Sajmiste as a European site of Holocaust remembrance
In: Filozofija i društvo, Band 23, Heft 4, S. 99-105
ISSN: 2334-8577
The article analyzes the peculiarities of the destruction of Serbian Jews
during Second Wolrd War in the local and European context. Of all the sites
in Serbia relevant to the destruction of the Serbian Jews, Sajmiste is the
most important. After the consideration of the attitude of Germans and
Nedic?s regime toward Jews and ?Gypsies? in the context of the Final
Solution, the author highlights that the Sajmiste internment camp was
transformed into a local death camp-the only such site outside the
territories of Poland and the Soviet Union. Serbia was the one country
outside Poland and the Soviet Union where all Jewish victims were killed on
the spot without deportation. It was the first country after Estonia to be
declared ?judenfrei.? Moreover, in Serbia the German army was not only
complicit in the Holocaust but was in fact the main instigator and
executioner in the killing of the Jewish men. For this reason, in particular,
Sajmiste is a unique site for Holocaust remembrance not only in the Serbian
but also in the European context.