Sepp Janko
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Josef "Sepp" Janko (
Life
Janko was born on 9 November 1905 in Ernsthausen (Serbian: Ernestovac) to a farming Roman Catholic family of Swabian descent. He studied law in Graz.[1]
Janko became increasingly racialist and pan-Germanic in his politics. On 6 June 1939, he was elected the president of the
]"Like other wartime [German] minority organizations, the DVSB was restructured along the lines of the NSDAP. Its most important branch was the paramilitary formation, the Deutsche Mannschaft, which here, as elsewhere, came under control of the SS. Janko and the DVSB cooperated fully with VoMi, and as a step in the minority's total Nazification, it even introduced a system of classifying the local Volksdeutsche similar to that used by the DVL in Poland."[2]
World War II
After an initial burst of enthusiasm to join the German-sponsored Selbschutz ("self defence force") most
Janko objected and took the position that the legal obligation to provide services in the
Janko responded by offering to set up a regiment of about 3,000 local ethnic Germans, with limited service interaction with the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. In April 1942, Himmler created the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen and began to conscript Volksdeutsche from Banat and Romania.[citation needed]
In his book (referenced below) Sepp Janko bragged about his ability to recruit sons of ethnic Germans from Banat region. This excerpt was used in Nuremberg war crimes trial in May 1946:
“ … I put at the disposal of the Fuehrer almost the entire German national group in the former State of Yugoslavia and gave him so many volunteers as soldiers, is to me a subject of great pride."
The Division was based in Banat but served across former Yugoslavia.[2]
"The Waffen SS immediately enlisted 600 Volksdeutsche, and in July it announced plans for the formation of an exclusively German regiment. But in the Banat the SS encountered competition from the Wehrmacht, which had in mind sponsoring its own unit, a militia force of some 8,000 men. Himmler, alarmed by this development, took the case to Hitler and secured permission not only to create a new, exclusively Volksdeutsche SS division but also to take over the Wehrmacht's militia."[2]
Escape
Janko was able to escape the
Janko was indicted by the Yugoslav government for war crimes. At the instigation of the Yugoslav government, he was arrested and imprisoned until his extradition. Due to intervention by President Juan Perón, Janko was released. He remained in Belgrano, Buenos Aires until his death in 2001, aged 95.[citation needed]
Works
- 1943: Reden und Aufsätze (In a series of the German ethnic group in Banat and Serbia). Printed by the German ethnic group, Betschkerek 1943 and Ladislaus Frank, Belgrad 1943.
- 1982: Weg und Ende der deutschen Volksgruppe in Jugoslawien. Stocker: Graz und Stuttgart.
- 1983: Weg und Ende der deutschen Volksgruppe in Jugoslawien, 2. Edition. Stocker: Graz und Stuttgart 1983.
Literature
- Stefan Karner . Die deutschsprachige Volksgruppe in Slowenien. Aspekte ihrer Entwicklung 1939-1997, (Klagenfurt u. a. 1998), Anm.95, p. 45 (nachfolgend zit. als: Karner, Die deutschsprachige Volksgruppe19)
- Arnold Suppan. Jugoslawien und Österreich 1918-1938: bilaterale Aussenpolitik, S:721 ff, Verlag für Geschichte und Politik Oldenbourg
- Hans Rasimus. Als Fremde im Vaterland, (München 1989)
- BundesarchivKoblenz: R57/165
- Valdis O. Lumans. Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German Minorities of Europe, 1939-1945 (1993)
- Sepp Janko. Weg und Ende der deutschen. Volksgruppe in Jugoslawien. 2. Auflage (der Leopold Stocker Verlag , Graz—Stuttgart)
- Anton Scherer. Suevia-Pannonica, (Graz 2009)
- Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 14, ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINTH DAY, Monday, 27 May 1946. Yele Law School Library - The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy.
References
- ^ Stefan Karner, Die deutschsprachige Volksgruppe in Slowenien. Aspekte ihrer Entwicklung 1939-1997, (Klagenfurt u. a. 1998), Anm. 95, pg. 45 (nachfolgend zit. als: Karner, Die deutschsprachige Volksgruppe19)
- ^ a b c Valdis O. Lumans, Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German Minorities of Europe, 1939-1945 (1993), pp. 234-35.
- ^ Hans Rasimus, Als Fremde im Vaterland, München (1989), pg. 524.
- ^ Bundesarchiv Koblenz: R57/165
- ^ a b Anton Scherer. Suevia Pannonica, Graz (2009), S. 112-14.