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 mass killings and crimes were committed against other groups of people, too, such as: the genocide against the Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia, the genocide against the Roma, a mass murder of the people with disabilities in Germany, Soviet prisoners of war, the murders of the handicapped, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, political dissidents, 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.
Author:
Miško Stanišić
Director of Terraforming
Expert advisors:
Dr Milan Koljanin
PhD Historian, Belgrade Serbia
Dr Sanela Schmid
PhD Historian, Nuremberg Germany
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 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 Ustasha. 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 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.
Serbian collaborators
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, particularly the Serbian quisling administration headed by Milan Aćimović, and later by Milan Nedić 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. In order to promote antisemitic ideas and spread hatred against Jews, “The Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibition” was organized on 22nd of October 1941 in Belgrade by Lazar Prokić, chief of the Section of State propaganda in the Nedić’s Government, sponsored and financially supported by Germans. During the occupation Dimitrije Ljotić was a leader of Serbian Volunteer Corps whose members, also known as “Ljotićevci”, assisted Germans in detaining Jews and arresting supporters of National Liberation Fight, actively taking part in gathering of civilians and German reprisal executions of them. Dragomir Dragi Jovanonović was the chief of Belgrade Police and the head of Belgrade City Administration who actively persecuted patriots and occupation opponents during the German occupation.
(more info: 6-panel PDF in English “Some Words about the Holocaust in Serbia”)
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 an unprecedented 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.
To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.
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 and a huge number of lives lost during their fight against the Nazism, 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.
Abuse of remembrance
The past can be abused for the purpose of fueling nationalism, fear, and hatred.
A sincere, meaningful, and brave culture of remembrance reverently remembers the victims and treats them as individuals and human beings, not just numbers and stereotypes. An honest, meaningful, and courageous culture of remembrance focuses on life, not death. In such a culture of remembrance, instead of simplistic answers, difficult and complex questions are posed.
A sincere, meaningful, and brave culture of remembrance contributes to the development of critical thinking and pluralistic social dialogue about the challenges and issues we face today. Such a culture of remembrance treats crimes from the past as a warning that both individuals and society are responsible and obligated to actively nurture, strengthen, and defend the very social values and rights that were denied to the victims: respect for civil and human rights and the rule of law in a democratic legal state.
A sincere, meaningful, and brave culture of remembrance does not abuse the past and does not inflame nationalism, hatred, or fear.
Jewish Victims in Europe, Yugoslavia and Serbia
Europe
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.
Jews in Europe
killed
Jews in Yugoslavia
killed
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.
Jews in Serbia
killed
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.
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.
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
Kako izučavamo istoriju?
Istorijska građa
Ubrzo nakon oslobođenja Beograda, u novembru 1944. godine formirana je Anketna komisije za utvrđivanje zločina u logoru na Sajmištu, i započet je proces ekshumacije leševa na Jevrejskom groblju u Zemunu i na Bežanijskom groblju. Nakon završetka rata Zemaljske komisije za utvrđivanje zločina okupatora i njihovih saradnika prikupljale su prijave o žrtvama stradalim tokom rata, te o materijalnoj šteti i opljačkanoj imovini.
Tokom godina sakupljana su i svedočanstva preživelih Jevreja. Mnogi preživeli su pisali memoare da bi i na taj način pokušali da za buduća pokolenja sačuvaju sećanja na nestale jevrejske zajednice. Tu i tamo sačuvane su porodične fotografije, pisma i druge uspomene koje svedoče o životima žrtava. Postoje naravno i svedočanstva i zapisi drugih svedoka koji nisu Jevreji, recimo svedočanstva onih koji su Jevrejima pomagali da se sakriju ili da pobegnu. Takođe, dostupna je i građa o Jevrejima učesnicima narodnooslobodilačke borbe.
Sačuvana dokumentacija nemačkih okupacionih snaga pohranjena je u različitim vojnim i istorijskim arhivima u Srbiji, Nemačkoj, Austriji, i na drugim mestima. Većina je danas poznata, i dostupna istoričarima istraživačima. Takođe, sačuvana je i građa sa suđenja nacističkim zločincima. Ponekad postoje i fotografije, a ređe i filmovi, koje su najčešće snimali upravo sami nacisti, obično u propagandne svrhe. Ali kada je u pitanju logor Sajmište, nije ostalo mnogo fotografske građe.
Neki od najvažnijih svetskih centara koji se bave izčavanjem, edukacijom i čuvanjem sećanja na žrtve Holokausta, a u kojima postoje i podaci o žrtvama iz Srbije, su Jad Vašem u Izraelu, Memorijalni muzej Holokausta u Vašingtonu, arhiv Međunarodnog servisa za traženje nestalih iz Bad Arolsena u Nemačkoj, i drugi. U Srbiji postoji i Muzej žrtava genocida u kojem se između ostalog sakupljaju i sortiraju podaci o svim žrtvama stradalim u Drugom svetskom ratu u Jugoslaviji.
Tragovi života i progona Jevreja u Srbiji mogu se naći i u sačuvanim novinama i drugim predratnim publikacijama koje se dostupne u zbirkama, ili digitalno na internetu, u Narodnoj biblioteci Srbije i u Univerzitetskoj biblioteci „Svetozar Marković“ u Beogradu.
