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Introduction to Ester
Table of Contents:
1. Remembering the Holocaust
1. Why Do We Remember the Holocaust and Learn About It?
The Holocaust
The Destruction of the Jews Being the First Priority of the Nazi Ideology
The Disastrous Consequences of the Holocaust
We Learn about Our Past – and Future
2. Historical Overview
2. Historical Overview
2.1 The Belgrade Fair
2.2 The Occupation of Serbia
Map: Occupation and division of Serbia by the Axis Powers in 1941
2.3 The Camp at the former Fairgrounds – Sajmište
– The Jewish Camp at Sajmište (Judenlager Semlin)
– The Detention camp at Sajmište
– The Victims of the Camp at Sajmište
– Cover-Up of Crimes
– Timeline: concentration camp at Sajmiste 1941-1944
2.4 Jewish Victims in Europe, Yugoslavia and Serbia
2.5 Jewish Resistance to the Occupation and Help to the Jews
3. Remembrance
3. Remembrance
Memorial Days
Future Memorial Center at Sajmište
4. Teaching and learning about the Holocaust
4. Teaching and learning about the Holocaust
Some of the Holocaust teaching materials available in Serbia
1. Why Do We Remember the Holocaust and Learn About It?
The Holocaust represents the genocide against the Jews, which was systematically planned and carried out by the German Nazis and their collaborators throughout the occupied Europe during the World War II.
During the World War II the terrible crimes were committed against other groups of people, too, such as: the genocide against the Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia 1, the genocide against the Roma, a mass murder of the people with disabilities in Germany, mass atrocities that resulted in an immense number of victims among the Soviet and the Polish civilians, to mention just some. We must remember all victims with dignity and respect, while all crimes must be researched objectively and scientifically all the time so that we can understand their particularities, historical context and social processes which led to them, recognize who the perpetrators and victims were, who else participated and what their roles were, as well as the scope of these crimes and their consequences, which are often felt to this day.
As for the sufferings of the Serbs, Yugoslav Jews and Roma during the World War II in Yugoslavia, in Serbia and the Independent State of Croatia in particular, all three groups were targeted by the Germans, German allies that attacked and occupied Yugoslavia, and their local collaborators. At many killing sites Serbs, Yugoslav Jews and Roma were executed together and many fought together in the Yugoslav resistance movement. Yugoslav Jews, Serbs and Roma share this common historical experience. All these victims of persecution should be commemorated and remembered, and the memory of the joint resistance should be cherished with pride.
The Destruction of the Jews Being the First Priority of the Nazi Ideology
Driven by their ideology based on pseudoscientific biological racism and an idea that the “Aryan race” is superior to the other “races”, Nazis defined their strategic aims, which they considered to be crucial for the future of German nation: It is necessary to obtain “Living space” (Lebensraum), that is to say, new territories for the Germans, while “racially inferior” people (Untermenschen) should be either completely destroyed or enslaved.
Nazis regarded several groups as “racially inferior” including the Slavs 2 and the Roma, but in the core of Nazi ideology the principal and the most “dangerous” “enemy of the German people” were the Jews. The fact that it is Jews that are presented as the principal enemy of the Germans is the result of a long tradition of antisemitism, i.e. hatred against the Jews. The Nazis exploited antisemitism in their populist political ideology to arouse animosity of the majority population against one minority, namely Jews, blaming them for all world evils. Riding the wave of that hatred, the Nazis tried to create a feeling of national unity and identity, preparing the nation for an “inevitable and just” war for the “defence and survival” of the German people.
During the World War II, adhering to their first priority strategic aims, the German Nazis were carrying out two plans simultaneously: military conquest of the new territories and the destruction of the Jews, both these processes being adjusted to the local circumstances and conditions in different conquered countries and territories all the time.
