Banjica

Banjica - darkometer rating : 6 - A small museum in Belgrade commemorating one of Nazi Germany 's concentration camps in the Balkans during the occupation of Serbia in WWII from June 1941. The "camp" was actually an army barracks that was taken over by the Germans. Today the rest of the huge complex is again a barracks and military academy. Some 24,000 prisoners are believed to have passed through the camp during WWII … at least according to the official records,. But there may have been many more that went unaccounted for. These included Serbian political prisoners and resistance fighters, but also Jews and Roma. Many were eventually sent on to other camps, but over 4000 were executed here or at the village of Jajinci just outside the city. The camp was closed in September 1944, shortly before the Germans' withdrawal and the liberation of Belgrade. The first museum at the site was opened in 1969, changed and enlarged in 1983 and again in 2001, since when the present permanent exhibition has been in place. It's run under the umbrella of the Belgrade City Museum. The exhibition is said to comprise of a collection of artefacts such as personal belongings, handicrafts made by prisoners, documents, photographs and a scale model of the camp as it used to look. And a particular feature of the museum is supposedly a reconstruction of a prisoners' room showing the gruesome living conditions they had to endure, including an isolation cell as well. The place is certainly a major item on a dark tourist's itinerary in Belgrade – but unfortunately I was not able to see it with my own eyes when I was there in spring 2011. Despite the fact that according to the published opening times it should have been open when I went there it turned out it was not. I also tried to phone the number given on the museum's leaflet, but there was no answer.