180-788: The Banjica concentration camp ( German : KZ Banjica , Serbian : Бањички логор , Banjički logor ) was a Nazi German concentration camp in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia , the military administration of the Third Reich established after the Invasion and occupation of Yugoslavia during World War II . In response to escalating resistance, the German army instituted severe repressive measures – mass executions of civilian hostages and
360-460: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
540-408: A guerrilla war if the country was occupied. Its headquarters was transferred from Novi Sad to Kraljevo in south-central Serbia on 1 April. On 2 April, the German ambassador having already been recalled for "talks", the remaining embassy staff were ordered to leave the capital and to warn the embassies of friendly nations to likewise evacuate. That sent the unmistakable message that Yugoslavia
720-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
900-587: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
1080-404: A cavalry regiment, a Bersaglieri motorcycle battalion, three Border Guard battalions, one Finance Guard battalion, a motorised artillery regiment of three battalions, a military police battalion, and a tank company equipped with Fiat M13/40 light tanks. The Librazhd Sector included a motorised artillery regiment of four battalions, a bicycle-mounted Bersaglieri regiment, a cavalry regiment,
1260-468: A collaborationist political police organisation that had been established in mid-May by Jovanović, who was now the German-appointed administrator of Belgrade. The conference decided to undertake a comprehensive preemptive campaign against the communists. The camp was formally established prior to 22 June 1941, documented by a letter of that date from Turner to Aćimović. Responsibility for establishing
1440-595: A concentration camp to hold known communists and other persons. Following the invasion and defeat of Yugoslavia, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia had begun organising for an armed struggle against the occupiers and their local collaborators. On 19 June, the MUP held a conference with senior German police and members of the Belgrade Special Police (Serbo-Croatian: Specijalna policija Uprave grada Beograda , SP UGB),
1620-466: A further 600 aircraft from France, Africa, and Sicily into Romania and Bulgaria in a period of ten days. The fighter and reconnaissance craft were sent to fields in Arad , Deva , and Turnu Severin . On 12 February Britain broke off diplomatic relations with Romania on the grounds that it was an enemy-occupied country. Two events in early November 1940 convinced Hitler of the need to station troops, especially
1800-556: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
1980-615: A machine gun battalion, a motorised anti-aircraft battalion (less one battery), an engineer battalion, a company of Blackshirts, and a company of L3/35 tankettes. The Yugoslav forces consisted of more than 33 divisions of the Royal Yugoslav Army ( Serbo-Croatian Latin : Vojska Kraljevska Jugoslavije , VKJ), four air brigades of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force ( Serbo-Croatian Latin : Vazduhoplovstvo Vojske Kraljevine Jugoslavije , VVKJ) with more than 400 aircraft, and
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#17331069905342160-581: A manufacturing licence. The sole operator was 3 vazduhoplovni puk (3rd bomber regiment) composed of two bomber groups; the 63rd Bomber Group stationed at Petrovec airfield near Skopje and the 64th Bomber Group stationed at Milesevo airfield near Priština . Other auxiliary airfields had also been prepared to aid in dispersal. During the course of hostilities, the State Aircraft Factory in Kraljevo managed to produce six more aircraft of this type. Of
2340-405: A minimum of 382 Jews—died at the camp. Of these, 3,420 were men and 429 were women. Prisoners were mostly Serbian by origin, 73% of them, the others were Jews, Roma, and citizens of Soviet Union and several Western European countries. From the partially preserved archive of the camp which was not destroyed, data for 3,849 executed have been saved. Among them was 3,420 men and 429 women, while by age
2520-510: A motorised anti-aircraft battalion, a sapper assault battalion and a road construction battalion. VI Corps included four motorised artillery regiments with a total of sixteen battalions, two machine gun battalions (one motorised, one pack animal) and a motorised anti-aircraft regiment. XI Corps included one motorised artillery regiment comprising four battalions, three machine gun battalions (one motorised, one pack animal and one static), and six Blackshirt legions of battalion size. The Motorised Corps
2700-587: A museum. Following the 1938 Anschluss between Germany and Austria , Yugoslavia shared a border with the Third Reich and came under increasing pressure as her neighbours aligned themselves with the Axis powers . In April 1939, Italy opened a second frontier with Yugoslavia when it invaded and occupied neighbouring Albania . At the outbreak of World War II, the Yugoslav government declared its neutrality . Between September and November 1940, Hungary and Romania joined
2880-453: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
3060-654: A navigational error) and one Rogozarski R 313 fighters, 69 Dornier Do 17 K (including 40 plus licence-built), 61 Bristol Blenheim Mk I (including some 40 licence-built) and 40 Savoia Marchetti SM-79 K bombers. Army reconnaissance units consisted of seven Groups with 130 obsolete Yugoslav-built Breguet 19 and Potez 25 light bombers. There were also some 400 trainer and auxiliary aircraft. The Naval Aviation units comprised 75 aircraft in eight squadrons equipped with, amongst other auxiliary types, 12 German-built Dornier Do 22 K and 15 Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H locally designed and built maritime patrol float-planes. The aircraft of
3240-538: A noted sadist who collaborated enthusiastically with the Germans, interrogated prisoners and devised a number of humiliating torture techniques. Vujković had been a high-ranking official in the pre-war Belgrade police. He was involved in the persecution of Yugoslavia's communists even before the outbreak of World War II . Executions occurred frequently at Vujković's whim and he rarely asked for approval from German or Serbian authorities to carry out murders. He purportedly ordered
3420-679: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
3600-475: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
3780-544: A shortage of coal. Hungarian officials tried to meet all German demands without going further than the governments had agreed. Even sabotage was used on occasion to prevent having to give the Germans more support than required. On 18 January 1941 an agreement was reached to store German supplies in Hungarian warehouses under Hungarian guard, with only a German officer in Budapest to serve as a liaison. These supplies were to be used in
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#17331069905343960-726: A strength of 1,875 officers and 29,527 other ranks, including some 2,000 pilots, had over 460 front-line aircraft of domestic (notably the IK-3 ), German, Italian, French, and British origin, of which most were modern types. Organized into 22 bomber squadrons and 19 fighter squadrons, the main aircraft types in operational use included 73 Messerschmitt Bf 109 E , 47 Hawker Hurricane Mk I (with more being built under licence in Yugoslavia), 30 Hawker Fury II , 11 Rogožarski IK-3 fighters (plus more under construction), 10 Ikarus IK-2 , 2 Potez 63 , one Messerschmitt Bf 110 C-4 (captured in early April due to
