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That summer of 1943, at the height of the occupation of Belgrade, Dušanka Popović was fifteen years old. Due to the curfew that was in effect at night, she and her companions used the day to hang out. Dušanka, who lived on Strahinjića bana street in Dorćol at the time, came down to the Nebojša Tower in the lower city of the Belgrade Fortress. There, next to the walls, children of all ages gathered. For all of them, the attention of that day was drawn by a horrible sight a hundred meters away, at the confluence of the Sava and the Danube. In that place, the Wings carried the corpses out of the river with jackals, to which the people in strange uniforms on the shore poured lime.
“It was a horrible sight. Some of us children immediately hid behind the walls, so that no one would see us. So hidden, we could see uniformed people carrying corpses that floated in the Sava to Belgrade on stretchers”, says Dušanka .
This woman from Belgrade, who is 92 years old today, still remembers that horrible event that she described to the “Politika” reporters. Encouraged by the recent controversy in our newspaper, she decided to share her memory with our readers. He stated that the bodies of the Serbs killed in the Independent State of Croatia were taken out of the river, which the Ustash dumped into the Sava.
“The fishermen who took them out confirmed it. Days later, Dorcol and all of Belgrade talked about it ”, says our interlocutor.
It also turned out that the “people in strange uniforms” were actually disgruntled Italian soldiers, who did not wear belts or weapons. Since fascist Italy capitulated in September 1943 and sided with the Allies, they were probably prisoners of war who were on the territory of occupied Yugoslavia at the time of the capitulation. Some of them were detained by the Germans in the Sajmište camp, who then used them for these “jobs”. According to our interlocutor, the Italian prisoners were hired that day to transport the corpses to the Puerta de Carlos VI, a few hundred meters from the shore, and bury them there. Reporters from “Politika” approached that door, built in the 18th century, to photograph the place where, according to Dusanka’s testimony, the victims were buried.
“It was very shocking. They just arrive at the hole, they honestly carry it and the bodies fall into cancer, one on top of the other. Then the children get scared and run away,” says our interlocutor, as we approach the Puerta de Carlos VI. There we find a small grassy area, surrounded by two lower walls, without signage. There is only a tourist sign that informs visitors that they are in the Lower City of Belgrade Fortress. While we are taking photos, Dušanka concludes: “Al At the very least, let one of the competent examinations confirm whether there are mortal remains, so at least a commemorative plaque should be placed. “At least the victims deserved it.”
Out of 5,000 bodies, only one person was identified
Stefan Radojkovic, historian of the Museum of Genocide Victims, recalls our article that during the occupation in World War II, the bodies of the victims floated in the rivers towards Belgrade, the Sava of the then NDH, and to a lesser extent the Danube of Backa , which was annexed by Hungary.
Following the removal of the body in the Belgrade area, experts from the Institute of Forensic Medicine arrived to conduct an investigation. The documentation on this is kept with them and with us in the museum. From what is known to this day, some 5,000 corpses were removed in this way between 1941 and 1945, and only one person was identified and he is a member of the Popular Liberation Movement. Most of the victims were buried in the new cemetery and some of them in the Topčider cemetery, ”says Radojković.
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