THE HOLOCAUST AND THE UNITED NATIONS OUTREACH PROGRAMME

The Semlin Judenlager in Belgrade: A Contested Memory 83
Clearly, the same criteria do not seem to apply to Sajmište. This is,
above all, because of its central, “exclusive” location, on the bank of
the River Sava, which is why Sajmište was never regarded by the
authorities as a unique heritage site, which ought to be preserved
in line with the norms which govern the conservation and memorialization
of authentic sites of Nazi concentration camps. Therefore,
despite their pretentions to be fresh, innovative and original,
the recent initiatives promising to “renew”, “renovate” or “gentrify”
Sajmište and transform it into a “functional space”, are just a continuation
of a well-entrenched tradition of neglect.
Staro Sajmište in Belgrade deserves to be transformed into a proper
memorial, one that would provide a continuous and powerful
reminder of the gap in the life of the Serbian capital left behind by
the near complete destruction of its Jewish community. Belgrade
and Serbia owe this memorial also to the thousands of other non-
Jewish victims who were killed in Semlin between 1941 and 1944.
However, before this long-overdue objective can be realized, some
deeply entrenched assumptions (one might even say illusions)
about what Sajmište is or what it should be will need to be revisited
and reassessed. If not, mistakes from the past will be repeated, the
Holocaust will continue to linger on the margins of Serbian public
memory, while its victims will remain unrecognized as worthy of
remembrance and respect.