4140-487: A system of 50 auxiliary airfields that had previously been prepared. However, many of these airfields lacked facilities and had inadequate drainage which prevented the continued operation of all but the very lightest aircraft in the adverse weather conditions encountered in April 1941. Despite having, on paper at any rate, a substantially stronger force of relatively modern aircraft than the combined British and Greek air forces to
4320-462: A total of 22 divisions to the operation, comprising around 300,000 troops. The Italian 2nd Army (Italian: 2° Armata ) was commanded by Generale designato d’Armata (acting General) Vittorio Ambrosio , and consisted of one fast (Italian: celere ) corps ( Celere Corps ), one motorised corps ( Motorised Corps ) and three infantry corps ( V Corps , VI Corps , and XI Corps ), and was assembled in northeastern Italy, attacking from Istria and
4500-580: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
4680-596: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
4860-546: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
5040-472: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
5220-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
5400-520: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
5580-595: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
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5760-559: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
5940-522: Is necessary to avoid even the slightest semblance of military occupation of Romania." In the second half of October, the Romanian leader, Ion Antonescu , asked that the military mission be expanded. The Germans happily obliged the request, since the oil fields and refineries at Ploiești were vital to their war effort. Romania was also an important launching point for an attack on the Soviet Union, which made
6120-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
6300-587: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
6480-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
6660-510: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
6840-566: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
7020-481: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
7200-673: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
7380-673: The 1st and 2nd Armies, defended the region between the Iron Gates and the Drava River . The 1st Army Group with the 4th and 7th Armies, composed mainly of Croatian troops, was in Croatia and Slovenia defending the Italian, German (Austrian) and Hungarian frontiers. The strength of each "Army" amounted to little more than a corps , with the Army Groups consisting of the units deployed as follows: On
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7560-627: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
7740-655: The Biscaccianti Blackshirt group which incorporated two Blackshirt regiments with a total of five battalions, the regimental-sized Agostini Blackshirt Forest Militia, and the Briscotto group, a regimental-sized formation consisting of one Alpini battalion and two Finance Guard battalions. The Zara garrison numbered about 9,000 men under the overall command of Generale di Brigata (Brigadier) Emilio Giglioli. The garrison consisted of two main groupings and an assortment of supporting units. The two main groupings were
7920-401: The Communist Party of Yugoslavia ( Serbo-Croatian : Komunistička partija Jugoslavije ; KPJ) or participants in that summer's anti-fascist uprising. The majority of prisoners were Serbs. The camp held men and women of all ages, as well as young children. A sizeable number of inmates were Jews and Roma . Rafael Israeli notes that of the 23,637 inmates, 688 were Jews, of whom 382 were killed by
8100-557: The Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
8280-522: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
8460-473: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
8640-514: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
8820-592: The Gestapo in the camp, 186 were transferred to the main Nazi concentration for Serbian Jews at Sajmište , and 103 more were taken from the camp by the Gestapo and killed or used as force labor. The Jewish inmates hailed from Belgrade, Banat , Central Serbia , and various European countries. Before arriving at the camp, inmates would spend several days in the custody of the Gestapo and SP UGB, where they were tortured and beaten. By
9000-724: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
9180-611: The Independent State of Croatia ( Serbo-Croatian Latin : Nezavisna Država Hrvatska , or NDH), an Axis puppet state created during the invasion comprising the Srem , Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the Croatian lands. Along with Italy 's stalled invasion of Greece on 28 October 1940, and the German-led invasion of Greece (Operation Marita) and invasion of Crete (Operation Merkur),
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#17331069905349360-560: The Jewish cemetery . Banjica was operational from July 1941 to October 1944. It was jointly run by German occupiers under the command of Gestapo official Willy Friedrich and the Milan Nedić 's puppet government , which was under full control of the occupational forces. However although German forces took the leading and guiding role of the Final Solution in Serbia, and the Germans monopolized
9540-511: The Julian March along the border with Slovenia and Croatia. The 2nd Army was supported by a motorised engineer regiment including three bridging battalions, a chemical battalion, fifteen territorial battalions, and two garrison battalions. V Corps support units included three motorised artillery regiments comprising thirteen battalions, four machine gun battalions (two motorised and two pack animal), three Blackshirt legions of battalion size,
9720-623: The Luftwaffe , in Bulgaria. The first was false reports that the British were constructing an airfield on Lemnos , from which they could bomb Ploiești . The second was the beginning of British air raids originating from Greek bases against Italian shipping on 6 November. Planning for the German invasion of Greece from Bulgaria began on 12 November. Already on 13 November, the Soviets were (incorrectly) accusing
9900-644: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
10080-641: The Ostmark (modern-day Austria , then part of Germany). Italian forces were limited to air and artillery attacks until 11 April, when the Italian Army attacked towards Ljubljana (in modern-day Slovenia ) and through Istria and Lika and down the Dalmatian coast . On the same day, Hungarian forces entered Yugoslav Bačka and Baranya , but like the Italians they faced practically light resistance. A Yugoslav attack into
10260-593: The Republic of Užice . On Hitler's personal orders to crush the resistance in Serbia, the German military started shooting 100 hostages for every German killed, and 50 for every wounded. The Germans thus killed 30,000 Serbian civilians, including 3,000 in a mass execution at Kragujevac , and 2,000 at Kraljevo . Among the executed were thousands of Jewish men. To crush the resistance and exterminate Jews, Germans also established concentration camps – at Banjica, Niš (Crveni krst) , Sajmište , etc – in which they interred Serb antifascists, Jews and Roma . Additionally, to fight
10440-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
10620-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
