It is estimated that about 82% of the Jewish population died in the Holocaust in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Entire families and even Jewish communities disappeared. At the beginning of the Second World War 82.000 Jews lived in Yugoslavia and 67.000 were killed. At that time 90% of Jews were killed in Belgrade and the fact that Belgrade was “cleansed of Jews” evokes tragic memories (1942). Hundreds od synagogues were destroyed, private property was confiscated and in a tragic and cruel way innocent citizens of Jewish origin were killed in camps and in dusengupkas (killing trucks specializing in gassing people, used by Nazis in the Second World War).
Map with marked places of the concentration camp
In December 1941. German occupation forces formed the Jewish Camp Zemun (Judenlager Semlin) which territorially belonged to the Independent State of Croatia. The camp was formed by the Gestapo in order to liquidate the Jewish and Romani population in the occupied area of Belgrade and Serbia. There was barbed wire around the camp and it was guarded by German soldiers.
The Old fairground camp, today
The fair was turned into a pavilion for torture and hanging, a morgue, a hospital, accommodation for detainees. 6400 Jews and about 600 Romani were brought to the camp. Many detainees died in the winter of 1941./1942 due to cold, hunger and disease. When the winter passed, survivors were forced into the gas chambers. The dead were buried in the Jewish cemetery. The camp existed for 5 months, during which more than 6.000 Jews were killed. Serbia was declared cleansed of Jews (Judenrein). This camp is important for the history of the Holocaust in Serbia, as a place of almost complete liquidation of the Jewish population during the German occupation.
The camp Topovske Šupe was organized by the Germans at Autokomanda was functional starting from August 1941 to imprison Jews and Romani. During the three months of its existence, the camp primarily served as a place for executions due to the losses suffered by the Germans in battles with the insurgents in Serbia. The first detainees were Jews from Banat, who were expelled to Belgrade by local Germans (better known as Folkdojčeri- Volksdeutscher). Later, all Jewish men from Belgrade were interned, and lastly Romani. The detainees were housed in 2 two-story buildings former stables. On that cramped space, an average of about 1400 Jews were “accommodated”.
Topovske šupe camp , today
In addition to the beds on the floor, plank beds were made at the height of the horse mangers. The detainees were tortured in the attic of one of the buildings, in a space surrounded by barbed wire. The hanging and burning of the clothes and equipment of the killed “prisoners” was done in the area between the 2 camps facilities. The Germans fenced the camp wherein the buildings were placed with a high wooden fence, which separated the camp space from the building where the workshops for the German army were. All of them, except for a select few, were killed in mass shootings in the autumn of 1941 at execution sites around Belgrade (mostly in Jabuka near Pančevo). Available documents show that the systematic execution of Jews and Romani began in September 1941. The hostages were taken from the camp near the “Topovske šupe”. The shootings were then individual and small-scale, while in October and November they became mass. After the murder of 21 German soldiers near Topola, General Beme, the German military commander for Serbia, ordered on 4th October that 2100 persons be shot in retaliation for the killed soldiers. The places of liquidations were often changed so the most mass shooting in Jajinci, in the village of Jabuka near Pančevo, Bubanj potok, Bežanija, in the forest near Deliblatska peščara and elsewhere were recorded. In mid-November 1941. a maximum of 200 to 300 Jews remained in the Topovske šupe camp.
