Commemmoration of 79th Anniversary of the Terazije Crime

A delegation of the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces laid a wreath at the Monument to patriots hanged on Terazije Square in Belgrade to commemorate the 79th anniversary of the crime committed in 1941 against civilians by occupant forces.

The state wreath laying ceremony was led by Secretary in the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs Zoran Antić.
Wreaths and flowers were also laid by representatives of the City of Belgrade, associations and citizens.

The period of the Second World War was often marked by mass crimes against civilian population. In the array of tragic events that took place in then occupied Serbia, the crime committed on 17th August 1941 on Belgrade Terazije Square particularly stands out in terms of its effects.

On that day, German occupant authorities hanged on lightening posts five citizens of Belgrade who were accused of resistance.

In memory of the five fellow citizens, Jovan Janković, a worker, Ratko Jević, a farmer, Velimir Jovanović, a farmer, Svetislav Milin, a worker, and Milorad Pokrajac, a student, tragically killed on 17th August 1941, in 1983, the City of Belgrade erected a Monument to Hanged Patriots on Terazije Square, in immediate vicinity to Iguman’s Palace. This representative memorial is the work of academic sculptor Nikola Janković.