10800-441: The Tripartite Pact , aligning themselves with the Axis, and Italy invaded Greece . From that time, Yugoslavia was almost completely surrounded by the Axis powers and their satellites, and her neutral stance toward the war became strained. In late February 1941, Bulgaria joined the Pact. The following day, German troops entered Bulgaria from Romania , closing the ring around Yugoslavia . Intending to secure his southern flank for
10980-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
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#173310699053411160-425: The impending attack on the Soviet Union , Adolf Hitler began placing heavy pressure on Yugoslavia to join the Axis. On 25 March 1941, after some delay, the Yugoslav government conditionally signed the Pact. Two days later, a group of pro-Western, Serbian nationalist Royal Yugoslav Air Force officers deposed the country's regent , Prince Paul , in a bloodless coup d'état , placed his teenaged nephew Peter on
11340-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
11520-594: The 64th Reserve Police Battalion. While he was formally responsible to Turner, Fuchs reported directly to his superiors at the RSHA in Berlin. The Germans began a search for a suitable Serb to lead a collaborationist regime in the occupied territory. Consideration was given to appointing Belgrade police chief Dragomir Jovanović , but the German Military Commander in Serbia selected former Yugoslav Minister of Internal Affairs Milan Aćimović . Aćimović formed his Commissioner Government (Serbo-Croatian: Komesarska vlada ) on 30 May 1941, consisting of ten commissioners. Aćimović
11700-411: The Banjica Concentration Camp, first opened in 1969, is dedicated to the memory of those who were detained in the camp and the victims of other Nazi concentration camps. It contains an exhibition of over four hundred items relating to the camp and its operation. Prominent intellectuals and artists who were imprisoned or killed at Banjica or killed at Jajinci: The Museum of the Banjica Concentration Camp
11880-588: The British had declared that "if Hungary were to permit German troops to pass through Hungarian territory against Yugoslavia, Britain would break off diplomatic relations, indeed might declare war on us." The first German troops began their passage through Hungary on 8 October. Despite some official denials, the troops movements were reported by Reuters and the American ambassador received a full report. According to contemporary British intelligence, three divisions had passed through Hungary to Romania by 2 November. On 20 November, Hungarian Prime Minister Pál Teleki signed
12060-401: The Danube from Lake Balaton to Barcs , and twelve brigades (nine on the front and three in reserve) for an offensive in Bačka ( Bácska ). The Danube Flotilla was to cover the flanks, and the air force was to stand by for orders. The "Carpathian Group", composed of Eighth Corps , the 1st Mountain Brigade and the 8th Border Guard ( Chasseur ) Brigade, was mobilized on the Soviet border, with
12240-439: The Danube from Romania on 28 February, a day before Bulgaria joined the pact. The greater part of the 12th Army, augmented by VIII. Fliegerkorps , crossed the Danube on 2 March. They were welcomed by the Russophile population, who believed that Germany and the Soviet Union were allied. The 12th Army was originally deployed solely for an attack on Greece. After receiving Directive No. 25, which projected an invasion of Yugoslavia in
12420-614: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
12600-414: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
12780-417: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
12960-447: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
13140-675: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
13320-497: The Germans by singing Partisan songs, shouting their support for Tito and Stalin , and by holding lectures, discussions, one-act plays, recitals, and even folk-song and dance performances on the campgrounds. Most of the killings at camp were carried out by the Gestapo. Those committed by the SP UGB and the SDS were carried out under the orders of Belgrade police commissioner Svetozar Vujković ,
13500-459: The Germans of having troops in neutral Bulgaria. On 18 November, Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria met with Hitler and promised to participate in an attack on Greece, but only at the last moment. Shortly thereafter a secret German team under Colonel Kurt Zeitzler entered Bulgaria to establish fuel depots, arrange for troop billeting and scout the terrain. They were soon followed by hundreds of Luftwaffe personnel to establish air observation stations. By
13680-562: The Germans to begin operations, with the use of Hungarian territory and communications, on 12 April and the Hungarians to complete mobilization by 6 April and begin their offensive on the 15th. A meeting of the Supreme Defense Council was convened for 1 April to discuss Werth's request. After a long debate, it approved his mobilization plan, but refused to place Hungarian troops under German command and restricted Hungarian operations to
13860-502: The Germans, but also by the SDS . 186 Jewish inmates were transferred to Sajmište. Of these, 103 were taken from the camp by the Gestapo, and a small number of those who survived were either sent to forced labor, were transferred to another camp, or were unaccounted for. After the war, Banjica's German commander, Willy Friedrich, was tried by a Yugoslav military court in Belgrade on 27 March 1947, and
14040-584: The Germans, with the assistance of the Serbian State Guard. In the spring of 1942 the Germans used a gas van brought from the Sajmište to murder Jewish inmates on two separate occasions. A number of Chetnik guerrillas were imprisoned in the camp that autumn. Executions continued throughout the war, and many inmates were shot as hostages. By September 1944, collaborationists of the Serbian State Guard, Serbian Volunteer Corps and Chetniks captured about 455 of
14220-511: The Gestapo section of the camp. Most of those detained at the camp were arrested by either the Gestapo or by the SP UGB acting as agents of the Gestapo. Some groups of prisoners were sent to the camp by Wehrmacht units or the SS who had rounded them up during counter-insurgency operations. Others were arrested by the German Feldgendarmerie (military police), mainly for minor offences against
14400-622: The Hungarian legation in Berlin had granted over 6,500 transit visas to Germans traveling to Romania. On 30 September, shortly after the signing of the Tripartite Pact, Ribbentrop and General Keitel asked the Hungarian foreign minister, István Csáky , who was in Vienna, to grant the Germans use of transit facilities for German military "study groups" to pass through to Romania. They were still awaiting final confirmation on 3 October. The arrangement agreed
14580-646: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
14760-615: The Italians. On 14 and 15 April, King Peter and the government flew out of the country, and the Yugoslav Supreme Command was captured by the Germans near Sarajevo . The surrender was signed on 17 April and came into effect at noon on 18 April. Following the Belgrade Coup on 27 March 1941, the Yugoslav armed forces were put on alert, although the army was not fully mobilised for fear of provoking Hitler. The VVKJ command decided to disperse its forces away from their main bases to
14940-507: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
15120-484: The Mobile Corps held in reserve. These arrangements were agreed to by Werth, he later claimed, "on the basis of the authorization received" on 28 April—although this was not the government's view of what had been authorized. Werth applied for permission to mobilize on 1 April, since a mobilization order had to be approved by the cabinet and issued by the regent over the signature of the minister of defense. Werth expected
