The List of Victims of Malo Nabrđe – World War II and the Post-War Period: An Attempt of Data Revision on Human Losses in a Vanished and Forgotten Slavonian Village

Abstract

Na temelju navoda i podataka objavljenih ponajprije u različitim žrtvoslovima - popisima ljudskih gubitaka u Drugom svjetskom ratu i poraću prikazani su poimenični i brojčani pokazatelji o ljudskim gubitcima, o stradalim i žrtvama odnosno o poginulim, ubijenim, umrlim i nestalim Malonabrđanima, i vojnicima i civilima, tijekom Drugog svjetskog rata i u neposrednom poraću. Prilog je pokušaj cjelovitog prikaza stvarnih ljudskih gubitaka Malonabrđana u Drugom svjetskom ratu i u poraću, uz reviziju podataka, često nepotpunih i/ili različitih, pa i netočnih, objavljenih u mnogobrojnim radovima, koji donose poimenične popise i navode stradalih i žrtava i za Malo Nabrđe.On the basis of statements and data published primarily in various lists of victims – lists of human losses in World War II and the post-war period, names and numbers are given as indicators of human losses, victims, i.e. of people from Malo Nabrđe who died, were killed or who disappeared, as well as of soldiers and civilians during World War II and the immediate post-war period. In all, 44 persons from Malo Nabrđe, who lost their lives to violence (16 soldiers, 28 civilians), are mentioned in various lists of human losses. Among them 19 Serbs are recorded; according to the records of the victim lists, 15 of them lost their lives in the camps of the NDH (Independent State of Croatia), 14 persons in Jasenovac and 1 person in Stara Gradiška, five of whom were Serbian women who, according to records from the victim lists, lost their lives in the camps of Jasenovac and/or of Stara Gradiška or were killed in their homes by Ustashas. According to the entries from the list of victims, 25 Croatians, Germans and Hungarians from Malo Nabrđe (records from the victim lists often provide contradictory information, hence it is not clear whether the persons were Croatian, German or Hungarian) lost their lives during World War II and the post-war period. However, according to the review of entries on every single person reported as human loss in the victim lists, a series of ambiguities and inaccuracies can undoubtedly be determined. Some of the recorded persons were not from Malo Nabrđe, i.e. when they lost their lives, they did not live in Malo Nabrđe. In many cases persons born in Malo Nabrđe, but living somewhere else, were recorded as Malo Nabrđe human losses. It is noticeable that the lists on human losses from Malo Nabrđe contain records of non-existent persons, i.e. entries with incorrect names and surnames of persons supposedly from Malo Nabrđe. Moreover, the victim lists in some cases contain records of persons who undoubtedly lost their lives, but cannot be considered victims of World War II and the post-war period. The data mentioned mainly result from statements of relatives and (former) inhabitants of Malo Nabrđe and Gašinci. However, the statements of contemporaries very often did not provide correct or very accurate data and they did not contribute to the clarification of the destiny of a person, moreover by new, at times completely different data on time, place and the circumstances of a death, they raised new questions and ambiguities. As no Vital Records with entries from Malo Nabrđe exist, it is difficult, actually impossible, to verify data on the dates of birth of individual persons, but also the dates of death of those who were registered in the Register of Deaths. Hardly any of the entries and data on human losses in Malo Nabrđe date from World War II and the immediate post-war period when the registered persons actually lost their lives. However, data for only 5 persons from Malo Nabrđe exist in newspapers, in the Registers of Deaths or in original documents referring to the time, place and circumstances under which the people lost their lives. It is hard to ignore the impression that in all victim records mentioned, the persons registered were primarily and only “our” victims, due to collected data which had not been verified at all or were insufficiently revised and compared, even in cases where it was possible. The entries are mainly based on statements of contemporaries, not of eyewitnesses who could testify to the circumstances, places and dates of deaths. This is the first attempt, deriving from the stance that all victims and persons affected have the right to be remembered, to list all the human losses of a village in the Đakovo area, regardless of national, religious, political and/or military affiliation during World War II and the post-war period. This article is an attempt to give an overall review of the real human losses of Malo Nabrđe in World War II and the post-war period based on the revision of data, in many cases incomplete and/or contradictory, or even incorrect, edited in numerous works, also providing lists of names and records of victims from Malo Nabrđe