Filipowa, Batschka, Yugoslavia
View of Filipowa from the south.
Filipowa (1763-1945)
Filipowa was founded in 1763 by German settlers arriving by way of the Danube River. This community remained throughout its existence an entirely Donauschwaben community. The town was Roman Catholic by faith and was well known in the Catholic community as being particularly devout, with many of its sons and daughters entering into the priesthood and convents. Even after nearly 200 years of existence, the people of Filipowa retained the traditional culture, dress, language and customs of their founders.
Filipowa was primarily a farming community with a large concentration of farmers contributing to the hemp industry of Batschka. This “white gold” was harvested, and through a labor intensive process, was depending on the quality level of the outcome, turned into ropes, sacks, tarps, bedding, clothing and the finest linens or shirts and exported throughout Europe. This industry was primarily Donauschwaben owned and operated and contributed to the prosperity of many Donuaschwabens. Filipowa had within its borders 78 hemp companies.
Additional information of the hemp industry of Batschka:
http://www.dvhh.org/batschka/hemp~batschka.htm
As the events of the end of World War II unfolded, only a small percentage of Filipowans evacuated at the advice of the retreating German army, for Germany and Austria. The town’s priest, Peter Mueller, advised to the contrary, telling his congregation to remain and most followed his heed. As the result of that fateful decision based on their faith in their religious leader, many of these townspeople died. Father Mueller himself was arrested and imprisoned. On October 25, 1945, a Partisan liquidation commando squad, rounded up 350 men from the ages of 16-60, took them to the outskirts of town, had them dig trenches, and then shot the men into those trenches, killing 240. Groups of able bodied men and women were forcibly sent to Soviet labor camps. Finally, the remaining citizens, the very young and old were rounded up and sent to the extermination camp of Gakowa. This village was subsequently erased from existence by the resettlement of Partisans into the Donauschwaben’s homes and renamed.
The house of the left in the top photo is the Schäffer home in Filipowa. This is where my father, Franz Schäffer was born in 1933. The lower photo shows my father's house as the third house from the left. These photos were taken from the book, Filipowa, 1763-1945 a book of photographs of all the homes in the village.