October 21 – National Remembrance Day of the Serbian victims of the Second World War (commemorated in Serbia)
The Memorial park Sumarice in Kragujevac, a site of a massacre of several thousands civilians Serbs, Jews and Roma killed by German Nazis.
19-20 October 2016 KRAGUJEVAC
Participants from:
International conference within the project Escalating into Holocaust was held on Wednesday 19 October 2016 in the Memorial Museum in Kragujevac. The program included lectures and presentations on Second World War and Holocaust, panel discussions and debates involving all participants.
The conference was focused on three main topics:
International conference was opened by Mr. Miljan Bjeletic, head of the Department for Culture of the City Council of Kragujevac. He welcomed all participants, expressing satisfaction and gratitude that the conference was being held in Kraguejvac, in a city that suffered great losses in the Second World War. Mr. Bjeletic presented the project Escalating into Holocaust and thanked all participants who came to Kragujevac to take part in such an important manifestation.
Mr. Slavoljub Jovanovic, director of the Memorial Museum in Kragujevac, welcomed all participants as a host of the meeting, wished them all successful and productive discussions and the conference was officially opened.
Dr Milan Koljanin, historian, senior researcher at the Institute for Contemporary History in Belgrade, held an introductory lecture Historical Backgrounds – Concentration Camp Sajmiste, presenting the history of the camp and its mechanisms in the first two years of WWII when it was Jewish camp Zemun.
Database of the prisoners of the camp Sajmiste, being developed by the Historical Archives of Belgrade within the international project Escalating into Holocaust was presented to the audience by archivist Tijana Kovčić.
BW photo: Nikola Radić Lucati
After these introductory presentations, three one-hour sessions followed:
Introductory presentation:
Crimes of the Wehrmacht in Kragujevac in October 1941
Mr Nenad Djordjevic, historian, director of the National Museum of Kragujevac;
Panelists:
Dr Milan Koljanin, historian, senior researcher at the Institute for Contemporary History in Belgrade;
Tilman Muller-Kukelberg, historian, educator at the Educational and Memorial-Site House of the Wannsee-Conference, Berlin;
Rade Ristanović, historian, PhD student, Faculty of Philosophy Novi Sad;
Moderator:
Nevena Bajalica, Anne Frank House in Amsterdam / Terraforming
Introductory presentation:
Comparative Presentation of the Causes and Forms of Mass Retaliations against Civilians by the Nazis
Dr Sanela Schmid, historian, researcher in the project “The persecution of the Jews 1933-1945”, Institute of Contemporary History Munich – Berlin;
Panelists:
Dr Haris Dajč, historian, Department of History, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade;
Dr Sanja Petrović-Todosijević, historian, Institute for Recent History of Serbia, Belgrade;
Moderator:
Dr Milovan Pisarri, historian, Center for Holocaust Research and Education (CHRE);
Introductory presentation:
EHRI – European Infrastructure for Holocaust Studies: Creation of Digital Infrastructure and Contact Network in the Light of European Cultural Identity and Diversity
Dr Martijn Eickhoff, historian, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam;
Panelists:
Silvija Krejaković, historian, National Museum Kraljevo;
Aleksandar Dinčić, historian, National Museum Niš;
Ivana Gruden Milentijević, historian, National Museum Niš;
Moderator:
Miško Stanišić, Terraforming
After the panel discussions Nikola Radić Lucati from the Center of Holocaust Research and Education, presented the concept and the main idea behind the exhibition “October 1941” he co-authored. The exhibition was scheduled to open in Kragujevac in February 2017.
The International conference in Kragujevac managed to gather numerous experts in the field of Holocaust research, approaching the subject from several aspects: scientific, educational and archival. In addition to the invited experts the conference was attended by a number of students, educators and others interested in the subject from the host city Kragujevac and from the three nearby cities: Kraljevo, Čačak and Niš. The audience was very involved and actively participated in vivid discussions with the panelists, contributing questions and opinions.
Important contribution to the conference was given by the local government of the city of Kragujevac and local media.
