138 World War Two and the Partisan Struggle
“Schwaben” (Swabians) who did not escape in the convoys organized by the SS
were slaughtered, deported to the Soviet Union, or shut up in concentration
camps and later, if they survived, expelled from the country. This ruthless repri-
sal was initially led by Tito himself, as shown by a dispatch to one of his gener-
als: “Send me immediately... one of the best divisions, possibly Krajina’s. I
need it to purge Vršac of its German population.... Keep this order secret.”^457
The same treatment would also have been applied to the Hungarian minority
which had stained itself abundantly with Serb blood during the war, had Stalin
not intervened in its favor, affirming that in any case Hungary would be social-
ist and that it was, therefore, not acceptable to poison mutual relations.^458 In
subsequent years the authorities began to transfer populations from the moun-
tainous areas of central Bosnia to the fertile plains cleared of the Schwaben.
These populations had collaborated in great number in the Partisan struggle
and, after the war, were strongly represented among Tito’s officers. The initia-
tive did not yield the expected results. A great deal of tension resulted from
these migrations, as people with different traditions and mentalities now sud-
denly lived in the same area.^459
It is difficult to say whether “the purge of foreign elements” that took place
in Vojvodina could be considered the moment that the National Liberation
Struggle transformed into the “revolution from above,” to quote Stalin, refer-
ring to social change implemented by communist leaders, not the masses. The
majority of this took place in the days following the conquest of Belgrade,
where the Partisan troops entered with orders to shoot all of Nedić’s followers
on the spot.^460 The OZNA did not miss the chance for merciless revenge
against the “enemies of the people” and collaborators, true or supposed, who
during the war had hunted down the communists to the point that not a single
“comrade” could be found when the Partisans entered the city. “It will never be
known,” wrote Pero Simić, “how many thousands [of people] in Serbia, Slove-
nia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and in other parts of Yugoslavia disappeared in the
purges. There were twenty concentration and death camps in Belgrade alone.”^461
Even worse was the situation in Kosovo, where the Albanians tried to oppose
the “liberators” with arms. The popular uprising they organized was so success-
ful that, in February 1945, Tito was obliged to proclaim a state of war in the
province. About twelve hundred members of Balli Kombëtar, the nationalist,
anti-Communist organization, joined by one thousand deserters, barricaded
themselves in a mountain village, which was surrounded by the Forty-Second
Army Division and completely destroyed. Stalin approved this policy although,
at the same time, he asked Tito for amnesty for the Chetniks.^462
The liberation of Belgrade, of northwestern Serbia, and of eastern Srem and
Vojvodina made it possible to mobilize young men from the newly conquered