Slobodište ( sr, Слободиште), also known as Mount Bagdala near

Kruševac Kruševac ( sr-cyr, Крушевац, , tr, Alacahisar or Kruşevca) is a city and the administrative center of the Rasina District in central Serbia. It is located in the valley of West Morava, on Rasina river. According to the 2011 census, t ...

, is the place where the shootings of nearly 1,650 people, mainly Partisans,

Chetniks The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationa ...

, and

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

occurred during the

German occupation of Serbia During World War II, several provinces of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia corresponding to the modern-day state of Serbia were occupied by the Axis Powers from 1941 to 1944. Most of the area was occupied by the Wehrmacht and was organized as separate t ...

Mass execution in June 1943

The largest execution in Kruševac happened on 29 June 1943, when 324 people were executed. This was initially to be carried out on 28 June but as that was

Vidovdan Vidovdan ( sr-cyr, Видовдан, lit. "Saint Vitus Day") is a Serbian national and religious holiday, a ''slava'' (feast day) celebrated on 28 June (Gregorian calendar), or 15 June according to the Julian calendar. The Serbian Church desi ...

, Milan Nedić's government was able to move the execution a day later. Prior to the execution, SS general August Meissner arrived in Kruševac and signed the poster, noting that he himself ordered this mass execution. After that, 162 members of the Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland (Chetniks) and 162 members of the People's Liberation Movement of Yugoslavia (Partisans) were executed. Executions were also carried out within the Criminal Bureau, and bodies were buried in Bagdala. During the occupation, Bulgarian soldiers carried out executions repeatedly in Kruševac, along with armed

Arnauts Arnaut ( ota, ارناود) is a Turkish ethnonym used to denote Albanians. ''Arvanid'' (), ''Arnavud'' (), plural: ''Arnavudlar'' (): modern Turkish: ''Arnavut'', plural: ''Arnavutlar''; are ethnonyms used mainly by Ottoman and contempor ...

in German uniforms and members of the

Dimitrije Ljotić Dimitrije Ljotić ( sr-cyr, Димитрије Љотић; 12 August 1891 – 23 April 1945) was a Serbian and Yugoslav fascist politician and ideologue who established the Yugoslav National Movement (Zbor) in 1935 and collaborated with Ge ...

's Serbian Volunteer Corps.

Numbers

According to available documents and salvaged German documents about the shooting, 1,650 people were executed in Kruševac during the entire occupation. The executions were carried out in the following order:

Slobodište Memorial Complex

"Slobodište" Memorial Complex was built in the vicinity of the shootings, and was named like that because in one of the mounds were found the remains of soldiers of Rasina partisan detachment, who were called "bringers of freedom" of the city of Kruševac ("Slobodište" is a name derived from the Serbian word for "freedom"). Architect Bogdan Bogdanović realized the monument at the suggestion of

Dobrica Ćosić Dobrica Ćosić ( sr, Добрица Ћосић, ; 29 December 1921 – 18 May 2014) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician, writer, and political theorist. Ćosić was twice awarded the prestigious NIN award for literature and Medal of Pushkin f ...

, soldier of the Rasina partisan detachment. Building of the complex lasted from 1960 until 1965.Spomenički kompleks Slobodište
srbija.superodmor.rs; retrieved 12 July 2014. There is a following inscription on the monument:''"Under this sky, human, straighten up. Bread and freedom are the same thing to us."'' The basic elements of the monument are burial mounds, "Gate of Death", "Valley of giving respect" with 12 stone birds and "Valley of the living ones", and amphitheater with a stage and an auditorium.Memorijalni kompleks Slobodište
icom-see.org; retrieved 12 July 2014. Today, "Slobodište" is a historical complex which is a place widely visited by citizens of Kruševac, as well as foreign tourists.

References

External links

Spomen-park Slobodište

Authority
Official Museum Slobodište {{DEFAULTSORT:Slobodiste Axis war crimes in Yugoslavia War crimes in Serbia World War II monuments and memorials in Serbia Historic Landmarks of Great Importance Kruševac