15300-613: The Romanian Ploiești oilfields from which Nazi Germany obtained most of its oil. In 1940 and early 1941, Hungary , Romania , and Bulgaria all agreed to adhere to the Tripartite Pact and thus join the Axis. Hitler then pressured Yugoslavia to join as well. The Regent, Prince Paul , yielded to this pressure, and declared Yugoslavia's accession to the Pact on 25 March 1941. This move
15480-477: The SP UGB. Members of the Serbian State Guard ( Serbo-Croatian : Srpska državna straža ; SDS) acted as prison staff. The SDS were the military arm of the collaborationist Government of National Salvation led by Milan Nedić , a pre-war politician who was known to have pro-Axis leanings, who had been selected to lead the puppet government by the Germans. Most of the inmates were individuals affiliated with
15660-574: The Serbian staff were required to obtain approval from the Gestapo for nearly all actions they took. While the Gestapo were often harsher on the inmates than their quislings, on some occasions the Serbian staff were worse than the Gestapo. In the camp, Vujković together with the Germans selected prisoners for execution. On 19 February 1943 Vujković selected 215 prisoners of Banjica camp for execution. Hostages held to be killed in reprisal for attacks on German or Serbian collaborationist forces were generally held in
15840-600: The Slovenes did not feel abandoned, defences were built on Yugoslavia's northern border when the natural line of defence was much further south, based on the rivers Sava and Drina. The only effective opposition to the invasion was from wholly Serbian units within the borders of Serbia itself. The Germans, thrusting north-west from Skopje , were held up at Kacanik Pass and lost several tanks (P39, Buckley C "Greece and Crete 1941" HMSO 1977). In its worst expression, Yugoslavia's defenses were badly compromised on 10 April 1941, when some of
16020-567: The Tripartite Pact after a meeting with Hitler in Berchtesgarden . At the meeting, Hitler spoke of his intention to aid Italy against Greece, thereby preparing the Hungarians for his future demands. On 13 December 1940—the day after the Hungaro-Yugoslav Non-Aggression Pact and the day Hitler issued Führer Directive No. 20 —major German troop movements began. The Germans had initially promised to supply 180 locomotives for
16200-566: The Tripartite Pact. At the time Germany informed Romania that she would not be expected to participate in an attack on Greece, but that Germany wanted to use Romanian territory to provide a base for a German attack. On 24 November, Antonescu met with Wilhelm Keitel , chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht , to discuss common defense. As a result of this meeting, the 16th Panzer Division was sent to Romania in late December. The 12th Army and First Panzer Group, along with heavy bridging equipment for
16380-576: The United States of America in the months just preceding the invasion. Fully mobilized, the Yugoslav Army fielded 28 infantry divisions, three cavalry divisions, and 35 independent regiments. Of the independent regiments, 16 were in frontier fortifications and 19 were organized as combined regiments, or "Odred", around the size of a reinforced brigade. Each Odred had one to three infantry regiments and one to three artillery battalions, with three organised as "alpine" units. The German attack, however, caught
16560-786: The Yugoslav Army; the XLI Panzer Corps from Romania towards Belgrade, the XLVI Panzer Corps from Hungary across the Drava , the LI Infantry Corps from Austria towards Zagreb , and the XLIX Mountain Corps from Austria towards Celje . By the end of that day, the Yugoslav Army was disintegrating, and was in retreat or surrendering right across the country, with the exception of the forces on the Albanian frontier. Italy and Hungary joined
16740-715: The Yugoslav airline Aeroput , consisting mainly of six Lockheed Model 10 Electras , three Spartan Cruisers , and one de Havilland Dragon were mobilised to provide transport services to the VVKJ. The KJRM was equipped with one elderly ex-German light cruiser (suitable only for training purposes), one large modern destroyer flotilla leader of British design, three modern destroyers of French design (two built in Yugoslavia plus another still under construction), one seaplane tender , four modern submarines (two older French-built and two British-built) and 10 modern motor torpedo boats (MTBs), of
16920-415: The army still mobilizing, and only some 11 divisions were in their planned defense positions at the start of the invasion. The Yugoslavs had delayed full mobilisation until 3 April in order not to provoke Hitler. The units were filled to between 70 and 90 percent of their strength as mobilization was not completed. The Yugoslav Army was about 1,200,000 in total as the German invasion commenced. The VVKJ had
17100-454: The attack on Yugoslavia was already planned and Hungary's participation had been secured. King Carol II of Romania , starting from the cession of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union, proposed in a letter to Adolf Hitler on 2 July 1940 that Germany send a military mission to Romania. The Romanian government asked that a mission be sent urgently on 7 September 1940, the day after Carol's abdication. The decision to aid Romania
17280-416: The camp fell to Turner's deputy, SS- Sturmbannführer Georg Kiessel, who was responsible for overseeing Jovanović. In addition to his role as the administrator of Belgrade , Jovanović was also the chief of Serbian State Security for Aćimović's puppet regime. A three man committee was created to determine the site for the camp. The committee consisted of Jovanović's deputy city administrator, Miodrag Đorđević,
17460-441: The camp would belong to the Serbian authorities, and the rest they took for their prisoners". Initially the Gestapo and Serbian State Guard jointly guarded the camp, but this was later delegated to the Serbian State Guard alone. While Vujković was the administrator of the camp, he and his staff were at all times subject to the supervision of the Gestapo. The Germans often took decisions without reference to Vujković and his staff, but
17640-479: The campaign against Greece. On 27 March 1941, Hitler informed the Hungarian ambassador, Döme Sztójay , and gave an official proposal to Hungary for participation in the attack on Yugoslavia. Hitler confidentially told Miklós Horthy that Germany fully recognizes the Hungarian territorial claims in relation to Yugoslavia and that he can take Bačka and Banat, and added "take as much as you want". Horthy mostly agreed and accepted Hitler's suggestions. A Hungarian response
17820-446: The chief engineer of Belgrade, Milan Janjušević, and an unnamed representative of the Gestapo. The committee chose the former barracks of the Royal Yugoslav Army 's 18th Infantry Regiment, located in the Belgrade suburb of Banjica . Once the site was identified, the buildings had to be prepared for receiving a large number of prisoners, and secured against escape. Jovanović had overall responsibility for this work, with Janjušević managing
18000-437: The chief of the administrative staff, and the military staff allocated the troops of the four local defence battalions across the area commands. The first military commander in the occupied territory was General der Flieger Helmuth Förster , a Luftwaffe officer, appointed on 20 April 1941, assisted by the chief of the administrative staff, SS- Brigadeführer and State Councillor, Dr. Harald Turner . A further key figure in
