Axis occupation of Vojvodina The Occupation of Vojvodina ( a province of modern Serbia ) from 1941 to 1944 was carried out by Nazi Germany and its client states / puppet regimes : Horthy ' s Hungary and Independent State of Croatia . In 1941 , during World War II , Nazi Germany , Fascist Italy and Hungary invaded and occupied the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . The Vojvodina region ( northern part of Danube Banovina province of Yugoslavia ) was divided into three occupation zones : Banat was part of the area governed by the Military Administration in Serbia and was de facto under control of its ethnic German minority ; Bačka was attached to Horthy ' s Hungary ; while Syrmia was attached to Independent State of Croatia . The occupation lasted until 1944 , when the region came under control of the Soviet Red Army and Yugoslav partisans . War crimes . During the four years of occupation , the Axis forces committed numerous war crimes against civilian population : about 50 , 000 people in Vojvodina were murdered and about 280 , 000 were arrested , violated or tortured . The victims belonged to several ethnic groups that lived in Vojvodina , but the largest number of the victims was of Serb , Jewish and Roma ethnicity . Total number of victims . According to historian Dragoljub Živković , approximately 55 , 000 civilians died in Vojvodina during the Axis occupation . Of those , approximately 17 , 000 were Jews . According to demographer Slobodan Ćurčić , the total number of the people killed by the occupants between 1941 and 1944 in the entire Vojvodina was 55 , 285 , including : Victims in Bačka . The total number of the killed people in Bačka was 19 , 573 , including : Of the total number of the victims ( excluding the killed members of the resistance movement ) , 11 , 521 were men , 3 , 768 were women , 1 , 283 were elderly people , and 1 , 327 were children . 1942 raid . The most notable war crime during the occupation was the mass murder of the civilians , mostly of Serb and Jewish ethnicity , performed by the Hungarian Axis troops in January 1942 raid in southern Bačka . Total number of civilians killed in the raid was 3 , 808 , while places that were affected by the raid include Novi Sad , Bečej , Vilovo , Gardinovci , Gospođinci , Đurđevo , Žabalj , Lok , Mošorin , Srbobran , Temerin , Titel , Čurug and Šajkaš . 1944 deportations of Jews . In March 1944 German units that occupied Horthy ' s Hungary entered Bačka and Gestapo men were with them . Without any delay the most cruel measures were introduced : the plunder of Jewish property was completed to be absolutely total ; Jews had to wear the yellow mark ; they were all confined to transit camps before very long to be taken , sometime in June 1944 first to Hungary and then to concentration camps in Austria and Germany . Most of them ended their journey in Auschwitz . Very few of them succeeded to survive and to return . Genocide in Bačka claimed a total of 14 , 000 Jewish victims . According to available data out of the Jewish victims of genocide 3 , 800 were from Banat , 11 , 000 from Serbia and about 260 from Sandžak . Out of about 82 , 000 members of the Jewish community in Yugoslavia only 15 , 000 survived World War II which means that 79 , 2 % perished . Victims in Banat . The total number of the killed people in Banat was 7 , 513 , including : Of the total number of the victims ( excluding the killed members of the resistance movement ) , 4 , 010 were men , 631 were women , 243 were old people , and 271 were children . Victims in Syrmia . The total number of the killed people in Syrmia was 28 , 199 , including : Of the total number of the victims ( excluding the killed members of the resistance movement ) , 14 , 484 were men , 3 , 662 were women , 1 , 279 were old people , and 2 , 172 were children . Liberation struggle . The resistance movement against Axis occupation was started in summer of 1941 by the communists . The resistance in Banat and Bačka was soon defeated , while resistance in Syrmia had more success . The Syrmian resistance movement grew into a popular uprising , and a large liberated territory ( that included about 40 villages ) was established in Syrmia . On liberated territory , a partisan authority was organized , which included mass anti - fascist organizations , publishing activity , and education . The experiences of the resistance movement in Syrmia were transferred to Banat and Bačka in the summer of 1944 ; before the Soviet Red Army arrived in October 1944 , Vojvodina already had its new institutions of people ' s administration . The liberation movement was organized into 18 Vojvodinian brigades divided into 3 squadrons . 15 , 000 fighters of the resistance movement were killed during the liberation struggle .