Opening of the exhibition "Some Words about the Holocaust in Serbia"

(tekst na srpskom jeziku je niže ispod teksta na engleskom)

Within the broader program "75 days for 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," organized by the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue of the Republic of Serbia in cooperation with Terraforming and with the support of the German Embassy, on Friday, December 8, 2023, at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade, we presented a program "Culture of Human Rights and Memory Culture: Hilda Dajč - Symbol and Inspiration” and opened the exhibition produced by Terraforming: "Some Words about the Holocaust in Serbia." I am the author of the exhibition. 

The exhibition is translated into English, too, and will be available online.

At the beginning of the program, the attendees were addressed by Tomislav Žigmanov, Minister, Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue of the Republic of Serbia; Goran Aleksić, State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and head of the delegation of the Republic of Serbia to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance IHRA; Danijela Vanušić, Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia; Dejan Ristić, Director of the Genocide Victims Museum, Marko Krstić, Director of the Ethnographic Museum; and myself, as director of Terraforming.

My opening speech

Here is what I said in the opening speech:

One classic narrative about the origin of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is that humanity, faced with the horrors and consequences of the greatest world war in history, the destruction and crimes in which the Holocaust has a special place, fall silent, and that prompted by this terrible lesson, the representatives of the countries of the world agreed on a document that will explicitly state fundamental human rights that must never be questioned again. It is said that the world "fall silent." In fact, this narrative is fundamentally flawed. The world didn't fall silent at that point. On the contrary, the world spoke, but only then, very late, too late. The world was silent when no one was supposed to be speechless. It was quiet and turned its head away six million times.

Today is December 8 - a terrible and difficult date in the history of Belgrade, in the history of Serbia, in the history of the world. On this day, December 8, 1941, the remaining Belgrade Jews were sent to the camp at the Old Fairground - Staro Sajmiste, Judanlager Semlin. They were sent to Staro Sajmiste with a clear objective to be killed. Everyone. Children, women, elderly, everyone. In just a few weeks, from April to May 10, 1942, six and a half thousand murders were committed against Jews in Belgrade.

Staro Sajmiste became and remains a symbol of the Holocaust in Serbia.

Today is December 8 - a day when we can talk about silence, the absence of a voice, about speechlessness.

The screams of the Jews were not heard from the depths of the gas van "dusegupka" - the mobile gas chamber truck, when the German officers drove the victims through central Belgrade: Nemanjina Street, Slavija square, past Karadjordje Park, Autokomanda, towards Jajinci. Their cries were not heard for the next 80 years. And they were not heard because we were quiet. We were speechless. Silence. Until finally, the Memorial Center "Staro Sajmiste" was started.

The Holocaust is an unprecedented crime in history. While Nazi Germany based its ideology on racist antisemitism and the dream of a new world order with a "living space" for the German nation, the destruction of Jews became not only the means but also the goal and purpose of the Third Reich's existence. When Germany is already effectively losing the war, the killing of Jews accelerates and intensifies in spite or precisely because of it.

The Holocaust is an unprecedented crime in history because behind the project to destroy a minority community stood the complete apparatus of a strong and modern German state, with all the resources, capacities, facilities, administration, logistics, and organization. All the segments, all the screws and gears of that powerful complex mechanism worked and turned with only one goal - to kill all the Jews. All ministries, from economy and agriculture, energy and transport, to culture, information, and education, through services for social and family affairs, ministries for youth and sports, to the police and the military, all worked diligently and meticulously to kill one entire people.

The Holocaust is an unprecedented crime in history because it was continent-wide, as the Nazis were not alone. They had helpers all over Europe who willingly and happily joined in this undertaking, often killing their Jewish neighbors and fellow citizens on their own initiative and without German participation, or arresting and handing Jews over to the Germans. In Serbia, too, we had collaborators and perpetrators: from Milan Nedić, through Dimitrije Ljotić and Kosta Pećanac, and various nameless and petty people who used the opportunity to prosper and steal from someone else's suffering and misery.

