B92 campaigns to build Museum of Tolerance at concentration camp site

B92 campaigns to build Museum of Tolerance at concentration camp site Zuroff also reminded the public of Serbian President Boris Tadic’s statement expressing his wish that a Holocaust memorial center be erected at the site. Staro Sajmiste is the area on the left bank of the Sava River, in the immediate vicinity of the historical center of the Serbian capital. Fairground buildings were constructed in 1937. At the beginning of World War 2, the German occupation forces set up the Zemun concentration camp there. Over 7,000 imprisoned women and children from the last remaining Jewish families in Serbia were gassed to death in Nazi gas vans. After the almost complete annihilation of the Serbian Jews, about 100,000 prisoners from Serbia and neighboring countries passed through the camp. About 40,000 of them died there. Today, there is only an inconspicuous memorial at this mass execution site. B92 launched an initiative to build Museum of Tolerance at the Old Fairground site, which Veran Matic, B92 management board chairman, presented last week in New York on behalf of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience, whose accredited sites of conscience as part of its regional networks are as follows: Constitution Hill (South Africa), Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi (Chile), District Six Museum (South Africa), Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site (United States), Gulag Museum at Perm-36 (Russia), Japanese American National Museum (United States), Liberation War Museum (Bangladesh), Lower East Side Tenement Museum (United States ), Maison des Esclaves (Senegal), Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site (United States ), Mednoe Memorial Complex (Russia), Memoria Abierta (Argentina), Peace School Foundation of Monte Sole (Italy), National Civil Rights Museum (United States), Terezín Memorial (Czech Republic), Women's Rights National Historic Park (United States ), The Workhouse (England); as well as many other non-site based museums, universities and other organisations from over 90 different countries. The International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience coordinates exchange of programs and projects, and assists the development of its members. Belgrade Museum of Tolerance initiative has been warmly welcomed and described as a very important and thoroughly prepared project. The project entails the reconstruction of the buildings from the period when the concentration camp was situated there as well as the formation of a memorial center as part of which the concentration camp would be reconstructed. In addition, a cultural-educational center would be set up with the intention to inform the public about the world’s history of violence and intolerance through a program exchange. The International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience decided to admit the B92 initiative to its full membership, which will certainly a positive step in the realization of the project. B92 has already started producing two documentary films about two different periods of the camp. Preparations are currently underway to film testimonies of the surviving Old Fairground camp prisoners. The Shoah Institute’s documentary archive, whose foundation was initiated by Steven Spielberg and Branko Lustig, is also being researched as it contains about 55,000 interviews with the surviving camp prisoners from all over the world. Efraim Zuroff, head of Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, has asked the Serbian government to cancel or move to another venue the British band Kosheen’s concert scheduled to take place this evening at Staro Sajmiste (Old Fairground) in Belgrade, the site of a World War 2 Nazi concentration camp, where tens of thousands of prisoners perished. B92 launched an initiative to build Museum of Tolerance at the Old Fairground site, which Veran Matic, B92 CEO, presented last week in New York on behalf of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience.

B92 campaigns to build Museum of Tolerance at concentration camp site

Zuroff also reminded the public of Serbian President Boris Tadić’s statement expressing his wish that a Holocaust memorial center be erected at the site.

Staro Sajmište is the area on the left bank of the Sava River, in the immediate vicinity of the historical center of the Serbian capital. Fairground buildings were constructed in 1937.

At the beginning of World War 2, the German occupation forces set up the Zemun concentration camp there. Over 7,000 imprisoned women and children from the last remaining Jewish families in Serbia were gassed to death in Nazi gas vans. After the almost complete annihilation of the Serbian Jews, about 100,000 prisoners from Serbia and neighboring countries passed through the camp. About 40,000 of them died there.

Today, there is only an inconspicuous memorial at this mass execution site.

B92 launched an initiative to build Museum of Tolerance at the Old Fairground site, which Veran Matić, B92 management board chairman, presented last week in New York on behalf of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience, whose accredited sites of conscience as part of its regional networks are as follows: Constitution Hill (South Africa), Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi (Chile), District Six Museum (South Africa), Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site (United States), Gulag Museum at Perm-36 (Russia), Japanese American National Museum (United States), Liberation War Museum (Bangladesh), Lower East Side Tenement Museum (United States ), Maison des Esclaves (Senegal), Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site (United States ), Mednoe Memorial Complex (Russia), Memoria Abierta (Argentina), Peace School Foundation of Monte Sole (Italy), National Civil Rights Museum (United States), Terezín Memorial (Czech Republic), Women's Rights National Historic Park (United States ), The Workhouse (England); as well as many other non-site based museums, universities and other organisations from over 90 different countries.

The International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience coordinates exchange of programs and projects, and assists the development of its members.

Belgrade Museum of Tolerance initiative has been warmly welcomed and described as a very important and thoroughly prepared project. The project entails the reconstruction of the buildings from the period when the concentration camp was situated there as well as the formation of a memorial center as part of which the concentration camp would be reconstructed. In addition, a cultural-educational center would be set up with the intention to inform the public about the world’s history of violence and intolerance through a program exchange.

The International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience decided to admit the B92 initiative to its full membership, which will certainly a positive step in the realization of the project.

B92 has already started producing two documentary films about two different periods of the camp. Preparations are currently underway to film testimonies of the surviving Old Fairground camp prisoners. The Shoah Institute’s documentary archive, whose foundation was initiated by Steven Spielberg and Branko Lustig, is also being researched as it contains about 55,000 interviews with the surviving camp prisoners from all over the world.