18180-523: The coup in Yugoslavia, Hitler called his military advisers to Berlin on 27 March. On the same day as the coup he issued Führer Directive 25 , which called for Yugoslavia to be treated as a hostile state. Hitler took the coup as a personal insult, and was so angered that he was determined, in his words, "to destroy Yugoslavia militarily and as a state" ( Jugoslawien militärisch und als Staatsgebilde zu zerschlagen ) and to do so "with pitiless harshness" and "without waiting for possible declarations of loyalty of
18360-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
18540-452: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
18720-571: The direction of Belgrade on 8 April, the force was redeployed in three groups: one along the Turkish border, one along the Greek border and one along the Yugoslav border. Motorized transport was brought in from Romania to achieve this feat in a few days. Although German troops had been refused the right to transit Hungary for the invasion of Poland in 1939, they were permitted to pass through Hungary as civilians on their way to Romania in 1940. In September 1940
18900-507: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
19080-487: The end of 1941 the camp held between 2,000 and 3,000 prisoners. By 1942, most Jews in occupied Serbia were taken to Banjica and shot at Jajinci , Marinkova Bara and the Jewish cemetery. Thousands were killed at those execution sites. According to survivors, the SP UGB and Serbian State Guard were responsible for executions including the killing of children, but records indicate that the majority of executions were carried out by
19260-452: The end of December over a thousand German troops in civilian clothing were active in Bulgaria, although the latter's government continued to deny it. Bombers and dive-bombers were also gradually moved into Bulgaria, beginning in November. By the end of March 1941, the Luftwaffe had 355 aircraft in the country. On 17 February 1941, Bulgaria signed a non-aggression pact with Turkey , paving
19440-483: The establishment of a concentration camp for communists and others considered "dangerous to public order" within Belgrade itself was a 26 May 1941 report of the Serbian Gendarmerie Command, which indicated that such a camp was being considered. In the same month, an order from Aćimović's Ministry of Internal Affairs (Serbo-Croatian: Ministarstvo unutrašnjih poslova , MUP) also mentioned a plan to establish
19620-466: The establishment of concentration camps. Located in the Banjica neighborhood of Dedinje —a suburb of Belgrade —it was originally used by the Germans as a center for holding hostages. The camp was later used to hold anti-fascist Serbs , Jews , Roma , captured Partisans , Chetniks and other opponents of Nazi Germany. By 1942, most executions occurred at the firing ranges at Jajinci , Marinkova Bara and
19800-423: The eve of invasion, clothing and footwear were available for only two-thirds or so of the potential front-line troops and only partially for other troops; some other essential supplies were available for only a third of the front-line troops; medical and sanitary supplies were available for only a few weeks, and supplies of food for men and feed for livestock were available for only about two months. In all cases there
19980-573: The fifth column had little effect on the ultimate outcome. The invasion ended when an armistice was signed on 17 April 1941, based on the unconditional surrender of the Yugoslav army, which came into effect at noon on 18 April. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was then occupied and partitioned by the Axis powers. Most of Serbia and the Banat became a German zone of occupation while other areas of Yugoslavia were annexed by neighboring Axis countries, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Albania and Bulgaria. Croatia became
20160-496: The first two months of its operation, the camp was surrounded by a barbed wire fence. As this was considered inadequate to prevent escape, Jovanović ordered Janjušević to build a masonry wall around the camp. In early September, construction commenced on the wall and a guardhouse. The wall was completed within a month, and was 5 metres (16 ft) high, enclosing the camp in the form of a pentagon, with towers set at each corner in which machine guns and searchlights were mounted. The camp
20340-574: The following day. Prime Minister Pál Teleki sought to prevent German troops passing through Hungary and cited the peace treaty with Yugoslavia as an impediment to co-operation with the Germans. On 1 April, Yugoslavia redesignated its Assault Command as the Chetnik Command , named after the Serb guerrilla forces from World War I , which had resisted the Central Powers . The command was intended to lead
20520-442: The ground offensive on 11 April. The Italian part in the ground offensive began when their 2nd Army attacked from northeastern Italy towards Ljubljana and down the Dalmatian coast, meeting virtually no resistance. On the same day, the Hungarian 3rd Army crossed the Yugoslav border and advanced toward Novi Sad , but like the Italians, they met no serious resistance. On 12 April, German troops captured Belgrade, and Ljubljana fell to
20700-446: The hard pressed Yugoslav Army by strafing attacking troop and mechanized columns in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia (sometimes taking off and strafing the troops attacking the very base being evacuated). After a combination of air combat losses, losses on the ground to enemy air attack on bases and the overrunning of airfields by enemy troops, after 11 days the VVKJ almost ceased to exist. However, continued domestic aircraft production during
20880-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
21060-474: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
21240-537: The initial German administration was SS- Standartenführer Wilhelm Fuchs , who commanded Einsatzgruppe Serbia , which was a grouping that included various detachments of the Reich Security Main Office ( German : Reichssicherheitshauptamt , RSHA), including Gestapo (Secret State Police), Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police, or Kripo ), and Ausland- Sicherheitsdienst (Foreign Security Service, or Ausland-SD ). Einsatzgruppe Serbien also controlled
21420-637: The invasion and resultant fighting into two phases. The first phase encompasses the Luftwaffe ' s devastating air assault on Belgrade and airfields of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force of 6 April, and an initial thrust of the German XL Panzer Corps from Bulgaria towards Skopje that commenced the same day. This was followed by the assault of the German XIV Panzer Corps from Bulgaria towards Niš on 8 April. On 10 April, four more thrusts struck
21600-561: The invasion of Yugoslavia was part of the German Balkan Campaign (German: Balkanfeldzug ). In October 1940, Fascist Italy had attacked the Kingdom of Greece only to be forced back into Italian-occupied Albania . German dictator Adolf Hitler recognised the need to go to the aid of his ally, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini . Hitler did this not only to restore diminished Axis prestige, but also to prevent Britain from bombing
21780-410: The invasion supplied the VVKJ with an additional eight Hurricane Is, six Dornier Do 17 Ks, four Blenheim Is, two Ikarus IK 2s , one Rogozarski IK-3 and one Messerschmitt Bf 109 from the local aeronautical industry's aircraft factories and workshops. At the beginning of the April war, the VVKJ was armed with some 60 German designed Do 17Ks, purchased by Yugoslavia in the autumn of 1938, together with