The destruction of the Jews was being carried out by the German Nazis systematically and in a synchronized manner throughout the occupied Europe, local collaborators taking part actively in it to a greater or lesser extent. This process escalated from depriving the Jews of their civil rights, and appropriation of their assets and property, followed by deportations, ghettoizations, to the mass murders, culminating in “death factories” of extermination camps. Most of the European Jews lived in the Eastern Europe. Virtually two thirds of all European Jews used to live on the territories of Poland, the USSR (comprising Baltic States, Ukraine, Russia, Belorussia and Moldavia) and Romania. The attack of Germany on the USSR was a decisive moment in the destruction of the Jews, for in a short time period Germany managed to conquer a large part of this territory. In the months to follow some of the worst mass murders in the history of mankind were committed there: Lviv, Babi Yar, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Iași … More than two million Jews who were living on the territories of the USSR were shot dead and thrown into mass graves within the wave of crimes now also referred as “Holocaust by Bullets”. More than 40% of total Jewish Holocaust victims were killed in this manner. Next terrible chapter of carrying out the plan of the destruction of the European Jews was yet to take place in death camps, some of the most notorious being Chelmno, Belzec, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka and Auschwitz. Most of the 3 million Polish Jews were killed in these camps, as well as the Jewish population from the countries of the West, Central and South-East Europe. Besides the death camps run by the German Nazis, there were some camps run by others, such one being Jasenovac in the Independent State of Croatia run by the Ustashas. In addition to the Jews, in many of these camps the Poles, Soviet POWs, the Roma and others were killed, too, and in the death camps in the Independent State of Croatia the majority of the victims were Serbs.
To what extent the destruction of the Jews was their first priority can be clearly seen from the fact that even when the Nazis were completely aware that they were going to lose the war, they actually accelerated the destruction of the Jews by intensifying deportations and train transports of the Jews from all parts of occupied Europe to the monstrous complexes of death camps to be exterminated immediately upon arrival.
Thus the suffering of the Jews in Serbia must be viewed in a context of the European Holocaust, as a part of a large scale plan of the destruction of the Jews in Europe. Killing of the Jews in Serbia was combined with the suppression of a strong resistance movement which was intensified particularly during the summer in 1941 culminating in the liberation of a part of the territory by the Partisan resistance and a creation of the Republic of Užice (Užička Republika) by the end of September 1941 being the first liberated territory in World War II in Europe. German occupiers were trying to suppress the uprising by very radical measures: thousands of civilians were executed in reprisal shootings. The majority of the Jewish men from the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia (German: Gebiet des Militärbefehlshabers in Serbien) – Serbian territory occupied by Germany (see more about the division of the occupied Serbia later in this text) were executed in these reprisal shootings already in the autumn of 1941. The rest of the Jews, mostly women and children were killed in the gas van (“dušegupka”) in the Jewish camp Semlin at the former Fairgrounds – Sajmište.
Although the Holocaust in Serbia was planned and carried out by the German Nazis, it is important to point out that they were also helped by Serbian collaborators who took active part not only in oppressing Serbian citizens, arresting and killing members of the resistance movement and antifascist patriots, but also in looting and destroying the Jewish population on the territory of Serbia occupied by the Germans.
To what degree the destruction of the Jews in Serbia, too, was the first priority of the German occupiers, can clearly be shown on the example of the camp at Sajmište, where the Nazis first had exterminated all Jewish women and children, and only after that they started to use it for other purposes, namely to suppress the uprising and to provide forced-labour for Hitler’s war machine.
Author:
Misko Stanisic
Director of Terraforming
Expert advisors:
Milan Koljanin
PhD Historian, Belgrade Serbia
Sanela Schmid
PhD Historian, Nuremberg Germany
The Holocaust represents the genocide against the Jews, which was systematically planned and carried out by the German Nazis and their collaborators throughout the occupied Europe during the World War II.
The Disastrous Consequences of the Holocaust
The ideology that justified and incited it, the way it was prepared and carried out, the scale and the very quantity of the crimes against the Jews in Europe, all of it make the Holocaust a unique crime in the history of mankind. Consequently, the Jewish population in Europe was almost completely annihilated. Unfortunately, the same goes for Serbia, where almost all Jews perished in the Holocaust.
