In January 1942, the Hungarian army and gendarmerie undertook a major raid in southern Bačka, during which they massacred 2,550 Serbs, 743 Jews and 47 other people in places such as Bečej, Srbobran and Novi Sad, under the pretext that they were searching for Partisans. Other sources place the number of Serbs and Jews massacred in Novi Sad as being much lower, at around 879. Raids were carried out in Šajkaš (Sajkásvidék) over 4–19 January; in Novi Sad (Újvidék) over 21–23 January; and in Bečej (Óbecse) over 25–29 January. Over the period 4–24 January, massacres were carried out by the Hungarian 15th Light Division commanded by Major General József Grassy and units of the Royal Gendarmerie. The operations were ordered by Grassy, Lieutenant General Ferenc Feketehalmy-Czeydner, Colonel László Deák, and Royal Gendarmerie Captain Dr. Márton Zöldi. In addition to Serbs and Jews, members of other ethnicities were also victims: Roma people, a small number of Russian refugees who had fled Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution, and some local Hungarians. In mid-1942, the Yugoslav government-in-exile reported that churches had been looted and destroyed, and that Serbian Orthodox holy days had been prohibited by the Hungarian administration. These reports stated that a camp in Novi Sad interned 13,000 Serb and Jewish men, women and children.