21960-489: The invasion was put forward in " Führer Directive No. 25", which Adolf Hitler issued on 27 March 1941, following a Yugoslav coup d'état that overthrew the pro-Axis government. The invasion commenced with an overwhelming air attack on Belgrade and facilities of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force (VVKJ) by the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) and attacks by German land forces from southwestern Bulgaria . These attacks were followed by German thrusts from Romania , Hungary and
22140-454: The killing of Jews, they were actively aided in that role by Serbian collaborators. Later, Friedrich was tried, found guilty and executed for war crimes by Yugoslavia's post-war communist authorities. 23,697 individuals were detained in Banjica throughout the war, at least 3,849 of whom perished. After the war, a small monument dedicated to the victims of the camp was constructed. The site is now
22320-832: The killing of prisoners even in cases where the Ministry of Interior decided against execution. Vujković is reported to have begged the Germans to "personally shoot twenty young girls who were ordered for shooting" on one occasion. Despite this, neither he nor any other Serbs holding positions of power in the camp were reprimanded or removed from their posts by the Serbian collaborationist government. When prisoners complained of lack of food, Vujković and his associates replied by saying: "[You] didn't come here for spa therapy and food, but to be executed. To eat more or less will not save your lives." The Belgrade Circuit Court sentenced him to death in November 1949. The first mass execution in Banjica occurred on 17 December 1941, when 170 prisoners were shot. By
22500-484: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Invasion of Yugoslavia The invasion of Yugoslavia , also known as the April War or Operation 25 , was a German -led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II . The order for
22680-598: The main attack on Subotica ( Szabadka ), with a secondary operation east of the river Tisza . Because of Romania's request that Hungarian troops not operate in the Banat , Paulus modified the Hungarian plan and kept their troops west of the Tisza. This final plan "was put down in map form", according to Paulus' account, and must have been telephoned to Berlin immediately so as to make into Operational Order No. 25, issued by Walther von Brauchitsch that same day. This final plan committed one Hungarian corps of three brigades west of
22860-672: The man responsible for erasing traces of German atrocities throughout German-occupied Europe. According to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust : In November 1943 SS- Standartenführer Paul Blobel, the officer in charge of Aktion 1005 , came to Belgrade in order to set up a unit that would disinter the bodies of the murder victims and burn them. The unit, consisting of fifty members of the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) and German military police, as well as 100 Jewish and Serbian prisoners
23040-574: The most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ),
23220-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
23400-402: The new government". Hungary had joined the Tripartite Pact on 20 November 1940. On 12 December, it also concluded a treaty with Yugoslavia calling for "permanent peace and eternal friendship". The Hungarian leadership was split after Germany's War Directive 25 was delivered on 27 March 1941. Regent Miklós Horthy and the military favoured taking part in the invasion of Yugoslavia and mobilized
23580-630: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
23760-534: The northern parts of Italian-controlled Albania met with initial success, but was ultimately repelled into Dalmatia. Scholars have proposed several theories to explain the sudden collapse of the Royal Yugoslav forces , including poor training and equipment, generals eager to secure a quick cessation of hostilities, and fifth column activities by groups of Croatians, Slovenians, and ethnic Germans . The latter has been questioned by scholars who have suggested that
23940-479: The northwest began, King Victor Emmanuel III moved to a villa owned by the Pirzio Biroli family at Brazzacco, near Moruzzo , in order to be close to the front. Germany attacked Yugoslavia from bases in three countries besides itself: Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. German troops entered each of these countries under different pretenses and at different times. The first country to receive a German military mission
24120-521: The occupation of territory abandoned by the Yugoslavs. On 2 April Germany responded that the Paulus–Werth agreement was final, and German staff officers began arriving in Budapest that day. That same day the British informed Hungary that she would be treated as an enemy state if Germany made use of her territory or facilities in an attack on Yugoslavia. On the morning of 3 April, Pál Teleki committed suicide;
24300-506: The occupation regime, but peasants were also arrested for failing to meet farm production quotas set by the German occupation authorities. Nearly 9,000 of the inmates were brought to the camp by Serbian collaborators. A detailed account of the organisations that arrested and brought inmates to the Banjica concentration camp is as follows: It was run by the German Gestapo and commanded by Gestapo official Willy Friedrich, in cooperation with
24480-412: The older vessels, there were six ex-Austrian Navy medium torpedo boats, six mine-layers, four large armoured river monitors and various auxiliary craft. The Yugoslav Army was organized into three army groups and the coastal defense troops. The 3rd Army Group was the strongest with the 3rd, 3rd Territorial, 5th and 6th Armies defending the borders with Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. The 2nd Army Group with
24660-589: The planned crossing of the Danube, followed in January 1941. By January 1941 the total number of German effectives in Romania was 170,639. Those elements of the 12th Army that were to invade Yugoslavia from Romania assembled near Timișoara (Temeschwar). Between November 1940 and February 1941, the Luftwaffe gradually moved 135 fighters and reconnaissance aircraft into Romania (in 22–26 squadrons). In early April 1941 they moved
24840-533: The presence of German troops a violation of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 23 August 1939. By the middle of November, the 13th Motorised Infantry Division had been assembled in Romania and reinforced by the 4th Panzer Regiment , engineers and signal troops, as well as six fighter and two reconnaissance Luftwaffe squadrons, and some antiaircraft artillery. A total of seventy batteries of artillery were moved into Romania. On 23 November, Romania signed
25020-657: The proclamation of an Independent State of Croatia in Zagreb on 10 April, this scenario was realized, and Hungary joined the invasion, its army crossing into Yugoslavia the following day. The invasion was spearheaded by the German 2nd Army with elements of the 12th Army , First Panzer Group , and an independent panzer corps combined with overwhelming Luftwaffe support. The 19 German divisions included five panzer divisions , two motorised infantry divisions and two mountain divisions. The German force also included three well-equipped independent motorised infantry regiments and
25200-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
25380-728: The regent immediately cancelled the mobilization order already given except for the Border Guard and the Mobile Corps, which prompted Werth to resign. Horthy then authorized the mobilization of the Fourth and Fifth Corps and the Mountain Brigade, and Werth withdrew his resignation. This occurred so late in the day that zero hour for mobilization to begin was given as midnight of 5 April. On the morning of 3 April, German units, including tanks and aircraft, bound for Romania passed openly through Budapest. The Italian 2nd Army and 9th Army committed
