Summary

The accounts collected in Nicolae Ilieșiu’s, Dumitru Țeicu’s, and Minodora Damian’s Monografia istorică a Banatului describe a period of severe unrest and violence in Banat following the arrival of Serbian forces in 1918. The testimonies portray Serbian military and paramilitary forces as engaging in requisitioning, livestock seizures, looting, intimidation, and physical abuse of civilians. Serbian comitagi are also described as crossing into local communities, attempting to seize local clergy, and conducting raids in cooperation with elements of the Serbian gendarmerie. Resistance to these actions resulted in arrests and prolonged imprisonment, while Serbian authorities reportedly restricted participation in the December 1, 1918, political gathering at Alba Iulia and later limited participation in a plebiscite in Biserica Albă.

In 1918, the Serbian comitagues from across the Danube entered Cozla, broke into the stores, looted the director’s house, and returned to Serbia loaded with rich loot.

Pavel Liuba and Pavel Lungu took part in the meeting in Alba Iulia on December 1, 1918. Under the Serbian occupation, an occupation of terror, it was ordered that all residents who had more than three heads of cattle should take the surplus to the City Hall for the army. At this disposition, the residents left the commune, taking their cattle to the forest.

It seemed that things had calmed down, but when no one expected it, the commune was surrounded by Serbian soldiers, the people were captured and beaten, then 36 cattle were hastily taken and taken to Serbia. Other soldiers, while the people were trying to save their cattle, entered the houses and rummaged through the cupboards, taking the money, the white goods and valuables.

At first, Serbian comitagi entered the commune, seeking to capture priest Blaşiu. Suspecting the comitagi’s intentions, he fled the commune in good time. The Serbian soldiers mistreated the peaceful inhabitants: Ioan Gruia, Dumitru Gruia, Dumitru Brânduşa, Vasile Radu, Jiva Ianculovici.

For the gathering in Alba Iulia on December 1, 1918, priest Arsenie Golumba leaves, but at the train station in Timişoara he is detained by the Serbs and sent home under escort. When the so-called plebiscite was held in Biserica Albă, the Serbian army only allowed residents of Serbian origin to take part.

In the autumn of 1918, soldiers returning from the front devastated the Cooperative and the City Hall. In these turbulent times, a Serbian gendarme who was making a pact with the comitagues from across the Danube, facilitating their robberies, was killed by the inhabitants of the commune. For this act, 28 inhabitants were arrested and held in the prison at Biserica Albă for almost 2 years. Some of them deserted (escaped n.n.) from prison, disarming the sentries.

Source

Monografia istorică a Banatului judeţul Caraş. Nicolae Ilieșiu, Dumitru Țeicu, Minodora Damian. 2011.