Raznovrsna dokumentacijska građa o životu Jevreja u Beogradu može se naći u različitim fondovima Istorijskog arhiva Beograda, i u Jevrejskom istorijskom muzeju u Beogradu. Istraživanjem istorijskih podataka o upisima dece u škole, đačkih svedočanstava, poreskih izvoda, podataka o bankovnim računima, katastarskih izvoda o kućama, stanovima i radnjama, podataka o adresama stanovanja, o članstvu u zanatskim i profesionalnim udruženjima, podataka o članstvu u sportskim i kulturnim udruženjima, zdravstvenih kartona, i mnogih drugih podataka, možemo stvoriti bolju sliku o životu u Beogradu pre rata, u kojem su zajedno sa Srbima i drugim narodima živeli i Jevreji, i igrali veoma važnu ulogu u kulturnom, privrednom i političkom životu.
Naravno, govoreći o Jevrejima u Srbiji, i uopšte istorijskoj dokumentaciji o Drugom svetskom ratu, raznovrsna arhivska građa je dostupna u istorijskim i drugim arhivima širom Srbije.
Sve ovo sačinjava dokumentaciju koja nam služi kao istorijska građa za istraživanje istorije logora na Sajmištu, i sudbine njegovih zatočenika.
Istoričari
Mnogobrojni istoričari su već decenijama istraživali Holokaust, i svoje nalaze i zaključke objavljivali u naučnoj literaturi. Kao i u svakoj drugoj nauci, nova istorijska istraživanja se oslanjaju na nalaze i zaključke prethodnika. U svojim radovima, istoričari precizno zapisuju iz kojih izvora su do određenih podataka došli, a kada citiraju druge istoričare, navode tačno iz kojeg rada i tačno sa koje stranice je citat preuzet. Takve reference pomažu studentima i drugim istraživačima da pronalaze istorijske izvore i literaturu za dalji rad. Na primer, Institut za savremenu istoriju u Beogradu je jedan od instituta u kojem istoričari izučavaju našu prošlost i svoje nalaze i zaključke objavljuju u naučnoj literaturi.
Arhivisti
Arhivisti imaju zadatak da sortiraju i čuvaju istorijsku dokumentaciju. Savremeni arhivi digitalizuju svoju građu, ali originali se i dalje moraju čuvati. U velikim istorijskim arhivima kakav je na primer Istorijski arhiv Beograda, dokumentacija se čuva u posebnim depoima. Depo Istorijskog arhiva Beograda zauzima površinu od 2.400 m2, gde su smešteni specijalni metalni regali koji mogu primiti 20.000 metara građe. Depo je obezbeđen elektronskom bravom, metalnim vratima, protivpožarnim senzorima i instrumentima koji mere temperaturu i vlažnost vazduha, te klima uređajima. Sve ovo u cilju stvaranja uslova u kojima će istorijska građa – naša sećanja i znanja o prošlosti – biti sačuvana, i dostupna istraživačima. Neki od važnih arhiva u Srbiji su i Arhiv Jugoslavije, Arhiv Srbije, Vojni Arhiv, Arhiv Vojvodine, Istorijski arhiv grada Novog Sada i drugi.
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); - May 10:
Memorial Day of the Holocaust Victims in Belgrade; - 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
Teaching and learning about the Holocaust
Some of the Holocaust teaching materials available in Serbia are:
- Teaching Material to Combat Antisemitism (2018, ODIHR/Anne Frank House) created by a team of Serbian experts (available in English). Terraforming had one of the leading roles in creating this material.
- Publication: Use of Graphic Novel, Literature and Archival Materials in Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust on the Example of the Educational Concept and Collection of Graphic Novels “Ester” (2018, Terraforming)
- Yad Vashem’s ready2print exhibition “How Was It Humanly Possible?” (2018, translated in Serbian by Terraforming) about major historical aspects of the European Holocaust, and Terraforming’s exhibition “Some Words About the Holocaust in Serbia” (2018, Terraforming) that can be used as a supplement to the Yad Vashem’s “How Was It Humanly Possible?” or as a stand-alone exhibition. Exhibitions are available for free download and print.
- Ester – collection of graphic novels about the young Jewish victims killed the concentration camp at Sajmiste and a teaching material (2016, Terraforming)
- Historical Archive of Belgrade produced a searchable online Database of prisoners of the Sajmište camp. (2016, Historical Archive of Belgrade)
- Center for Public History is another Serbian NGO initiative active in the fields of memorialization and education about the history of the Holocaust.
- “Portraits and memories of the Jewish Community of Serbia before the Holocaust” (2015, Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia) created with the aim to contribute to preservation of memory of the Jewish Community of Serbia before the Holocaust. Workshops are organised by Haver Srbija.
- Reading and Writing With Anne Frank – exhibition and workshop concept developed by the Anne Frank House (translated and managed by Terraforming since 2014);
- Publication: “The Suffering of the Roma in Serbia during the Holocaust” by Milovan Pisarri, PhD historian (2014, Forum for Applied History) one of the first substantial studies devoted to genocide against the Roma;
- Publication: “Places of suffering and antifascist struggle in Belgrade 1941-44” (2013, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung), “a tool in the hands of those who are not indifferent towards the events Belgrade faced during Nazi occupation 1941-44 and want to get involved against oblivion, silence and falsification”;
- Učionica istorije (The History Classroom) is an online collection of lessons and articles by a history teacher and author Aleksandar Todosijević, online since 2011.
More links are coming…