page_title: Subotica
section_title: Yugoslavia and Serbia
hierarchical_section_title: Subotica / History / Yugoslavia and Serbia
caption_attribution_description: English: Subotica during the Hungarian occupation (1941-44). Dead bodies on Senćanski put.
context_page_description: Subotica is a city and the administrative center of the North Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Formerly the largest city of Vojvodina region, contemporary Subotica is now the second largest city in the province, following the city of Novi Sad. According to the 2011 census, the city itself has a population of 97,910, while the urban area of Subotica has 105,681 inhabitants, and the population of metro area stands at 141,554 people.
context_section_description: Subotica was part of Austria-Hungary until the aftermath of World War I in 1918, when the city became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In changed economic and political circumstances, Subotica was now a border-town in Yugoslavia and did not, for a time, experience again the dynamic prosperity it enjoyed in the years preceding World War I. However, at that time, Subotica was the third-largest city in Yugoslavia by population, following Belgrade and Zagreb.
  In 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded and partitioned by the Axis Powers, and its northern parts, including Subotica, were annexed by Hungary (This partition of Yugoslavia was not recognized by the international community and city was, from the legal point of view, still part of Yugoslavia, whose only legal representative was the Yugoslav government in exile). Hungarian troops entered Subotica on 11 April 1941.
  As the majority of people living in the city were ethnic Hungarians and the city had been part of Hungary for over 600 years, Hungary felt it had to protect its people now living outside of its borders. During World War II the city lost approximately 7,000 of its citizens, mostly Serbs, Hungarians and Jews. Before the war about 6,000 Jews lived in Subotica; many of these were deported from the city during the Holocaust, mostly to Auschwitz.
  In April 1944, a ghetto was set up. In addition, many communists were put to death during Axis rule. In 1944, the Axis forces left the city, and Subotica became part of the new Yugoslavia. During the 1944–45 period, about 8,000 citizens (mainly Hungarian) were killed by Partisans while re-taking the city as retribution for supporting Axis Hungary.
  In the post-war period, Subotica has gradually been modernised. During the Yugoslav and Kosovo wars of the 1990s, a considerable number of Serb refugees came to the city from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, while many ethnic Hungarians and Croats, as well as some local Serbs, left the region due to economical stagnation and fear of discrimination.
caption: Hungarian occupation troops massacred Serbian and Jewish civilians during the occupation (1941-1944)
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