The Kragujevac massacre was the mass murder of between 2,778 and 2,794 Serb men and boys by German soldiers on 21 October 1941. It occurred in the German-occupied territory of Serbia during World War II, and came in reprisal for insurgent attacks in the Gornji Milanovac district. The massacre had a profound effect on the course of the war in Yugoslavia. It exacerbated tensions between the communist-led Partisans and the royalist, Serbian nationalist Chetniks. Several senior German military officials were tried and convicted for their involvement in the reprisal shootings at the Nuremberg trials.
About Kragujevac massacre in brief
The Kragujevac massacre was the mass murder of between 2,778 and 2,794 mostly Serb men and boys by German soldiers on 21 October 1941. It occurred in the German-occupied territory of Serbia during World War II, and came in reprisal for insurgent attacks in the Gornji Milanovac district. After the war, inflated estimates ranged as high as 7,000 deaths, but German and Serbian scholars have now agreed on the figure of nearly 2,800 killed. As well as Serbs, massacre victims included Jews, Romani people, Muslims, Macedonians, Slovenes, and members of other nationalities. The massacre had a profound effect on the course of the war in Yugoslavia. It exacerbated tensions between the communist-led Partisans and the royalist, Serbian nationalist Chetniks, and convinced Chetnik leader Draža Mihailović that further attacks against the Germans would only result in more Serb civilian deaths. Several senior German military officials were tried and convicted for their involvement in the reprisal shootings at the Nuremberg trials. The day the massacre took place is commemorated annually in Serbia as the Day of Remembrance of the Serbian Victims of World war II. The combined combined strength of the combined Yugoslavia and Germany was quickly overwhelmed by the Axis powers and surrendered in less than two weeks. The German territory occupied by Serbia was limited to the pre-Balkan War borders of the Kingdom of Serbia and was directly occupied by the Germans for the key transport routes that passed through it, as well as valuable non-ferrous metals.
The country’s government and royal family went into exile, and the country was occupied and dismembered by its neighbours by Germany and its neighbours. The Germans soon found mass executions of Serbs to be ineffectual and counterproductive, as they tended to drive the population into the arms of insurgents. The ratio of 100 executions for one soldier killed and 50 executions for one wounded was reduced by half in February 1943, and removed altogether later in the year. In April 1939, Italy opened a second frontier with Yugoslavia when it invaded and occupied neighbouring Albania. On 25 March 1941, after some delay, the Yugoslav government conditionally signed the Tripartite Pact, aligning themselves with the Axis, and Italy invaded Greece. In late February 1941, Bulgaria joined the Pact, closing the ring around Yugoslavia, and following day, German troops entered Bulgaria from Romania. On 6 April 1941, Hitler ordered the country’s invasion, which commenced on 6 April 1941, and he immediately ordered the Yugoslav Air Force to depose Prince Paul, the nephew of General Dušan Simović. They placed his teenage son Peter on the throne and brought a government of national unity led by the head of the Royal Yugoslav Air force. Two days later, a group of pro-Western, Serbian nationalists deposed Prince Paul in a bloodless coup d’état.
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