In many places of Europe the few surviving groups of Jews failed to revive the way of life of the pre-war Jewish communities. Many of the few surviving Jews moved to Israel after the war. In the subsequent decades the memory of the victims and the pre-war life of the Jews started fading into oblivion and the process continued incessantly and relentlessly. A famous writer Elie Wiesel once said: “To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” As a matter of fact, it would mean that the Nazis succeeded in their aims to completely destroy Jews and erase all traces of their existence.
We Learn about Our Past – and Future
Taking all this in consideration, it is very important to research, teach and learn about and remember the Holocaust, not only because it is a civilizational, moral and human duty, but also because by learning about the life and history we share with Jews we also learn about ourselves and our own history which helps us to understand it better. A process of adopting modern values of tolerance, non-discrimination, and respect of human and civil rights as basic civilizational values has started after the World War II, when the world faced the scale and atrocities of the crimes committed by the Nazis and their collaborators, the very unique one being the Holocaust.
Being aware of a strong antifascist tradition in Serbia, and especially of the fact that the Serbs themselves were victims of terror and genocide 3 and a huge number of lives lost during their fight against the Nazism 4, too, to research, teach and learn about and remember the Holocaust should come as a natural constituent of the memory and the historical narrative of Serbia.
By learning about our past and understanding it through education about the Holocaust, we contribute to preserving the memory of not only Jewish but all other victims of the Nazi crimes, too, as well as to preserving and improving civilizational and democratic values of the society we live in. This way we learn how to do everything we can to prevent such crimes from happening ever again.
“To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”
Elie Wiesel
2. Historical Overview
2.1 The Belgrade Fair
The Belgrade Fair was built in 1937. At that time it was a symbol of a new, bright future, a place where Serbia (being a part of Kingdom of Yugoslavia then) was to become a part of the modern Europe.
By building this fair, Belgrade city crossed the river Sava and materialized an urban planning project on the other side of the river for the first time, thus opening a new perspective of development of the city. During the first years of its existence, the fair was attracting many investors and manufacturers, thereby opening a new perspective for development of economy, too. Apart from Yugoslav, new international pavilions were being opened: a Hungarian, a Romanian, a German, an Italian, a Czechoslovakian, a Turkish one… Some of them were leased to certain big companies so that they could have their own pavilions. Enjoying a very modern ambient and its beautiful architecture, a great number of the citizens of Belgrade were frequently visiting the fair to look at exhibits, including some of the brand new technical achievements of the time. Thus a Holland company “Philips” broadcasted the first television program in the Balkans from their pavilion at the Belgrade Fair. During the Belgrade Fair Aeronautical Exhibition a Czechoslovakian company “Skoda” constructed the tallest steel tower for training of the parachutists in Europe at the time, the tower being 74 meters high. Concerts of classical music and art exhibitions were organized within the space of the fair. Among the Belgrade citizens it was a very popular destination, where they could enjoy not only looking at exhibited products from various parts of Europe, but also a wide range of restaurants and shopping stands.
Crossing the river Sava, the city of Belgrade was about to become a true European metropolis.
But instead of being a road leading to the bright future, the Fairgrounds would soon become a place where people were going to face terrible suffering and death.
The Belgrade Fair before WWII
The Belgrade Fair was a symbol of a new, bright future, a place where Serbia (being a part of Kingdom of Yugoslavia then) was to become a part of the modern Europe
2.2 The Occupation of Serbia
Having succumbed to the pressure of Germany, on the 25th of March 1941 Yugoslav government signed the accession to the Tripartite Pact. But already on the 27th of March in Belgrade and other cities demonstrations broke out, and after a coup d’état was conducted a new government was established which refused to ratify the Tripartite Pact and make alliance with Germany. Consequently, Hitler made a decision to defeat and destroy Yugoslavia ruthlessly both militarily and as a state. Aided by Yugoslav neighbouring countries and supported by its internal enemies, Germany attacked Yugoslavia without declaration of war.
