Old Fairground (Staro Sajmište) Memorial

The Old Fairground, or Staro Sajmište, lies on the left bank of the Sava in the Novi Beograd municipality of Belgrade, Serbia, at Bulevar vojvode Mišića 9. It was built in 1937 as a modern exhibition ground of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, with pavilions and a central tower designed by architects Milan Sekulić and others, and it was among the most advanced fairgrounds in the region. After the German invasion of 1941, the occupation authorities used it as a detention camp, officially the Judenlager Semlin, and from late 1941 to 1942 Jewish women, children and elderly people were held there and killed in gas vans. The camp later held Serbs, Roma and political prisoners, and it remained in use until 1944, with tens of thousands of inmates passing through and thousands killed. After the war the buildings were used for workshops, studios and housing, and many were left to decay. A memorial was established in 1974, and a large monument in the form of a stone block commemorates the victims, and the Tower, the central building, still stands. In recent years a memorial centre and efforts to protect the site have been discussed and partly carried out, including the declaration of the area as a cultural monument. The site is open to visitors, while the exhibition inside operates by schedule. Visitors will find the complex partly derelict, and guided tours organised by local institutions give historical context. The visit is a sober one and takes around an hour. The former pavilions and the tower can be viewed from the outside, and the riverside setting contrasts with the history of the place.