Nova Topola ( sr, Нова Топола; german: Windthorst) is a village in the municipality of Gradiška,

Republika Srpska Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, lit=Serb Republic, also known as Republic of Srpska, ) is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Feder ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

. Nova Topola has a population of 2,324 inhabitants. It was founded by German settlers.

History

The village was founded by 14 German settler families from northwestern

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in 1879, one year after

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

came under

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rule. They were joined by six more families in the following year and there was a steady trickle of more migrant families until

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. These colonists named their settlement Windthorst. They introduced modern farming methods and were very successful and prosperous. Consequently, the village grew into three distinct parts : ''Unterwindthorst'', ''Mittelwindthorst'' and ''Oberwindthorst''. Following a visit to the region by Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria a daughter-colony, named ''Rudolfstal'', was established nearby in Bosanski Aleksandrovac. In 1918 Bosnia became part of

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

and German immigration stopped. The village was also renamed at this stage as ''Nova Topola'' (literally "new poplar") in reference to a nearby village called ''Stara Topola'' ("old poplar"). Following the collapse of internal security during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

decided to evacuate the

Volksdeutsche In Nazi German terminology, ''Volksdeutsche'' () were "people whose language and culture had German origins but who did not hold German citizenship". The term is the nominalised plural of '' volksdeutsch'', with ''Volksdeutsche'' denoting a sin ...

(ethnic German) population from Bosnia and a treaty to this effect was signed with the

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regime on 30 September 1942. The

Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle The ''Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle'' or VoMi (Coordination Center for Ethnic Germans) was a Nazi Party agency in Nazi Germany founded to manage the interests of the ''Volksdeutsche'', the population of ethnic Germans living outside the country. U ...

(''VoMi'') organised an SS commando from

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under Otto Lackman and "... went from village to village, accompanied by the military." By this stage Windthorst was the largest single German settlement in Bosnia. In late 1942 nearly 2000 ''Volksdeutsche'' were evacuated to Germany from Nova Topola, and a further 500 from ''Rudolfstal'', never to return. The village was repopulated after 1945 with

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

and the

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

authorities destroyed or obscured all evidence of German history and heritage here.

References

Literature

* Noel Malcolm ''Bosnia: A Short History'' (1994) * Valdis O. Lumans, ''Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German Minorities of Europe, 1939-1945'' (1993) *Gesemann, G., ''Das Deutschtum in Südslavien'' (1922, München) *Heimfelsen, ''Die Deutschen Kolonien in Bosnien'' (1911, Sarajevo) *Hoffmann, Fritz, ''Das Schicksal der Bosniendeutschen in 100 Jahren von 1878 bis 1978'' (1982, Sersheim, Hartmann) *Ostendorf, Franz and Johannes Ostendorf, ''Fünfzig Jahre Kolonie'' (1930, Vechta in Oldenburg)

External links

* http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/ESE/vl_bosn_lz.html#rudolfstal {{DEFAULTSORT:Nova Topola, Gradiska Cities and towns in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Gradiška, Bosnia and Herzegovina Populated places established in 1879