MEMORY OF ALLIED CITY BOMBING: The day downtown Leskovac was razed by carpet bombs (PHOTO)

Leskovac has irretrievably lost dozens of representative buildings, including the beautiful gymnasium building, the agricultural school and the famous Hotel “Kostić”. The allied operation was carried out under the name “Rat Week” and its objective was to prevent the withdrawal of the German occupying forces from Greece. Although a large number of German and Bulgarian soldiers were believed to be stationed in the city, it turned out that this was not true.

This bombardment, relative to other cities, is specific because the Allies’ target was the entire city, and not some special targets in it. The investigation shows that the senseless destructive action occurred after the request of the leadership of the partisan movement, especially Koča Popović, who, as determined, observed all this from the heights above the city. 819 names of the victims were listed, and half of them were young people from Leskovac, starting with newborn babies.

Photo: Archive of the Leskovac National Museum

The sirens sounded exactly at noon and 18 minutes later the bombs began to fall. In the center of the city, the 84 most beautiful and largest buildings were demolished, thus disappearing the architecture that few cities in Serbia could boast. Before the war, Leskovac was considered one of the most economically developed cities. After this action, it was unrecognizable, and many of its inhabitants searched the ruins for their loved ones for days, while wailing and wailing could be heard from the Svetoilijski cemetery.

Leskovac was bombarded by the allies for the first time on April 5, 1944, then several times in late July, but on September 6 it was bombed in the most ruthless, very destructive and cruel way, like no other city. This day has been marked in recent decades with the placement of flowers and wreaths in a memorial fountain in the center of the city, which was erected in honor of the dead. So it was this year too. Delegations from the local self-government, the Serbian army and veterans organizations paid tribute to the victims.

ONLY IN FEW PRAYERS

This Leskovac tragedy was silenced for decades after the war or was mentioned in a few sentences. The history books of that time only spoke of the exploits of the partisan movement in southern Serbia. Everything changed when the historians Momcilo Pavlović and Veroljub Trajković published the book “Allied bombing of Leskovac in 1944 – studies and documents”. In that book, they claimed that Leskovac suffered with the knowledge and approval of the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, thus revealing the reasons for the silence.