Operation 25. On the fifth day of the invasion, the SS Division "Reich" begins its attack. (The division attack cue was: "Prinz Eugen!") On the roof of a "Deutschland" Regiment's eight-wheeler (Sd.Kfz. 232), the division commander, SS-Gruppenführer Paul Hausser, advances through the Banat mud towards the town of Alibunar (where he would set up his headquarters; the half-track seen on the side is probably the vehicle that Hausser mostly used for travelling through Banat). The SS Infantry Regiment "Deutschland" captured Alibunar the same day, after a short but fierce battle against the Yugoslav 4th Cavalry Regiment. Immediately thereafter, due to the participation of armed civilians in the fighting, and especially due to the murder of the SS regiment's adjutant (after the fighting was over), mass arrests and killings of all "suspicious" men began throughout the town (among others, they killed a medic with a red cross ribbon, and a 15-year-old boy, before his mother's eyes). The reprisal carried out by members of the "Deutschland" Regiment in Alibunar for the death of their adjutant was also the first German Army's mass reprisal on the territory of Yugoslavia in World War II. This regiment was commanded by SS-Oberführer Wilhelm Bittrich, future commander of the II SS Armoured Corps. He was never tried for the war crimes in Alibunar, nor was the division commander, Hausser.
Text: Ivan Ž.
Photographer: unknown.
Date: 11 April 1941.
Location: unknown (district of Vršac), Yugoslavia.
Original caption: unknown.
Sources: Otto Weidinger, Division Das Reich – Der Weg der 2. SS-Panzer-Division "Das Reich" – Die Geschichte der Stammdivision der Waffen-SS, Munin-Verlag, Osnabrück, 1983, vol. II, p. 224/225; ibid., p. 339; Srđan Božović, Nemački zločin u Alibunaru 1941, Narodni muzej Pančevo, 2004, pp. 27, 65, 71–72; Ivana B. Spasović, Stradanja u Pančevu i Jabuci za vreme Drugog svetskog rata, Istorijski arhiv u Pančevu, 2011, p. 51; Velimir Terzić, Slom Kraljevine Jugoslavije 1941 – Uzroci i posledice poraza, Narodna knjiga, Beograd, 1982, bk 2, p. 388; National Archives, RG 242, T354, r. 121, 3754481; ibid., r. 122, 3755636–8; "Bittrich, Wilhelm", Lexikon der Wehrmacht; "Hausser, Paul", ibid.; "Nummernblöcke der Waffen-SS 1940", WWII Day by Day.
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Operacija 25. Petog dana invazije, u napad kreće SS-divizija "Rajh". (Signal za napad divizije bio je: "Princ Ojgen!") Na krovu jednog osmotočkaša (Sd.Kfz. 232) puka "Nemačka", komandant divizije, SS-grupenfirer Paul Hauser, nastupa kroz banatsko blato prema gradu Alibunaru (u kojem će smestiti svoj štab; poluguseničar koji se vidi sa strane verovatno je vozilo kojim je Hauser većim delom putovao kroz Banat). Pešadijski SS-puk "Nemačka" zauzeo je Alibunar istoga dana, posle kraće ali žestoke borbe protiv jugoslovenskog 4. konjičkog puka. Odmah potom, zbog učešća naoružanih civila u borbi, a posebno zbog ubistva ađutanta SS-puka (po završetku borbi), počelo je masovno hapšenje i ubijanje svih "sumnjivih" muškaraca po gradu (između ostalih, ubijen je i bolničar sa trakom crvenog krsta, i jedan petnaestogodišnji dečak, pred očima majke). Odmazda koju su pripadnici puka "Nemačka" izvršili zbog smrti svog ađutanta u Alibunaru bila je ujedno i prva masovna odmazda nemačke vojske na teritoriji Jugoslavije u Drugom svetskom ratu. Ovim pukom komandovao je SS-oberfirer Vilhelm Bitrih, budući komandant II oklopnog SS-korpusa. Za zločine u Alibunaru nikada nije odgovarao, kao ni komandant divizije, Hauser.
Tekst: Ivan Ž.
Fotograf: nepoznat.
Datum: 11. april 1941.
Mesto: nepoznato (srez Vršački), Jugoslavija.
Originalni natpis: nepoznat.
Izvori: Otto Weidinger, Division Das Reich – Der Weg der 2. SS-Panzer-Division "Das Reich" – Die Geschichte der Stammdivision der Waffen-SS, Munin-Verlag, Osnabrück, 1983, tom II, str. 224/225; ibid., str. 339; Srđan Božović, Nemački zločin u Alibunaru 1941, Narodni muzej Pančevo, 2004, str. 27, 65, 71–72; Ivana B. Spasović, Stradanja u Pančevu i Jabuci za vreme Drugog svetskog rata, Istorijski arhiv u Pančevu, 2011, str. 51; Velimir Terzić, Slom Kraljevine Jugoslavije 1941 – Uzroci i posledice poraza, Narodna knjiga, Beograd, 1982, knj. 2, str. 388; National Archives, RG 242, T354, r. 121, 3754481; ibid., r. 122, 3755636–8; "Bittrich, Wilhelm", Lexikon der Wehrmacht; "Hausser, Paul", ibid.; "Nummernblöcke der Waffen-SS 1940", WWII Day by Day.
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