Danube name meaning "strong, swift" (akin to Sanskrit "iṣiras" "swift"). In Latin, the Danube was variously known as ' or as '. The Dacian/Thracian name was "Donaris" for the upper Danube and "Istros" for the lower Danube. The Thraco-Phrygian name was "Matoas", "the bringer of luck". The Latin name is masculine, as are all its Slavic names, except Slovenian, (the name of the Rhine is also masculine in Latin, most of the Slavic languages, as well as in German). The German "Donau" (Early Modern German "Donaw, Tonaw", Middle High German "Tuonowe") is feminine, as it has been re-interpreted as containing the
Danube Swabians granted the separate autonomous region of Banat within German-occupied Serbia In Backe in 1941, Danube Swabians formed around 20% of the population. Yugoslav Danube Swabians supplied more than 60,000 troops for German military formations, some voluntarily but many more under duress. They actively participated in the sometimes brutal repression of Yugoslav Partisans and their suspected sympathizers, including 69,000 Jewish Jugoslavs. The local collaborationist authorities were forced to make it illegal to draft Danube Swabians. However, of the approximately 300,000-strong Danube Swabian minority in occupied Yugoslavia (182,000 in the NDH, 350,000 in Vojvodina), 500,000 in Romania and 500,000 in Hungary, approximately