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Contents II JudenfreiAs nazism spread over Europe, the persecution and genocide of the Jews began in many European countries. So with the coming of the Nazi authorities in Serbia in April 1941 the occasion arose for certain circles to "finally settle" the problem of the Jews in their own milieu. The German occupiers found collaboration across the board
in Serbia: After the Third Reich passed an order on August 28, 1941, abolishing the Commissariat, a civil government was formed "whose president was a general of the former Yugoslav army Milan Nedic... Nedic created armed units, the so-called Nedic army". Apart from these units, there were also the so-called Voluntary Army of Dimitrij Ljotic and the chetniks of Kosta Pecanac and Draza Mihailovic. In 1976, documents relevant to the years 1941 - 1944 were published in Belgrade in an archival reviews under the title "The collaboration of D. Mihailovic's Chetniks with the enemy forces of occupation". The original documents were collected by the Serbian
scholars Dr Jovan Marjanovic and his collaborator Mihail Stanisic. The explanation in the
forward runs: The "solving" of the "problem" of the Jews began as quickly as a week after the German army catered Belgrade, with the whole- hearted support of the Serbian government. Within the Gestapo structures in Belgrade a commission for Jewish questions was set up, in which the city administration as it then was had its representative. With the help of the Belgrade city administration the occupier formed the so-called Hebrew police, which in fact represented one section of the city of Belgrade administration." "The chief of the Hebrew police was Otto Winzet, once employed in the Philips concern. Of Serbs there were Jovan (Joca) Nikolic, the commissar, then Nikola Nikolic, Ivan Bozicevic, Martinovic, Ljubinkovic and Djordjevic also known as Ceka..." In the "Schedule of rules of the military commander in Serbia no. 7-8, May 31, 1941" are the "Orders relating to Jews and Gypsies", among which, among other things, state: 1. Jews(...) Paragraph 2. Jews must report two week to ... the
Serbian police registration authorities. 2. GypsiesParagraph 18. Gypsies are considered equivalent to Jews. Even earlier, in the "Community news" (Opstinske novine) it had been proclaimed that "jews are forbidden to appear henceforth without a yellow band". 3. The duties of the Serbian authoritiesParagraph 21. The Serbian authorities are responsible for the carrying out of the commands contained in this Order. 4. Penal MeasuresParagraph 22. Whoever resists... shall be punished with imprisonment and a monetary fine. In aggravated cases the punishment will be penal sentence or death. Belgrade, May 30, 1941. (Printed commands of the Military Commander in Serbia, No. 7-8, May 31) Soon, thanks to various Commands, the Jews were completely deprived of their rights. They were not allowed to be editors in newspapers, academic auditors, they could not run a theatre, or a lawyer's office, a dentist's surgery, do the work of a physician, a veterinary surgeon, be the owners of educational institutions or work in them. The musicians' federation informed the Jews that their work in music was against the present rules. Jews could not be telephone subscribers or even use someone else's phone. The following "Command" was also issued: Sensing what it was that was ultimately awaiting them, individual Jews fled from the larger towns. Because of the flight of Jews in 1941, the quisling government issued a number of orders that again called upon the Jews to register with the authorities. One woman who survived bears witness as follows: "On the seventh of December (1941 - author) all Jews got papers delivered by Nedic's gendarmes ordering them to report the following day to the Hebrew police... It said in the paper that we should take three days' food, and as for clothing, fresh linen, and bedding, only as much as we could carry ourselves." "All Jews are called upon to present themselves on December 12, 1941, at 8 in the morning in the courtyard of the Special Police for Jews in George Washington St. 21. Everyone may bring with him as much baggage and bedding as he can carry by himself. Apartments must be left locked up. Apartment keys must be fastened to a piece of card with the address of the apartment and the name and brought along. Whoever does not come will be most severely punished." From all these assembly points, the Jews were led away escorted by Serbian police and German guards to concentration camps, where they were brutally put to death. "Thus on December 8, 1941, he went to the assembly place at the building of the (Serbian - author) police for Jews in George Washington St. and ... (the number of the building varies in the witnesses' accounts, with 21 sometimes being mentioned and sometimes 23). At the assembly place there were many cars with families, and they were all taken off across the Sava to the "Sajmiste" (Fairground)." Not even the Jewish hospital in Belgrade was spared. "The hospital was under constant supervision and was guarded by German soldiers and Ljotic's soldiers." "The Jewish hospital at 2 Visoki Stevan St. had been founded in June or July 1941 by order of the Jewish police, which wished to stop Jews going to other hospitals. All the equipment in the hospital, down to the instruments and medicines, had been provided by the Jews themselves." "On March 19, 1942 began the liquidation of Jews from the hospital. At the same time all the members of the families of the physicians and nurses were arrested. On March 27 all the physicians were led away." And at the same time that members of the Jewish community in Serbia were being persecuted and murdered by the means of legislative orders signed by the president of the government of "national salvation" Milan Nedic, the minister of Internal Affairs Milan Acimovic and the head of the Belgrade police Dragi Jovanovic, on January 12, 1942, a "Regulation for the protection of animals" was announced. It had been signed by the entire Serbian government, by Prime Minister Nedic, and all ten ministers. The Regulation states, among other things: Meanwhile the mistreatment of human beings had become
institutionalized, and deprivation of food and the heartless infliction of pain, and
extermination. Those Jews who managed to flee and hide were searched for and arrested, and