25560-448: The regimental-sized Fronte a Terra (Land Front), which comprised three static machine gun battalions and a bicycle-mounted Bersaglieri battalion, and the battalion-strength Fronte a Mare (Sea Front), which consisted of two machine gun companies, an anti-aircraft battery, a coastal artillery battery and a naval artillery battery. Supporting units consisted of an artillery regiment of three battalions, two independent artillery battalions,
25740-563: The registration of all Serbian Jews. On 30 May 1941 the German Military Commander in Serbia , Helmuth Förster, issued the main Race Laws, which excluded Jews and Roma from public and economic life, seized their property and required them to register for forced labor. On July 7, 1941 Partisan-led armed resistance broke out in Serbia, quickly spreading and leading to the establishment of the first liberated territory in occupied Europe,
25920-493: The remaining Jews in the occupied territory who were sent to the camp where they were killed immediately. In late 1944 the Germans forced a chain gang of Yugoslav prisoners to incinerate the remains of those killed in Banjica. A surviving member of the chain gang, Momčilo Damjanović, testified that the incineration of the corpses was organized by a unit of the Kommando 1005 , headed by SS-Standartenführer [Colonel] Paul Blobel ,
26100-512: The resistance, the Germans set up a quisling administration, under Milan Nedić , but he was given very limited powers, and was unable to establish order. In order to establish the military occupation of the territory, the German Military Commander in Serbia was allocated a staff, divided into military and administrative branches, and he was allocated personnel to form four area commands and about ten district commands, which reported to
26280-533: The small Royal Yugoslav Navy ( Serbo-Croatian Latin : Kraljevska Jugoslovenska Ratna Mornarica , KJRM) centred around four destroyers and four submarines based on the Adriatic coast and some river monitors on the Danube . The VKJ was heavily reliant on animal-powered transport , was only partly mobilised at the time of the invasion, and had only 50 tanks that could engage German tanks on an equal basis. The VVKJ
26460-663: The south, the VVKJ could simply not match the overwhelming Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica superiority in terms of numbers, tactical deployment and combat experience. The bomber and maritime force hit targets in Italy, Germany (Austria), Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece, as well as attacking German, Italian and Hungarian troops. Meanwhile, the fighter squadrons inflicted not insignificant losses on escorted Luftwaffe bomber raids on Belgrade and Serbia, as well as upon Regia Aeronautica raids on Dalmatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Montenegro. The VVKJ also provided direct air support to
26640-490: The special train "Atlas" of the Armed Forces Operations Staff ( Wehrmachtführungsstabes , WFSt). "Atlas" did not arrive at Mönichkirchen until 11 April, well after operations were underway, and "Amerika" only arrived the following day. Mönichkirchen was chosen because a nearby rail tunnel could provide shelter in the event of air attack. Both trains returned to Berlin on 26 April. After the Italian invasion in
26820-541: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
27000-496: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
27180-480: The throne, and brought to power a "government of national unity" led by General Dušan Simović . The coup enraged Hitler, who immediately ordered the country's invasion , which commenced on 6 April 1941. Yugoslavia was quickly overwhelmed by the combined strength of the Axis powers and surrendered in less than two weeks. The government and royal family went into exile, and the country was occupied and dismembered by its neighbours. The German-occupied territory of Serbia
27360-702: The time they were transferred from these detention centers to Banjica, some of the prisoners would already have displayed signs of serious mutilation. Throughout the camp's operation, guards would regularly beat and mistreat prisoners. The camp was notorious for its brutality and executions were frequent and random. Inmates were expected to follow the standard rules of conduct that were implemented in other German camps. These rules prohibited singing, speaking loudly, having conversations on political subjects, possessing writing utensils and paper, and all other personal belongings. The infraction of any of these rules would result in execution. Despite this, imprisoned anti-fascists defied
27540-523: The transfers, but later the Hungarians were complaining that only 130 had arrived. On 24 December, István Horthy , President of Hungarian State Railways (HSR), demanded negotiations before implementing requested German increases, but Ambassador Otto von Erdmannsdorf informed him that it had all been settled in Vienna by Keitel and Csáky. The German traffic was so large that on 28 December the HSR had to suspend travel on all its trains for several days on account of
27720-517: The units in the Croatian-manned 4th and 7th Armies mutinied, and a newly formed Croatian government hailed the entry of the Germans into Zagreb the same day. The Serbian General Staff were united on the question of Yugoslavia as a "Greater Serbia", ruled, in one way or another, by Serbia. On the eve of the invasion, there were 165 generals on the Yugoslav active list. Of these, all but four were Serbs. Professor Jozo Tomasevich and others divide
27900-511: The various models often lacked proper repair and maintenance facilities. The only mechanized units were six motorized infantry battalions in the three cavalry divisions, six motorized artillery regiments, two tank battalions equipped with 110 tanks, one of which had Renault FT models of First World War origin and the other 54 modern French Renault R35 tanks, plus an independent tank company with eight Czech T-32 (Š-I-D) tank destroyers. Some 1,000 trucks for military purposes had been imported from
28080-551: The way for its adherence to the Tripartite Pact, which was signed by Prime Minister Bogdan Filov in Vienna on 1 March. When Ivan V. Petrov, member of the National Assembly from Yablanitsa , asked why the Assembly had not been consulted, Filov pointed out that the constitution only required parliamentary approval prior to ratification. The signing was ratified by a vote in the Assembly of 140 to 20. The first German troops crossed
28260-404: The work at the camp. The former chief of the anti-communist section of the interwar Belgrade General Police, Svetozar Vujković , was appointed as the administrator of the camp, and he, his staff, and his German supervisors took over the camp on 5 July. The camp admitted its first inmates on 9 July, while building works were still ongoing. The first prisoners were held in one large basement room. For
28440-438: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
28620-415: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
28800-604: Was 22 children up to 7 years, from 7 to 14 years was 27 children, from 14 to 17 years was 76 persons, from 17 to 21 years was 564 persons, from 21 to 35 years was 1,703 persons, from 35 to 50 was 1,074 persons and over 50 years was 348 persons. Preserved data also show informations about who sent the prisoners to the camp, German SS troops sent 2,392 persons, German army sent 105 persons, Belgrade city administration sent 977 persons, Criminal police sent 93 persons, Serbian military detachments sent 141 persons and Districts of Serbia and Police Headquarters sent 241 persons. Most were killed by