On the 6th of April 1941 the German Air Fleet (Luftwaffe) bombed Belgrade with a special brutality. The bombing of Belgrade continued on the 7th, 11th and 12th of April. More than 2,000 citizens of Belgrade were killed during the German bombing campaign and a large number of buildings were destroyed as well as a great deal of the Serbian cultural heritage.5 After a short war, historically referred to as the April War, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was broken up, and Serbia was occupied and divided up into several occupation zones. The largest area was occupied by the Wehrmacht and was organized as separate territory under control of the German Military Administration in Serbia, including the territory of Banat governed by Volksdeutsche, i.e. ethnic Germans living in Banat. The rest of the territory of Serbia came under the rule of Hungary, Bulgaria, the Independent State of Croatia and Italy.
Very soon Germans organized the military occupation administration which included an extended repressive apparatus where the Operative group of the Security Police and Security Service (Einsatzgruppe Sipo und SD) played the major role; its centre being the notorious sub department IV of the German Security Police – Gestapo, within which the Police Department for Jewish Affairs, “Judenreferat”, was established immediately. As they regarded the destruction of the Jews as their first and foremost priority, the Nazis immediately started to carry out their plan to completely annihilate Serbian Jews on the territory under German control, aided by the Serbian quisling regime, too. Under threat of the severest punishment the Jews were ordered to register to be marked by the yellow armbands. One by one anti-Jewish measures were introduced, as antisemitic propaganda was being spread around.
During the summer a resistance movement against the occupation was spreading throughout Serbia. Germans were trying to suppress the uprising with extreme repressive measures towards civilian population and mass reprisal shootings. The civilians were being arrested on a large scale and held as hostages to be shot down by firing squads for a reprisal. It was primarily the Jews, the Roma, the communists and the patriots opposing the occupation and a quisling regime that were targeted to be taken as hostages, though there were others, too. An order was issued that for every German killed 100, and for every wounded 50 hostages should be shot dead. Thus, by conducting the mass reprisal shootings, the Germans were aiming to both suppress the uprising in Serbia and kill as many Jews as possible simultaneously, as a part of a wider plan to destroy European Jews. During the autumn 1941, arrests, round-ups and mass shootings were taking place in Serbian cities. Ordinary people, peasants and even school children6 were shot in these massacres, too, because “not enough hostages could be found elsewhere” as it was accounted for in one of the German reports. In just a few months almost all male Jews in the territory of Serbia under German control were executed in the mass reprisal shootings.
Executions near the town of Šabac, 1941.
By conducting the mass reprisal shootings, the Germans were aiming to both suppress the uprising in Serbia and kill as many Jews as possible simultaneously, as a part of a wider plan to destroy European Jews
Occupation and division of Serbia by the Axis Powers in 1941
2.3 The Camp at the former Fairgrounds – Sajmište
The Jewish Camp at Sajmište (Judenlager Semlin)
When the Germans transformed the Fairgrounds into a Jewish camp “Judenlager Semlin” it was a camp for the Jewish women and children. Although being just outside Belgrade, it was situated in the territory annexed by the Independent State of Croatia. But the camp was under German control, run by Gestapo, under the command of SS officers and with German guards, being a part of the military occupation administration of Serbia. Among 6,400 Jewish inmates, most of them, about 5,500, were from Belgrade. The rest of the Jewish inmates were from Banat region and other cities in the territory of Serbia occupied by the Germans. In just a few weeks, from April to May 1942, the Jewish women and children were systematically killed in the gas van (Gaswagen, known as “Dušegupka”). It was a van of mark “Saurer”, specially redesigned and readjusted by the mechanical engineers in Berlin to be used as a mobile gas chamber. This gas van had been prepared to be used in Belgrade and delivered by two SS officers from Berlin. Under false premises that they would be transferred to some other camp where living conditions were better and where allegedly they would meet their husbands and fathers who had been arrested before (in reality all the men had already been killed by that time), groups of 80-100 Jewish inmates, mostly women and children, were lured to get onto the van. Then they would ride in the van across the river Sava towards Belgrade over a temporary pontoon bridge constructed along the King Aleksandar’s Bridge demolished during the bombing of Belgrade. After crossing the pontoon bridge, two drivers, German SS officers, would reconnect the pipes so that exhaust gases, namely carbon monoxide, could enter into an airtight chamber of the van where “the passengers” were locked in. As the SS officers were driving the van through central Belgrade to Jajinci just outside the city, behind them women and children were suffocating with poisonous exhaust gases. By the time they reached Jajinci all “passengers” would have already been dead and their lifeless bodies would be dumped into freshly dug graves waiting ready for them. In this utterly perfidious and brutal way, the Nazis have killed 6,320 Jews, mostly women and children, out of 6,400 Jewish inmates of Judenlager Semlin.
