with those when a '100 for 1' standard had come, ending in over 10.000 victims within following couple of years ( Kragujevac, Kraljevo, itd. ).

According to the "Activity reports" of Army Group E, death toll due to reprisals from 1 September 1941 to 5 April 1942 ammounted to 21,889 people.

Source: NARA, T311, Roll 175, 000247.

Cheers,

Gaius

[Johaaanan]

Thanks, zemljak,

I've actually been here for a long time but I also enjoy reading more than posting.

* Thank you also very much for the death toll correction too although I believe it could be coming from 'Activity reports' of the 12th Army maybe, since there was no Army Group E at the time ( founded January 1943 )?

* It is also my personal opinion that even the 'ever- accurate' German data cannot be fully regarded as utmostly precise when counting the reprisal victims in Serbia at the time, for plenty of reasons.
It is usually substantiated by daily field reports which in many cases were not fully correct or due to troublesome technical 'field to center' connections were contradicting.
Just for example, regarding the most infamous of all- Kragujevac massacre, plenty of whitnesses testified that many killings have been done randomly in the nearby villages while arresting people determined for reprisal shotings- soldiers were shoting people who tried to run, therefore, no accurate data account.
Also on the same issue, in a REPORT TO COMMANDING GENERAL IN SERBIA, 20 OCTOBER 1941 CONCERNING SEVERE REPRISAL MEASURES, from a commanding Kragujevac officer Captain v. Bischofshausen ( document used in NUERNBERG MILITARY TRIBUNAL ( Volume XI · Page 980-983, document NOKW-387 ), also kept in Belgrade- Zbornik dokumenata vojnoistorijskog instituta, tom I, knjiga 1, dok.br. 226 ), a reprisal death tool of the incident was named as 2.300 ( for 10 German soldiers killed and 26 wounded ). Couple of more German documents ( Felix Bentzler report, 'Obznana', etc. ) name the same figure. But regardless to Yugoslavia's officials claiming at Nuernberg 7.000 as the exact figure, it is today clear that the reality number was 2.796 - 2.799 ( Nenad Djordjevic from the city museum 2003, Stanisa Brkic ''Ime i broj'', 2007, figures confirmed with Serbian Ortodox Church's death tool data ). So in the end we have a 500 victims account diference just in this one case which sugests that a total death tool in Serbia cannot be taken to be rigidly accurate by anyone's account, not even the German ones.

* But I have to mention that my refference as 'over 10.000 victims' came from a completely different reason: All versions of death tool info, whoever made it, account the total number of victims without making a difference between 'communists' and 'Jews'.
Although the 'paper basis'- orders of the reprisal policy ( whether coming from Keitel, List, Boehme... ) named both communist and Jews ( hope antyfascist cetniks won't get angry for this one, but nobody mentioned them in those reprisal orders ) as targets, I personaly believe that Jews killings in Serbia were a different matter.
Simply, from my point of view mass killings of Jews in Serbia were a matter of a well known racial policy ( ending up in a 'Judenfrei' Serbia ), or in other words, those missfortunate people were to be killed one way or another- with a reprisal order from Boehme or without it, which was very clear when in 1942 ( after practicaly finishing off the male Jew population of Serbia ) most of the female and underage Jew population was arrested on the same 'paper basis' but eventually transported to Jasenovac and simillar places and not shot in reprisal shotings, while on the other side mass killings of other Serbian civilians were a classic example of 'reprisal policy' ( Geiselmordpolitik ).
So eventually it's just a matter of perception of the same horrible thing.

* But what I mostly find very peculiar at this thread is that actually nobody argued on the basic question which started it: Were those war crimes or not?
To be honest about it I was expecting that 'Axis defenders' would bring American standard of the time- ''U.S. Basic Field Manual (Rules of Land Warfare)'' to the table and argue that reprisal civillian killings may be legal at specific situations...
I personaly believe that even with ''The Hostages Trial'' ( aka. ''The USA vs. Willhelm List, et al.'', or the seventh of twelve 'Subsequent Nuremberg Trials' ) findings that those people at ''Sudost'' were actually commiting war crimes , the fact that "Ameri" were using their warfare code book as a standard which approved of civillian killing at some situations ( which actually gave people as ''Walter Post- author of Die verleumdete Armee" grounds to write such stuff ) is A SHAME, especially given the fact that those trials totally excluded Control Council Law No. 10 and the Charter of the Nurenberg International Military Tribunal, both of which include “ killing of hostages ” in their definition of “ war crimes.”
I also personaly believe that Americans might have been using such legal standards directly oposing most of International Laws on the matter to cover up some of missdeeds of their own, but again, it's a totally different matter.

Smrt fasizmu, sloboda narodu,

Ivan