28980-424: Was Romania. Ostensibly to train the Romanian armed forces, its real purpose was to protect Romania's petroleum resources and prepare for an attack on the Soviet Union. The Wehrmacht entered Bulgaria more circumspectly, first with the intention of providing aerial defense against any force attacking Romania's oilfields and later with that of invading Greece in support of Italy. German troops did not enter Hungary until
29160-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
29340-420: Was about to be invaded. On 3 April, Hitler issued War Directive 26 detailing the plan of attack and command structure for the invasion as well as promising Hungary territorial gains. The same day Teleki killed himself. Horthy, seeking a compromise, informed Hitler that evening that Hungary would abide by the treaty, though it would likely cease to apply should Croatia secede, and Yugoslavia cease to exist. Upon
29520-407: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
29700-406: Was divided into sections, with one part for Gestapo prisoners, another for those arrested by the SP UGB, and a third area which held a mixed group of prisoners when either or both of the other two sections were at capacity. After the war, while he was being interrogated, Jovanović explained that this division had come about when "the Gestapo arrived one day without warning and decreed that one-third of
29880-420: Was engaged in its gruesome task of obliterating the traces of the murders up to the fall of 1944. All Germans left Banjica on October 2. All the camp prisoners of the second and third category were set free on October 3. The last 31 prisoners (the first category) were released on October 4, 1944. Throughout the war, 23,697 individuals were detained in Banjica, including 688 Jews. At least 3,849 inmates—including
30060-745: Was equipped with a range of aircraft of Yugoslav, German, Italian, French and British design, including less than 120 modern fighter aircraft . Formed after World War I , the VKJ was still largely equipped with weapons and material from that era, although some modernization with Czech equipment and vehicles had begun. Of about 4,000 artillery pieces, many were aged and horse-drawn, but about 1,700 were relatively modern, including 812 Czech 37mm and 47mm anti-tank guns. There were also about 2,300 mortars, including 1600 modern 81mm pieces, as well as twenty-four 220 and 305mm pieces. Of 940 anti-aircraft guns, 360 were 15 mm and 20 mm Czech and Italian models. All of these arms were imported, from different sources;
30240-427: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
30420-409: Was hammered out in council and delivered the following day (28 March). On 30 March, General Friedrich Paulus arrived in Budapest and met with Henrik Werth , chief of the Hungarian general staff, and Major General László Deseő . The Hungarians proposed they mobilize five divisions for the attack on Yugoslavia. Two were to be held in reserve, while the First , Fifth and Mobile Corps were to conduct
30600-454: Was highly unpopular with the Serb -dominated officer corps of the military, Serbian organizations such as National Defense and the Chetniks Association , the Serbian Orthodox Church , a large part of the Serbian population as well as liberals and Communists. Military officers (predominantly Serbs) executed a coup d'état on 27 March 1941, forced the Regent to resign, and declared 17-year-old King Peter II to be of age. Upon hearing news of
30780-434: Was little or no possibility of replenishment. Beyond the problems of inadequate equipment and incomplete mobilization, the Yugoslav Army suffered badly from the Serbo-Croat schism in Yugoslav politics. "Yugoslav" resistance to the invasion collapsed overnight. The main reason was that none of the subordinate national groups, including Slovenes and Croats, were prepared to fight in defence of a Serbian Yugoslavia. Also, so that
30960-401: Was opened in 1969, and contains more than four hundred items relating to the camp and its operation. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is
31140-442: Was reduced to the Kingdom of Serbia 's pre- Balkan War borders and was kept under directly military occupation by the Germans due to the key rail and riverine transport routes that passed through it, as well as its valuable resources, particularly non-ferrous metals . The occupied territory covered about 51,000 km and had a population of 3.8 million. Even before the Yugoslav Army surrendered, German military authorities ordered
31320-418: Was sentenced to death. Police Commissioner Vujković survived the war; he was captured and tried for war crimes by Yugoslavia 's new communist government. He was eventually found guilty, sentenced to death, and shot. Historian Jozo Tomasevich calls Banjica the most notorious concentration camp in Serbia during World War II. A small monument dedicated to the victims of the camp exists in Belgrade. The Museum of
31500-413: Was supported by a cavalry regiment, three Border Guard battalions, a Finance Guard battalion and two military police (Italian: Carabinieri Reali ) battalions. The XVII Corps included the Diamanti Blackshirt group which incorporated six Blackshirt regiments comprising two battalions each, the Albanian-raised Skanderbeg Blackshirt regiment of two battalions, another Blackshirt regiment of two battalions,
31680-407: Was supported by a motorised artillery regiment consisting of three battalions, and a motorised engineer battalion. In Albania, the elements of the Italian 9th Army (Italian: 9° Armata ) that were involved in the campaign were commanded by Generale d’Armata (General) Alessandro Pirzio Biroli , and consisted of two infantry corps and some sector troops assembled in northern Albania. XIV Corps
31860-480: Was supported by over 750 aircraft. The Italian 2nd Army and 9th Army committed a total of 22 divisions and 666 aircraft to the operation. The Hungarian 3rd Army also participated in the invasion, with support available from over 500 aircraft. During the April War, the Führer Headquarters (FHQ) was codenamed Frühlingssturm (Spring Storm) and consisted of the Führersonderzug (Special Führer 's Train) codenamed "Amerika" stationed in Mönichkirchen alongside
32040-407: Was taken on 19 September, and Hungary was asked to provide transit to German soldiers on 30 September. The first troops entered Romania on 10 October. They entered Bucharest two days later (12 October) to shouts of Heil! The official explanation for the presence of German troops was that they were there to train the Romanian army. Hitler's directive to the troops on 10 October had stated that "it
32220-410: Was that six trains would pass through Hungary at night carrying German soldiers in sealed cars. They would not be allowed out, and they would not have any rail transportation officers (RTOs) or supply officers with them. According to György Barcza , the Hungarian ambassador in London, answering the British government's query, it was Romania that had made the request. In his notes, Barcza indicated that
32400-455: Was virulently anti-communist and had been in contact with the German police before the war. Upon capturing Belgrade, the Germans ordered the city's 12,000 Jews to report themselves to the occupational authorities, and 9,145 did so. Jews were removed from all official posts by 14 May, and a series of anti-Jewish laws were passed prohibiting them from activities ranging from going to restaurants to riding streetcars. The earliest written reference to
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