Since the Jewish men were mostly executed in mass shootings during last months, by killing the remaining Jewish women and children in the camp at Sajmište, as the Nazis so cynically put it in their report, “the Jewish question in Serbia was solved”. Thus the death camp at Sajmište became a symbol of the Holocaust and the suffering of the Jews in the occupied Serbia.
At the same time there were about 600 Roma inmates in the camp at Sajmište, out of which at least 60 died during the wintertime, mostly of hunger, cold and disease, while the rest were released later.
One of the few saved photos from within the camp: the Belgrade Jews were being brought in the camp, December 1941
The death camp at Sajmište became a symbol of the Holocaust and the suffering of the Jews in the occupied Serbia.
Carbon monoxide poisoning:
- nausea, headache, dizziness,
- disorientation in time and space,
- muscle weakness, disturbed vision,
- muscle cramps, seizures,
- coma, cardiorespiratory failure,
- loss of brain function,
- death
The Detention camp at Sajmište
After the extermination of the remaining Jews in the territory of Serbia under German occupation, the camp at Sajmište was transformed into a detention camp, where most of the inmates were Serbs. The camp was still being run by the Germans. The detention camp was serving the strategic purposes of annihilation of the resistance movement and providing a forced labour for the Hitler’s war machine. Among the inmates of the Detention Camp there were a large number of captured Yugoslav partisans, and partly members of the royalist resistance movement, too; but the largest portion of the inmates consisted of the Serbian population able to work, transferred from the territories where military operations were conducted – predominantly from the Independent State of Croatia. Most of them were brought there to be deported to the force labour and concentration camps in Germany, Norway or in other countries occupied by the Germans. From time to time the camp was used for the temporary detention of the Jews who were being transported to the death camps from the regions occupied by the Germans after Italy had capitulated and from other occupied countries. Groups of captured Greeks, Albanians and others were also inmates of the camp for shorter periods of time.
The Detention camp at Sajmište was infamous for its harsh conditions and cruelty. Although it was not primarily aimed for killing inmates, it was very deadly. One third of the people who entered the camp perished there. The inmates were treated harshly and brutally in extremely bad conditions, dying of hunger, exhaustion and disease being exposed to the constant abuse by the camp guards. Many were beaten to death, while others were shot or hanged.
After the camp was bombed by the allied Anglo-American Air Forces in April 1944, there were many casualties among inmates and the camp was severely damaged. In May 1944 the Nazis handed over the rule of the camp to the Ustasha Police of the Independent State of Croatia, though it was still used mainly for German needs. Since the number of inmates was significantly reduced, and as it was obvious that the war was not going favourably to Germany and its allies as the Yugoslav partisans and the Red Army were getting closer and closer, by the end of July 1944 the camp was abandoned, the rest of inmates being transferred to other smaller camps.
On the 20th of October 1944 Belgrade was liberated by the Yugoslav partizans, aided by the Red Army.
Deportation of Serbian civilians from Kozara region (then Independent State of Croatia) to the Detention camp at Sajmište in the summer 1942.
The Detention camp at Sajmište was infamous for its harsh conditions and cruelty. Although it was not primarily aimed for killing inmates, it was very deadly. About one third of the people who entered the camp perished there.
The Victims of the Camp at Sajmište
From the first day of its existence on the 8th of December 1941, to the day it was abandoned by the end of July, in the camp established at Belgrade Fairgrounds total of 38,972 inmates were detained.