for every arrest a monetary reward could be obtained. The so-called "Jewish question" in Serbia was astonishingly quickly settled. General Harald Turner boasted to General Loehr, the new C-in-C of the entire south east of Europe that: "Serbia (was) a country in which the question of the Jews and the question of the Gypsies was settled." (From Turner's notes for a personal report to General Loehr, August 29, 1942, Document NOKW-1846). In a letter to the Gestapo of September 18, 1943, signed by
Dragi Jovanovic, the Administration of the City of Belgrade boasted of the successes of
the Serbian Special Police, which had been instrumental in arranging the disappearance of
the Jews from the face of the Serbian earth: Of all the places connected with the organized crime of genocide against the Jews, in which the Serbs too participated, the concentration camp Sajmiste (Fairground) by Belgrade occupied the number one position. It was set up in December 1941, on the left bank of the Sava, in the region occupied today by New Belgrade, with the aim of the final mass destruction of the Jewish people. To this camp they brought women, children and men of all age groups from Belgrade, Sabac, Nis, Kragujevac, Smederevo, Pozarevac and other towns in Serbia. From the figures available, historians have come to the
conclusion that "over 11,000 Jews passed through the camp Sajmiste". Only a few
survived. The camp was run by the German and Serbian authorities in Belgrade, as is
confirmed by survivors of the camp, largely Serbs, for example Ilija Petrovic. The conditions of life at Sajmiste were such that even the camp physician, the Gestapo lieutenant Dr Jung after one single tour of the camp requested a doubled ration of food. His plea was turned down. In 1942, the Germans who were in the command centre of the camp protested to the Serbian authorities about their not having sent the agreed quantity of food for the prisoners. Dr Jasa Romano states: "After the camp administration
had intervened, the Department (for social welfare and social institutions of the city
authority in Belgrade - author) replied that provisions for the camp would be delivered
only when all other necessities in Belgrade had been taken care of". There was great
hunger, and the consequences were tragic: Concentration camps on Serbian territory were set up in
Kragujevac, Sabac and Nis. At Bor Mine there was a work-camp. "The 'Banjica' concentration camp... The first inmates were brought to the camp as soon as July 9, 1941, even before the official command was signed for it to be set up... Svetozar Vujkovic was appointed camp commander; he had been an infamous murderer in the pre-war period, specially entrusted with arresting communists and those who sympathized with them. He stayed in the job of camp commander until the camp was run down, that is until October, 1944. His assistant was Djordje Kosmajac, who was killed by members of the resistance on March 6, 1942. He was succeeded by Prvoslav Odavic, and he by Vidosav Jeftic, with Radomir Carapic last of all. The camp administration was under the control of the Gestapo... During the first period there was a double guard round the camp: one guard composed of members of the Gestapo, and another guard composed of members of the Serbian State Guard. Later, the camp was guarded only by the Serbian State Guard... From the preserved records of the inmates of the Banjica camp, it can be seen that a total of 29,697 persons passed through this camp (21,430 men and 2,267 women). However this number is not even approximately accurate, for a great number of prisoners were immediately led away to be shot, without being entered into the record book. This was mostly the case with the Jews. There is a record of only 300 of the Belgrade Jews, who were brought into the camp at the beginning of September, 1941... The camp in Banjica was the destination for not only the Jews of Belgrade, but also for Jews from other places in Serbia, including from Backa... It is impossible to establish even approximately how many Jews perished in this camp, for as has been mentioned, they were not entered in the book of inmates. But it is certain that a very considerable number of male Jews from Belgrade and from other places in the Serbian interior suffered in this camp... The concentration camp at Sabac (the Jewish camp)... in July, 1941 the Ortskomandatur in Sabac that is, was ordered by the Belgrade Gestapo to set up a concentration camp for the Jews living in the area. In July 1941, Jewish refugees were first of all interned in the camp... The shooting of Jews and Gypsies from the Sabac camp was carried out on October 12 and 13, 1941, in the village of Zasavica. Those shot were buried in a communal grave. At this time about 400 Jewish males from the Sabac camp were shot, while 449 Belgrade Jews were shot on October 9 and 11 in Belgrade. Before the shooting, all their valuables were taken from them, and after the shooting their gold teeth were pulled out... After the shooting of the Jewish men, only women and children were left in the Sabac camp. On January 26, 1941, they were moved by train to Ruma, and then walked from Ruma to Zemun, or to the Sajmiste camp, in conditions of extreme cold... After arrival at Sajmiste they were quickly liquidated... The "Red Cross" concentration camp... In the Gestapo concept the camp was intended for the internment of male Jews from Nis and its surroundings, to be hostages, then for members of the resistance and captured partisans... After the Jewish men had been shot, women and children were brought into the camp, but at the beginning of March, 1942, they were taken to the Sajmiste camp, where they were soon killed... At the beginning of March, 1942, Jews from several smaller surrounding towns were brought to Nis. The men were immediately shot at Bubanj, and the women and children taken to the Sajmiste. The number of Jewish men is unknown, while there were about 70 women and children. In July, 1942 Jews from Leskovac, Zajecar and Jagodina were
brought to Nis. The men were immediately shot at Bubanj, and the women and children taken
to the Sajmiste. In parallel with the physical destruction of the Jewish people, the
Germans and the Serbian quisling government organized the theft of all Jewish property. So
that the theft should be the more effective, an order was first of all proclaimed
requiring the registration of all companies the owners of which were Jews: Soon all Jews had to report their wealth to the
authorities, which was announced by all the papers in Serbia: Jewish property was to belong to a new owner by a decision
of the Nedic government: Sve obavijesti oknjigama mozete dobiti putem
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