The Banitsa concentration camp ( KZ Banjica ) is the concentration camp of the Third Reich , which existed from June 1941 [1] to September 1944 . The camp was located in the eponymous suburb of Belgrade, then Yugoslavia [1] . It was created initially for the purpose of keeping prisoners, but later Jews , Serbian communists, Gypsies and captured partisans began to be delivered here. The number of registered prisoners in the camp was 23,637 people [1] . The commandant of the camp was Gestapo officer Willy Friedrich [2] . His assistants from the Serbian police Svetozar Vujkovic ( Serb. Svetozar Vujković ) and Djordje Kosmajac ( Serb. Đorđe Kosmajac ) were sadly renowned for their sadism towards prisoners [3] .
| Banitsa | |
|---|---|
| him KZ Banjica | |
 A German soldier pokes a rifle at the body of an executed prisoner in the village of Yaintsi , which served as an execution site for the prisoners of the Banitsa camp. | |
| Type of | Death camp |
| Operation period | June 1941 - September 1944 |
The buildings for the concentration camp were the barracks of Yugoslav soldiers, built before the German occupation.
The first mass execution took place on December 17, 1941 , when 170 prisoners were shot [4] .
The village of Yaintsi served as a place of execution for the prisoners of Banitsa. The camp was closed in 1944, and its remaining prisoners were shot.
At the site of the concentration camp there is now a museum opened in 1969.
Notes
- 2 1 2 3 Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg International Military Tribunal Contributor Hermann Göring International Military Tribunal 1947, page 283
- ↑ Noteworthy War Criminals Second World War-Europe. Commandants of Concentration Camps and Concentration Camp Trials. UNWCC Archived December 13, 2005.
- ↑ Zlatoje Martinov. Logor Banjica - važno mesto u istoriji zločina (book overview) (serb.) . Republika. Archived April 16, 2012.
- ↑ Ramet, Sabrina P. , The three Yugoslavias: state-building and legitimation, 1918–2005 . Indiana University Press, 2006. (p. 131)