17,016 of them or 43.66 % lost their lives.
inmates
38972
killed
17016
Cover-Up of Crimes
Units of the “special command 1005” (Sonderkommando 1005) had arrived in Belgrade already in November 1943. Their main task was to destroy all traces of mass killings committed by the Germans performing hastily organized action. For four consecutive months at the killing sites around Belgrade, Niš, Petrovgrad (today Zrenjanin) and other places, the Germans were using prisoners to exhume mass graves and burn the corpses to make the identification of the victims and efforts to ascertain the exact number of the killed people as hard as possible. Among these corpses were also bodies of the Jewish victims shot dead, and those suffocated in the gas van.
Timeline: concentration camp at Sajmiste 1941-1944
2.4 Jewish Victims in Europe, Yugoslavia and Serbia
Еurope
There were about 9,500,000 Jews living in Europe before the World War II. German Nazis and their collaborators premeditatedly and systematically destroyed about 6,000,000 of them.
Yugoslavia
Altogether there were 82,000 Jews living in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia before the World War II, out of which 34,777 were inhabited in Serbia. Jews represented a small community making about 0.6% of the total population of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Out of 82,000 Yugoslav Jews, 67,000 or 81.7% of them lost their lives during the war. If a number of the 4,000 Jewish refugees is added to that figure, it can be concluded that out of 86,000 Jews who were present in Yugoslavia during the wartime, 71,000 or 82% of them lost their lives in the Holocaust.
Serbia
Taking into consideration the whole territory of Serbia, including the territory under the German occupation and parts of Serbia annexed by Hungary, the Independent State of Croatia, Bulgaria and Italy, out of 34,777 Jews (including 1,200 Jewish refugees from the Central Europe), total of 28,224 or 81.16% of the Jewish population were killed during the war.
The territory under control of the German Military Administration
Altogether there were 16,600 Jews living in Serbia in the territory under control of the German Military Administration, including the Banat region governed by Volksdeutsche, as well as about 1,200 Jewish refugees from the Central Europe, mostly from Austria, Czechia and Poland, who happened to be in Yugoslavia when the war broke out. So out of 17,800 Jews who were present in Serbia under the German occupation about 14,800 or 83.1% of them lost their lives. And 6,320 of those Jews were killed in the Jewish Camp at Sajmište. Consequently, out of 6,400 Jews detained in the Jewish Camp at former fairgrounds, a total of 98.75% of them were killed.
Parts of Serbia Annexed by Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy and the Independent State of Croatia
Although other occupiers were also committing crimes against the Jews, looting their property and killing them, it was primarily the Germans who instigated, organized and committed the Holocaust in Serbia, including the territories under control of Hungary, Bulgaria and Italy.
- By the end of April 1944 the Hungarians arrested the Jews in the Bačka region and handed them over to the Germans who deported them to the death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
- In March 1943 the Bulgarians handed over the Jews from Macedonia and town of Pirot to the Germans who deported them to the death camp Treblinka.
- After capitulation of Italy the Germans deported the Jews from Kosovo and Metohija to the camp Bergen-Belsen.
- The only exception being the Independent State of Croatia: the Jews from the Srem region were killed in the concentration camp Jasenovac for the most part.
Monument to the Victims of the Raid in Novi Sad, a massacre committed by Hungarian troops against more than 1200 civilians Serbs, Jews and Roma, who were rounded up and then killed during 21-23 January 1942.
Jews in Yugoslavia
86000
killed
71000
Although other occupiers were also committing crimes against the Jews, looting their property and killing them, it was primarily the Germans who instigated, organized and committed the Holocaust in Serbia, including the territories under control of Hungary, Bulgaria and Italy.
Jews in Serbia
34777
killed
28224
2.5 Jewish Resistance to the Occupation and Help to the Jews
Ways of Rescue
The Jews who managed to get out of the cities were hiding mostly in Serbian villages assuming the identity of Serbian refugees from other parts of Yugoslavia, those from the Independent State of Croatia for the most part. Other Jews, who managed to flee from the German occupation zone and reach the territories under the Italian or Hungarian occupation, were saved at least for a period of time.
