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Author: Dr. Mladenka Ivanković

DR. MLADENKA IVANKOVIĆ was born in 1958 in Belgrade, Serbia. She received a PhD in history at the Faculty of Humanities in Belgrade, and is currently a researcher at the Institute for the Recent History of Serbia in Belgrade. Her research focuses on the history of the Jews in Yugoslavia after World War II.
The “Sajmište” (Exhibition Grounds) in Semlin, Serbia: The Changing of Memory

The “Sajmište” (Exhibition Grounds) in Semlin, Serbia: The Changing of Memory

November 16, 2010 | Dr. Mladenka Ivanković
In 1937 a national exhibition site opened in Belgrade. Originally intended to represent indigenous advancements, in 1941 it became a Nazi concentration camp called Sajmište and its main use became the extermination of Jewish women, children, and elderly. This was not recognized until the 1980s; until then the climate was one of socialism. During the nationalist era, history was propagandized by the state to suit its own purposes, and truth was concealed.