Paja Jockov
A farmer from Rumenka, Paja Jockov was born around 1916. Towards the end of the Second World War, in 1944, he joined the Partisans and after the war he served in the People’s Militia. He became a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. And thanks to his membership in the Party, Jockov became an executioner. This is how it happened:
In November 1946, the Supreme Court of Vojvodina sentenced to death nine high-ranking Hungarian officers and administrators responsible for the mass extermination of Serbs and Jews during the war. The Honvéd general Ferenc Szombathelyi and five others were sentenced to death by shooting while three were sentenced to death by hanging. The Commander of the People’s Militia in charge of executions was instructed by the Party to select as executioners only the most trusted militiamen, preferably Party members. This was deemed necessary in order to prevent possible sabotage, in view of the importance of the trial and of the defendants’ high ranks. Paja Jockov was among those selected. He was told that he would be given „a most responsible task“ and was advised to learn the technical details of hanging from one Mari
i, who had already successfully hanged a number of people in Novi Sad, but was not a Party member.
In the next 15 years, Paja Jockov performed, „as far as he could remember“, 116 executions. In 1946, his boss, the head of the Novi Sad police, was sentenced to death for appropriating a stolen suit, found in the possession of a burglar whom he had investigated. Jockov shot his former boss with a revolver, at point blank, but only at the second attempt, which traumatized him deeply.
Jockov was retired prematurely in 1960, as he suffered from major psychiatric problems. He complained to the psychiatrist of being „haunted by the dead“ but, being bound to keep the official secret, could not explain who „the dead“ were. The psychiatrist duly diagnosed him with a „persecutory delusion“. Upon retirement, Jockov drank heavily and obsessively visited all the places near Novi Sad where he used to perform executions. He died in 1970.
Veljko Komlenovi, the head of Novi Sad police from 1968 do 1972, left detailed notes about Paja Jockov.
Komlenovi interviewed Jockov a number of times and talked to his psychiatrists