The Holocaust is an unprecedented crime in history because it happened before the eyes of tens and tens of millions of silent observers who did not want to see, pretended not to see, or were afraid to see, and some, and not so rarely, rejoiced and supported what was happening. All those mute millions essentially made it possible for this crime to happen.

Behind this silence lays antisemitism, the oldest hatred, deeply embedded in the fabric of European cultural identity for centuries.

When the General Assembly of the United Nations voted on adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, most member countries supported the proposal. There were no votes against it, but eight countries abstained. Among them was Yugoslavia. No vote. No voice. Silence.

Today is December 8 - a terrible and difficult date in the history of Belgrade, in the history of Serbia, in the history of the world. I wish I could say that we will never be silent again, that we know better now.

But just a few weeks ago, a torrent of antisemitism erupted from the pores of the old continent everywhere, including in Serbia. It doesn't matter what the reason was; the fact is that antisemitism was there, maybe lurking, maybe in the shadows, but obviously very close to the surface. And when antisemitic narratives in Serbia first began to circulate on social networks, then on television, and then leaked to the streets, it did not take long until an attack took place on the premises of our friends NVO Haver Serbia with the graffiti on their door, "Haver out from Serbia!" Let's not be fooled - the message is addressed to all Jewish people in our country. This act of violence was publicly condemned by only a few lonely voices: our organization Terraforming, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia, and a few days later, after our intervention, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the initiative of the Serbian delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance IHRA.

That's not enough voices. The silence is terrible. We do not have the luxury of allowing ourselves to be silent because what is at stake is the survival of those democratic social values and civil and human rights that were denied to the victims of the Holocaust and crimes against Serbs, Roma, and upstanders who opposed these crimes. That is too high a price to pay for silence.

That is why today, at this gathering, instead of silence, we offer "Some Words about the Holocaust in Serbia," an exhibition that talks about the suffering of the Serbian Jewish community, contemporary memory culture, and the challenges we are facing today. We will also hear the words of panelists talking about the intersections between the culture of human rights and memory culture. 

Thank you to everyone who is here today because today is December 8 - a terrible and difficult date in the history of Belgrade, in the history of Serbia, in the history of the world, but with your presence and participation, you make it meaningful, valuable, and loud. By no means silent.

Panel discussions

After the opening speeches, panel discussions with relevant stakeholders and actors followed. Among the panel participants, there was 

• H.E. Anke Konrad, German ambassador, 
• Ladislav Trajer, vice president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia,
• Zlatomir Jovanović from the Roma Council of the Republic of Serbia, 
• Dejan Ristić, director of the Museum of Genocide Victims, 
• Marko Terzić from the Memorial Museum “21st October” in Kragujevac, 
• Asja Drača Muntean from the Memorial Center “Staro Sajmiste,” 
• Dr. Dragana Stojanović, professor at the Faculty of Media and Communication, 
• Maja Kaskinov, teacher and activist. 

Miško Stanišić moderated the discussions.

Na srpskom:

75 dana za 75 godina Univerzalne deklaracije o ljudskim pravima

U okviru šireg programa "75 dana za 75 godina Univerzalne deklaracije o ljudskim pravima" u organizaciji Ministarstva za ljudska i manjinska prava i društveni dijalog u saradnji sa NVO Terraforming i uz podršku Nemačke ambasade, u petak 8. decembra 2023. godine u Etnografskom muzeju u Beogradu održan je program "Kultura ljudskih prava i kultura sećanja: Hilda Dajč - simbol i inspiracija".

Tom prilikom otvorena je izložba "Neke reči o Holokaustu u Srbiji" čiji je autor Miško Stanišić, direktor Terraforminga. Održana je i panel diskusija u kojoj su učestvovali relevatni akteri kulture sećanja, koju je Miško Stanišić moderirao. 