Many helped Jews to hide, to find refuge, to escape, and to save their lives in various ways. Sometimes it required providing false identification papers, sometimes just offering some food or a shelter for a night would be enough, and sometimes people risked their own and the lives of their families hiding the Jews in their houses, barns, stables and other hiding places. Up to 2016, for helping Jews 129 honorary titles “Righteous among the Nations” have been awarded by the state of Israel to the Serbian citizens, who saved the lives of the Jews risking their own.
Jews in the Resistance Movement
A great number of the Jews joined and took active part in the Yugoslav Partisan movement. Altogether 4,556 Jews took part in Fight for National Liberation. For exceptional courage and merits in the fight against the occupying forces 10 Jews were proclaimed national heroes and 14 reached the rank of a general of the Yugoslav Army.
National hero Vojo Todorović Lerer (1914–1990), was a high ranked commander in the Yugoslav Partisan movement, known for his bravery and skills. (picture from 1943, Vojo stands to the right)
4,556 Jews took part in Fight for National Liberation, out of which 10 were proclaimed national heroes and 14 reached the rank of a general of the Yugoslav Army
3. Remembrance
Memorial Days
There are several official Memorial Days which are commemorated in the Republic of Serbia:
- January 27 –
International Holocaust Remembrance Day - April 22 –
National Remembrance Day for the victims of the Holocaust, Genocide and other victims of Fascism during the Second World War
(Memorial Day for the victims of Jasenovac concentration camp and other victims killed in the Independent State of Croatia); - October 21 –
National Remembrance Day of the Serbian victims of the Second World War
(Memorial Day for the victims of Kragujevac massacre and other mass executions during the October 1941); - November 9 –
International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism - December 16 –
National Remembrance Day of the Roma Genocide in World War II
Future Memorial Center at Sajmište
No memorial centre or museum have ever been built on the former campgrounds. For a long time the area where the camp was located was in a very poor condition as a result of disuse and neglect.
In spite of the fact that that it has an important place in the history of the Holocaust, in the post war era, Sajmiste was rarely recognised as a site of Holocaust remembrance. In socialist Yugoslavia, the suffering of Jews tended to be interpreted as a manifestation of the broader ‘reign of terror’ instituted by the Nazis against the civilian population.
Recently, the Belgrade City Council announced the plans of building a permanent Memorial Center at the site. The Museum of Genocide Victims in Belgrade and the newly established Memorial Center Committee are now making plans for the Memorial Center and Museum.
By putting Concentration camp at Sajmište in public focus, participating in the the project “Escalating into Holocaust” with the Historical Archives of Belgrade and other partners, and by creating the educational materials “Ester”, we aim to support this initiative and contribute to this important task.
Sajmište, 2016
4. Teaching and learning about the Holocaust
Some of the Holocaust teaching materials available in Serbia are:
- Reading and Writing With Anne Frank (Читамо и пишемо са Аном Франк) – exhibition and workshop concept developed by the Anne Frank House, translated, adopted for use in Serbia, and managed by Terraforming;
- “Portraits and memories of the Jewish Community of Serbia before the Holocaust” (Портрети и сећања Јеврејске заједнице Србије) is an initiative of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia with the aim to contibute to preservation of memory of the Jewish Community of Serbia before the Holocaust, consisting of an exhibition, an archive of photographs and testimonies of survivors and other -non-Jewish- witnesses of the life of the vibrant community that existed before the Holocaust. “Portraits and memories…” is adjusted to be used as educational material about the Holocaust, too. Workshop are being organised and held by Haver Srbija.
- Učionica istorije (The History Classroom) is an online collection of lessons and articles by a history teacher and author Aleksandar Todosijević.
- Center for Holocaust research and Education is an independent NGO that offer several programs related to education and commemoration of the Holocaust victims, such as study visits to killing sites, and various online resources such as “Places of suffering and antifascist struggle in Belgrade 1941-44” and “The Suffering of the Roma in Serbia during the Holocaust”.
- Historical Archive of Belgrade produced a searchable online Database of prisoners of the Sajmište camp.
More links are coming…