Contribution to the study of the participation of Jews of Bačka in the people's liberation war of the peoples of Yugoslavia

Želju da napišem nešto poput ove monografije nosim još od dana oslobođenja, kao izraz: zahvalnosti trajnog sećanja na nemilosrdno uništenu porodicu Han, braću Imrea, Oskara i Ištvana i njihove roditelje Jenea i Rozu. Bili su mi daleko više nego školski drugovi i susedi, bili kao braća, odnosno drugi dragi i nesebični roditelji. Kada se nisu vratili iz nemačkih koncentracionih logora, odnosno iz kažnjeničkih i radnih jedinica iz Ukrajine i Bora, osećao sam to kao trajan i nenadoknadiv gubitak. Nešto Ijudsko, drugarsko i lepo zauvek je nestalo iz moje neposredne blizine. Ostala je samo želja da se na neki način samo odužim seni tih plemenitih i krasnih ljudi...The entry of the occupying forces into Bačka was not awaited passively by the Jews. Compared with the other ethnic groups in Bačka they gave, in relative terms, the highest percentage of those who either joined the fighting units or supported the People’s Liberation Movement (PLM) as sympathizers. Those days the progressive Jewish youth organization in Subotica, Tehelet Lavan, and the Hashomer Hatzair of Novi Sad had talks with the representatives of the PLM with a view to finding a way for the members of these organizations to join, as a group, the PLM and the units fighting the occupiers. At the same time, Jewish youth in the region of Subotica, Senta, Bačka Topola, Novi Sad and other cities were actively engaged in the preparations and execution of actions of sabotage, burning of grain and hem crop, demolishing railway installations, etc. The uprising in Bačka required great losses due to the overwhelming strength of the occupying forces. The majority of the activists was either arrested or killed. The first aim of the occupier was to make the PLM in Bačka area as part of a widespread international Jewish conspiracy, as a movement inspired, financed and guided by Jews. It is therefore that the show trials the occupier staged were particularly aimed against Jews which came to expression in the number of capital punishments and long term prison sentences. It was only later that the PLM in Bačka was given its proper meaning and character