Among participants there were representatives of:
The Memorial Museum in Kragujevac,
National Museum of Kragujevac,
National Museum of Niš
National Museum of Kraljevo
Faculty of Philosophy of the Belgrade University,
Institute for Recent History of Serbia in Belgrade;
Institute for Contemporary History in Belgrade;
Representatives of the Jewish community from the Society for Preservation of the Memory on Holocaust from Kragujevac;
Center for Professional Orientation in Kragujevac;
Representatives of local libraries; and
History teachers from Kragujevac Gymnasium and Čačak Gymnasium.
Also, representatives of the project-partnering organizations participated the conference.
During the conference each session was characterized by a very vivid discussions with a constructive exchange of opinions. Lecturers, panelists and other participants equally participated in the discussions, touching many subjects. One of the results of these very open and constructive discussions where different, sometimes even opposite opinions, experiences and propositions were presented and discussed, is a list of important new topics that shall be further researched, processed and discussed in the coming events.
The conference succeeded in connecting professionals, experts and others focused on the Holocaust research, education and remembrance, and in creating space for debate and exchange about the Holocaust in a wider European context.
Among experts that participated the conference there were:
Memorial Museum in Kragujevac
The workshop was organized by the project-partnering organization Terraforming from Stockholm. The workshop was held by Tilman Müller-Kukelberg, historian and educator at the Educational and Memorial Site House of the Wannsee Conference in Berlin. The participants were experts and scholars from universities and research institutes, curators and other museum professionals, archivists and teachers.
The main idea of the workshop was to present the historical background of the conference held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20th January 1942. This gathering was organized to determine the “final solution for the Jewish question”. Tilman Müller-Kukelberg explained the importance and idea behind the memorial and educational center on such a significant historical site, established in 1992 on the 50th anniversary of the Wannsee conference.
Tilman Müller-Kukelberg presented the center’s educational activities and their cooperation with teachers, pedagogues and educators dealing with Holocaust and the Second World War. The workshop was especially motivating for the teachers and curators. Their numerous questions were about the availability of their educational material, about further professional education and scholarships and about possibilities of exchanging the experiences.
Within the two-day program of the event in Kragujevac, a group of international experts and their hosts visited several historical sites in Kragujevac guided by the expert guides from the Tourist Organization of Kragujevac.
The most significant was the visit to The Memorial Park October in Kragujevac.
The Memorial park October in Kragujevac was established in 1953 on the site where in October 1941 a several thousand citizens from Kragujevac were shot by the German Wehrmacht soldiers during retribution killings against civilians of Kragujevac and the surrounding villages, over the male population aged between twelve and sixty five.
During the summer of 1941 a resistance movement against the German occupation was spreading in Serbia. Germans were trying to suppress the uprising with extreme repressive measures towards civilian population and mass reprisal shootings. Throughout occupied Serbia the civilians were being arrested on a large scale and held as hostages to be shot down by firing squads for a reprisal.
An order was issued that for every German killed 100, and for every wounded 50 hostages should be shot dead. One of the worst mass-killings executed under that order was committed in Kragujevac.
The Memorial park takes up the area of 352 ha where there are 30 mass tombs. The area has been laid out by the urban project of two architects Mihailo Mitrovic and Radivoje Tomic. Up till today over ten tombs there are ten sculptural-architectonic unities. One of them, the Monument to the shot pupils and teachers is a true symbol of the city.
The Museum 21st October was founded within the Memorial park on 15th February 1976 with the aim of gathering, processing, keeping and presenting the documents concerning the shooting and the victims, through exhibitions and printed material. Apart from that, The Memorial Park organizes the traditional manifestations, whereas the exhibitions the modern art exhibitions are organized in the City gallery The Balkan Bridges, opened on 7th April 2005.
In addition, the guests of the event “Escalating into Holocaust” visited several other sites in Kragujevac, such as the building of the first Serbian Gymnasium, Prince’s Palace and the Old Arms Factory.
