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..:: History ::..
The history of the City is rich with events that changed the course of the history, economy and culture of this part of the world and the Balkans. Kragujevac was first mentioned in the Medieval time as related to the public square built in a settlement, while the first written traces originate from TAPU-DEFTER in 1476. Over 200 archeological sites in Sumadija confirm the fact that life in this region began to pulsate in the ancient time of Paleolite 40.000 years ago. The rweason people continue to live here. The history of Kragujevac runs deeper than the history of the capital City of Belgrade.
Kragujevac is located at a crossroads. Given this location, the city has been devastated many times and has suffered great losses of life in a number of wars throughout history. Kragujevac began to prosper in 1818 when Prince Milos Obrenovic proclaimed it the capital of the new Serbian State, and began to lay the first foundations of Serbia. The first Serbian Constitution was proclaimed here in 1835 and the first idea of the independent electoral democracy. The first Law on the Printing Press was passed in Kragujevac in 1870. Kragujevac, the capital, was developing and cherishing modern, progressive and free ideas and resembled many European capitals of that time.Apart from the political influence of the time, Kragujevac became the cultural and educational center of the state. Most important institutions built were: The First Grammar School, the first Pharmacy, and the first printing press. Kragujevac gave rise to many international scholars, professors, academics, scientists, artists and statesmen.The turning point in the overall development of Kragujevac was in 1851 when the Canon Foundry began production. The new era in the City’s economic developmentbegan. The main industry of the XIX and XX century was military production. Kragujevac has been one of Serbia’s largest exporters since 1886when the main railroads Belgrade –Nis connected Kragujevac.New centuries brought new wars. In the World War I Kragujevac again became the seat of many republic institutions even Supreme army command was roomed within the Court House building. During the war Kragujevac lost 15% of its population.In the World War II Kragujevac suffered great losses in human life and was devastated and destroyed. October 21, 1941 was the most tragic day in the history of Kragujevac. On that day fascists committed one of the biggest mass crimes when they shot several thousand Kragujevac citizens.In the post war period Kragujevac developed more industry. Industry has been developed by the economic activity of many enterprises, their main products of export has been passenger cars and industrial vehicles, hunting arms, industrial chains, leather and textiles. Since 1976, Kragujevac has grown as a University center.
..:: Massacre ::..
The Kragujevac massacre was the massacre of between 2,300 to 5,000 civilians, mostly Serbs and Roma, women and schoolchildren — in Kragujevac, Serbia, then Yugoslavia, by the soldiers of Nazi Germany on October 20 and 21, 1941.It was one of the worst massacres during the German military occupation of Serbia.It is a commonly held Serbian belief that the Germans had threatened to shoot 50 Serbs for every wounded German soldier and 100 for each killed. However, such an order was never given. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel issued an order applying to all Europe to kill 50 communists for every wounded German soldier and 100 for each killed on September 16, 1941.
The massacre
They were attacked in early October by the Communist Partisans and the Royalist Chetniks near Gornji Milanovac, and the massacre was a direct reprisal for the German losses in that battle.On the day of October 19 in the early morning, the whole city was raided. Around 10,000 civilians, aged 16–60, were arrested. A whole generation of high school children was taken directly from their classes. The executions started at 6 PM on the following day. People were shot in groups of 400. The shootings continued into the next day, at a lesser pace. The remaining prisoners were not released, but were held as hostages for further reprisals.To commemorate the victims of the massacre, the whole of ,,umarice, where the killings took place, was turned into a memorial park. There are several monuments there: the monument to killed schoolchildren and their teachers, the "Broken Wings" monument, the monument of pain and defiance, the monument "One hundred for one", the monument resistance and freedom, the monument to shoe cleaners.
"Broken Wings" - a monument to those who lost their lives
A famous poem about the massacre of the schoolchildren, "A Bloody fairy tale" (Krvava Bajka), was written by Desanka Maksimovi,,.
BLOODY FAIRY TALE
It happened in a land of farmers on hilly Balkan
far, far away;
a troop of students
died martyred
on one single day.
They were all born
in the same year.
For all of them, the school days were the same:
They were all taken
to the same festivals with cheer,
they were all vaccinated
until the last name,
and they all died on the same day.
It happened in a land of farmers on hilly Balkan
far, far away;
a troop of students
died martyred
on one single day.
And only fifty-five minutes
prior the death moment,
a small troop of fidgets
sat beside their school desks
solving the same hard math quest:
“If a traveler goes by foot,
how much time he needs to rest...”
and so on.
Their thoughts were filled
with same figures and tags
and there was a countless amount
of senseless As and Fs
in their notebooks and in their bags.
They were squeezing
a whole bunch of secrets that mattered
either patriotic or a love letter
on the bottom of their pockets.
And everyone of them supposed
that he would for a long time,
for a very, very long time
run under the blue sky
until all math quests on the world
were done and gone by.
It happened in a land of farmers on hilly Balkan
far, far away;
a troop of students
died martyred
on the same day.
Whole rows of boys
took each other’s hands
and leaving the last school class
went to the execution quietly,
as the death was nothing but a smile.
All friends in rows were,
at the same moment,
lifted up to the eternal domicile.
Desanka Maksimovic