Jabuka

Demographic history

In December 1764, a military commission of Viennese Hofkriegsrat registered 88 Rascian people (Austrian German: Serbs) who lived in 69 more or less habitable houses.^[4]

In 1858, the parson Silvester Jablonsky wrote into the fragmentary history book of the Catholic parish community: a glorious appearance of the sky was visible during most of the summer time.^[5][6]

In 1921, the population of the village numbered 3,265 inhabitants, including 2,819 Germans, 348 Romanians, 73 Hungarians, 20 Serbs or Croats, 2 Slovenes, 2 Russians and 1 Englishman.^[7][8]

The resident Katharina Richardt (1905–1940) was a domestic worker in the household of a respected and honorable Belgrad's family of Jewish descendent from January 1924 to October 1925.^[9][10]

On 4 January 1932, the resident Stephan Scharinger (Serbian: Stefan Šaringer; at least school caretaker) was found hanged in his quarter after waterboarding with a bucket by some residents in the schoolyard who came from Inn Katitsch in the night of 31 December 1931 to 1 January 1932. A long-standing rumor in the village suspected him of sexual abuse of his daughter. But further on, the same residents threatened and harassed Maria Šaringer (Serbian: марија Шарингер, 1907–1953) and the Serbian family of Aleksandr Janković she lived with. The then 20-year-old woman became pregnant in 1926. The problem was not her illegitimate child growing up as an adopted child in the village by a family of Hungarian origin by name. She was a danger for a German resident and the reputation of his family. In 1933, the Serbian family had to emigrate from the village because of increasing discrimination.^{[11][12][13][14][15]}

The resident Stefan Metha (German of Vlach origin; Romanian-German) became first leader of local echelon of paramilitary Deutsche Mannschaft and Peter Speidel his deputy a few years later. Josef Jerger, leader of the regional Einsatzstaffel Hermann Göring (operation echelon Hermann Göring) of Danube Swabian's Deutsche Mannschaft had distant relatives in the village.^[16][17][18]

On 10 October 1943, Franz Richardt, Josef Neder and Franz Lischitz, young members of the SS Freiwilligen Gebirgsjäger Division Prinz Eugen strictly refused their further participations in a reprisal in the area around Sarajevo. They were shot and killed because of their command denials. The resident Friedrich Scharinger (Serbian: Fridrih Šaringer) became at first a member of Banater Staatswache in August 1941 with main watch service at Cervena magazine and temporary use at Svilara of Pančevo, then member of SS Freiwilligen Gebirgsjäger Division Prinz Eugen since April 1942 (horsekeeper at Pferde-Corps) and deserted in January 1945 in the area around Karlovac. The resident Josef Nedwetzky of Czech origin, a member of the Deutsche Mannschaft and voluntary executioner of 18 innocent civilians (reprisal) from Pančevo in April 1941, was tortured and hanged by OZNA in October 1944 at Svilara and his daughter was killed as Second-rate official on 14 November 1944. In 1944, one part of German population left from the region, together with defeated German army. The remaining Germans of the village were sent to local imprisonments which existed until 1948. After prison camps were dissolved, many of German population left Yugoslavia because of economic reasons.^[19][20][21]

In the time period after World War II the village was settled with families that originated from all parts of Yugoslavia. Most of the settlers were from Macedonia, many of them originating from Kriva Palanka Municipality. In 1948, the majority of inhabitants were Macedonians (2,806 or 63.88%).^[22][23]

Topographic history

On 9 May 1768, Joseph II wrote an impression of the structural condition of the village during his inspection of the new part of southern military frontier into his diary: Jabuka is the worst of them all. At the instigation of Viennese Hofkriegsrat and after approval of the financing by Viennese Hofkammer the village was new created and built up until 1774. There is a historical plan of the new village which is kept at the Austrian National Archives. At the beginning of the 19th century, cotton was planted on a trial basis in the northern Jabuka area but it was stopped because of long-term profitability reasons. In 1808, Archduke Ludwig opened a fruit plant nursery which existed until 1873. There is an impression of the old village and the plant nursery (German Obstgarten Plantage) which is recorded on the map of the Franciscan land survey from the early 19th century at the National Archives of Austria. In 1905, cadastral maps of the village were recorded which are kept at the National Archives of Hungary. In 1910, the village consisted of 675 buildings, 478 made of stones or bricks, 147 made of air dried bricks or clay with stone or brick foundation and 50 made of timber or other materials. 627 buildings had roofs made of tiles, slate or sheet metal and 48 made of thatched reeds or straw.^{[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]}

Orthodox church Saint Elijah

From 1959 to 1960, the old Roman Catholic Church was demolished due to dilapidated and damp foundations. A part of the dry bricks was used for construction and renovation of new and old houses of the village. The Church was built from 1771 to 1774 in neoclassical stile and renovated from 1829 to 1833. On 14 November 1833, a deed of renovation history was sealed in a niche on the ground in front of the altar during the consecration ceremony. After the demolition of the last remains of the foundation walls, the historical deed was handed over by the governmental authorities of the village to the Diocese of Zrenjanin. The church was dedicated to Saint Leopold and stood on the place on which the modern school extension including sports hall is now. The extension was opened in school year 1961/62.^[32][33]

In 1901, the small Orthodox church was built. Before completion of the church, the Orthodox residents (369 Vlachs and 13 Serbs in 1890) had to go to the churches of the competent parish communities in Sefkerin or Pančevo. The Church is dedicated to Saint Demetrius. In 2011, the construction of the big Orthodox Church started, which was mostly financed by donations. The first mass was celebrated in August 2014. The church is consecrated to Saint Elijah. The new sacral building of the village is opposite the primary school Gotse Delchev in the center of the village.^{[34][35][36][37][38]}

Stratište Memorial

It is a place which lies behind a former dam that was built between 1928 and 1934 by the French company Société de Construction des Batignolles and is no more existing since a very long time. The name Stratište (Serbian Cyrillic Стратиште) means place of scaffold. This term paraphrases a location of executions by shooting. Political prisoners of National Socialism and Communism have been killed on this location during World War II in Yugoslavia. Special commands of Wehrmacht and German Police killed at least 5,000 Serbian Jews (majority) and Romani people (minority) from October to November 1941 and Yugoslav people from June to September 1944. Danube Swabian members of the regional paramilitary formation Deutsche Mannschaft killed there 146 of about 2,500 prisoners from Bor after overnight stay at Svilara of Pančevo on 30 September 1944 although they had already killed 53 of them on the industrial site during the late evening of stay on 29 September. The 146 prisoners were brutally caught after their panic-stricken and hopeless escape attempt. Special commands of Yugoslav Partisans killed there 36 German prisoners from Jabuka and 72 Yugoslav prisoners in October and November 1944. 34 of 36 German prisoners were young Second-rate officials of the local national socialist organization of Danube Swabians and the First-rate officials were Anton Strasser and Franz Müller. The responsible Yugoslav captain of Special commands was Svetko Rupić. In some books are higher total numbers mentioned, but in the case of the ten to twelve thousand victims stated, there are no cited documents published that they were national socialist victims only. These publications are mainly criticized in the German-speaking countries. There is a memorial by Nebojša Delja which has been built in 1980 and it is 4 km away from the village.^{[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]}