Na početku programa prisutnima su se obratili: Tomislav Žigmanov, ministar, Ministarstvo za ljudska i manjinska prava i društveni dijalog Republike Srbije; Goran Aleksić, državni sekretar u Ministarstvu spoljnih poslova, i šef delegacije Republike Srbije u Međunarodnoj alijansi za sećanje na Holokaust IHRA; Danijela Vanušić, v.d. pomoćnice ministra u Ministarstvu kulture; Dejan Ristić, direktor Muzeja žrtava genocida; Marko Krstić, direktor Etnografskog muzeja; i Miško Stanišić, direktor NVO Terraforming. 

Govor

Moj govor na otvaranju izložbe:

Jedan klasičan narativ o nastanku Univerzalne deklaracije o ljudskim pravima je da je čovječanstvo suočeno sa užasima i posljedicama najvećeg svjetskog rata u istoriji, razaranjima i zločinima u kojima posebno mjesto ima Holokaust, zanijemilo, i da su ponukani ovom strašnom lekcijom, predstavnici zemalja svijeta dogovorili da se složimo oko jednog dokumenta u kojem će se eksplicitno navesti osnovna ljudska prava koja nikada više ne smiju da se dovode u pitanje. Kažu: svijet je "zanijemio". U stvari je ovaj narativ suštinski pogrešan. Svijet tada nije zanijemio, nego je tek tada, veoma kasno, prekasno - progovorio. A bio je nijem kada niko nije smio da bude nijem. Bio je nijem i okretao glavu šest miliona puta.

Danas je 8. decembar. Jedan strašan i težak datum u istoriji Beograda, u istoriji Srbije. Na današnji dan, 8. decembra 1941. godine, preostali beogradski Jevreji poslani su u logor na Starom sajmištu - Judanlager Semlin, "Jevrejski logor Zemun". Poslani su na Staro sajmište sa kristalno jasnim ciljem - da budu ubijeni. Svi. Djeca, žene, starci, svi. U samo nekoliko nedelja od aprila do 10. maja 1942. godine, šest ipo hiljada puta se desilo ubistvo jednog Jevrejina u Beogradu. 

Staro sajmište je postalo i ostalo simbol Holokausta u Srbiji.

Danas je 8. decembar. Dan kada možemo govoriti o tišini, o izostanku glasa, o nijemima.

Krici Jevreja nisu se čuli iz dubine dušegupke, kamiona pokretne gasne komore, dok su ih nemački podoficiri vozili kroz Nemanjinu ulicu, preko Slavije, pored Karađorđevog parka, preko Autokomande, putem Jajinaca. Nisu se čuli ti krici ni sljedećih 80 godina. A nisu se čuli zato što se nisu čuli naši glasovi. Bili smo nijemi. Vladala je tišina. Sve dok, najzad, nije započeto stvaranje Memorijalnog centra "Staro sajmište".

Holokaust je zločin bez presedana u istoriji. Nacistička Njemačka je svoju ideologiju zasnovala na rasističkom antisemitizmu, a pred snom o novom svjetskim poretku i životnom prostoru za Njemačku naciju, uništenje Jevreja je Trećem rajhu postalo ne samo sredstvo, nego i cilj i smisao sopstvenog postojanja. Jer kada Njemačka već uveliko gubi rat, ubijanje Jevreja se uprkos tome, ili baš zbog toga, ubrzava i i intenzivira. 

Holokaust je zločin bez presedana u istoriji jer je iza projekta uništenja jedne manjinske zajednice stao kompletan aparatus snažne i moderne njemačke države, sa svim resursima, kapacitetima, administracijom, organizacijom. Svi segmenti, svi šarafi i zupčanici tog moćnog kompleksnog mehanizma radili su i okretali se sa samo jednim ciljem - ubiti sve Jevreje. Sva ministarstva, od privrede i poljoprivrede, energetike i saobraćaja, do kulture, informacija i obrazovanja, preko službi za socijalna i porodična pitanja, ministarstva za omladinu i sport, do policije i vojske, svi su radili, marljivo i pedantno, kako bi ubili jedan cijeli narod. 

