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The Sajmište concentration camp was one of the complexes of German concentration camps in Serbia that were almost exclusive for Serbian Jews. At least 8,000-11,000 victims perished in it. This camp was primarily used to gas the Jews on route from Sajmište to Avala, to be buried in Jajinci. About 68 thousand people were buried in Jajinci. There are places in Belgrade where inconceivable executions took place. One of them is the Sajmište camp.

The Sajmište Camp

The majority of Serbian Jews were killed in the Sajmište camp. There is no precise information and documentation is almost non-existent, yet it is estimated that the number of victims comes to at least 11,000. The camp was formed on the left bank of the Sava by the railway bridge at the entrance into Belgrade where the pre-war trade fair was located. This is where the name Sajmište originated. This territory which was, at that time, deserted, uninhabited and marshy, was several kilometers from Zemun and formed a part of NDH (Independent State of Croatia) territory, so the Germans asked for it to be given to them.

It is, however, not correct that this was an Ustaša camp which some historians claim. The commander, Androfer, and his assistant, were SS-men. On Gestapo ruling, order and discipline were maintained by the Camp Council which was comprised exclusively of camp inmates who were at first solely Jews because there were no others and later, when Serbian inmates arrived, some agents of the Serbian police. Supplies were provided by the "Department of Social Care and Social Institutions of Belgrade’s Municipal Authorities". At the beginning of December 1941, Serbian gendarmes called upon Jews in Belgrade to report to the Special Police and to hand over their house keys. The transfer of Jews, primarily women and children, lasted from December 8 until 12. Conditions in the camp were extremely difficult - the damp and the cold, hunger and epidemics. A Jewish source says:

"The food was appalling and often not even the minimal amount of food was supplied. In Nedić’s units there were people who were no better than the Germans themselves."

What is almost unbelievable is that even the camp’s German commander protested against the quantity of supplies. The reply of Belgrade’s Municipal Authorities to the Germans was just as unbelievable if not insolent:

"Provisions for the Jewish camp will be carried out once all other needs are met."

As camp inmates starved and froze to death, Jewish men were transferred over the frozen Sava to Belgrade where they were buried. Many (the number is unknown) were led away to be shot by firing squads in Belgrade. They were killed in the same manner, in the same place and by the same people as were the Banjica prisoners. After all men were shot, according to German sources, 6,280 women and children were killed in a special gas truck on their way to Belgrade and buried in Jajinci. A Serbian company "Obnova" purchased the clothes of those. Some were led away to camps in other countries (numbers and destination are unknown). When the number of imprisoned Jews began to decrease, Serbian prisoners and others began to arrive. One of these prisoners recalls:

"The criminals were the same as those in Banjica. The commanders were also the same - Germans, Nedić’s men and other Serbian fascists".

All Jews in that camp were liquidated before August 1942, and the Germans declared Belgrade "Judenrein".

Another surviving Serbian camp inmate, wrote in his book of memoirs:

"Several thousand Jews passed through the Sajmište camp... Long lines of sad histories were written on the walls of the pavilions and in many places artistic portraits were completed. For days we returned to these final traces of thousands of people. There were surviving Serbians who told us various details about the life of the Jews in Sajmište and who had allowed the Jews to write their final parting thoughts and vows ."

Aftermath

As of 2006 Sajmište is still not a memorial center. On February 11, 1993, the European parliament adopted the Resolution on European and International Protection of Concentration Camps as Historical Monuments. But it seems this does not pertain to camp Sajmište. Sajmište, the largest Jewish execution camp in Serbia, is not even listed among the names of the 22 largest camps for Jews in Europe in the Memorial Center Jad Vashem in the Hall of Memoirs in Jerusalem. Of all the camps in the former Yugoslavia, Jasenovac is the only name listed. Initiative to create a memorial center was initiated in April 2006.

Before the war there were 10,400 Jews in Belgrade and roughly 16,000 in the whole of Serbia. Around 85% were killed in the Holocaust.

Sajmište was destroyed by U.S. bombers in raids, which killed 80 people at the camp and injured 170. The bombers' intended target was the nearby railway station.

External links

• In Belgrade, a concentration camp nearly slips away by, KATKA KROSNAR

• Serbian history
• Concentration camps