Holokaust je zločin bez presedana u istoriji jer se odigrao na cijelom evropskom kontinentu, pošto nacisti nisu bili sami. Imali su pomagače širom Evrope koji su se svojevoljno i rado uključili u ovaj poduhvat, nerijetko samoinicijativno i bez njemačkog učešća ubijali svoje jevrejske komšije i sugrađane, ili su ih hapsili i predavali Nijemcima. I u Srbiji smo imali kolaboracioniste i zločince: od Milana Nedića, preko Dimitrija Ljotića i Koste Pećanca, i raznih bezimenih i sitnih koji su koristili priliku da od tuđe nesreće nešto ukradu i ušićare.

Holokaust je zločin bez presedana u istoriji jer se dešavao pred očima desetina i desetina miliona nijemih posmatrača, koji nisu željeli da vide, ili su se pravili da ne vide, ili su se plašili da vide, a neki, i to ne tako rijetko, su se i radovali i podržavali to što se dešavalo. Svi ti milioni nijemih su suštinski omogućili da se ovaj zločin dogodi. 

Iza ove tišine, u mnogome se krije antisemitizam, najstarija mržnja, vijekovima duboko usađivana u tkivo evropskog kulturnog identiteta.

Kada je 10. decembra 1948. godine u palati Šajo u Parizu Generalna skupština Ujedinjenih nacija glasala o usvajanju Univerzalne deklaracije o ljudskim pravima, velika većina zemalja članica je podržala predlog. Nije bilo glasova protiv, ali je 8 zemalja bilo uzdržano. Među njima je bila i Jugoslavija. Bez glasa. Nijema. 

Danas je 8. decembar. Jedan strašan i težak datum u istoriji Beograda, u istoriji Srbije, u istoriji svijeta. Želio bih da mogu da kažem da više nikada nećemo biti nijemi, da sada znamo bolje.

Ali prije samo nekoliko nedelja bujica antisemitizma je izbila iz pora starog kontinenta, svuda, pa i u Srbiji. Nije važno šta je bio povod, činjenica je da je antisemitizam bio tu, možda pritajen, možda u sjenci, ali očigledno vrlo blizu površine. I kada su antisemitski narativi u našoj zemlji prvo počeli da kuljaju na društvenim mrežama, pa na televizijama, pa procurili na ulice, nije prošlo dugo dok se nije desio napad na prostorije naših drugara iz organizacije Haver Srbija. Sa grafitom na njihovim vratima "Haver marš iz Srbije", nemojmo se zavravati, poruka je upućena čitavom jevrejskom narodu u našoj zemlji. Ovaj čin nasilja, osudilo je samo par usamljenih glasova - naša organizacija Terraforming, Savez jevrejskih opština Srbije, i nakon par dana i Ministarstvo spoljnih poslova na inicijativu delegacije Republike Srbije u Međunarodnoj alijansi za sećanje na Holokaust. 

To nije dovoljno glasova. Tišina je strašna. Mi nemamo taj luksuz da sebi dozvoljavamo da budemo nijemi, jer u pitanju je opstanak upravo onih društvenih vrijednosti, građanskih i ljudskih prava koja su bila uskraćena žrtvama Holokausta i zločina nad Srbima, Romima i onima koji su se zločinu suprotstavili. To je previsoka cijena za ćutanje.

Zato danas, na ovom skupu, umjesto ćutanja nudimo "Neke riječi o Holokaustu u Srbiji", izložbu koja govori o stradanju jevrejske zajednice, o kulturi sjećanja i izazovima sa kojima se nosimo. Čućemo i riječi učesnika panela o kulturi ljudskih prava i kulturi sećanja. Hvala svima koji ste danas ovde, jer danas je 8. decembar, jedan strašan i težak datum u istoriji Beograda, u istoriji Srbije, u istoriji svijeta, ali ga vašim prisustvom i učešćem činite smislenim, vrijednim, i glasnim. Nikako nijemim.