| Serbian civilians are executed by the Nazi German Heer (“Army”) in Pančevo after the fall of Yugoslavia. While military operations against Yugoslavia were still in progress, Generaloberst Maximilian von Weichs (November 12, 1881 – September 27, 1954), Kommandant 2.Armee, ordered that “ruthless measures” be adopted at the 1st sign of resistance, using “the most draconian means possible.” He signed an armistice with the Yugoslavian government on April 17, 1941, but that did not end the fighting. On April 20, the Schwäbisch-Deutscher Kulturbund (“Swabian-German Cultural Association”), an ethnic German Fascist organization that had previously maintained cordial relations with the Serbians of Pančevo, a town 11 miles (20 kilometers) northeast of Belgrade, attempted to stop the retreating Yugoslav forces. 9 members of the Kulturbund were killed in action or capture and executed. That evening, a Heer officer was also killed and another wounded. The Nazi Germans claimed that snipers fired from the Pančevo Serbian Orthodox Cemetery, and claimed there was a tunnel that allowed them to flee. Many Serbians suspected it was a “false flag” operation to blame the Serbians and allow the Nazi Germans to stage an aktion (“operation”) to punish them. No direct escape tunnel existed; the Nazi Germans searched the catacombs of the cemetery. The town was fully occupied the next day by elements of the Heer Panzergrenadier Division Großdeutschland. With them was Kriegsberichter Gerhard Gronefeld (August 9, 1911 – December 26, 2000) of Munich. A photographer since his was a teenager, Gronefeld worked for Heinrich Hoffmann (September 12, 1885 – December 16, 1957) 1 of Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reichchancellor”) Adolf Hitler’s (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) personal photographers. Gronefeld’s press accreditation was revoked after the 1936 Berlin Olympics because Hoffmann discovered that he would not join the Nazi Party. He was drafted into a Propaganda Kompanie and shot photos at the home front as well as in Belgium, France, Poland, the Balkans, and later on the Eastern Front and the Battle of Berlin. His work appeared in Signal Magazine, the Nazi German version of LIFE. With him was Kriegsberichter Gottfried Kessel (???? – ????) who shot color motion picture film. The Standortkommandant (“Garrison Commander”) of Pančevo, Oberstleutnant Fritz Bandelow (July 20, 1898 – ????), issued a public order: “There have been repeated attacks and snipings against German soldiers in violation of international law. For every wounded or killed German soldier two Serbs will be hanged. If this still does not stop the sniping we will double the number to twenty.” Serbian Prisoners of War and civilians identified as partisans by the Nazi Germans were marched through Pančevo as the Nazis took control. A 100 Pančevo Serbians, mostly men but including 1 woman, were arrested. Stefan Perić, a youth, was arrested in his home when his father’s World War I saber was discovered over the fireplace mantle. The 1 woman arrested, cafe owner Darinka Siskulovic, was actually selling vegetables at the local market when she was picked up, but it was alleged that the snipers had reached the cemetery from her restaurant. She had also rejected the advances of a German officer days before. Not all those arrested were Vojvodina Serbs, some of them being of pro-German Croat and Hungarian origins. 3 of them were teachers at local schools, 2 were civil servants, another was a surveyor Đorđe Mirđić who had actually been working outside Pančevo and was apprehended on his return to the town, and 1 was Jewish. Farmers, workers, merchants, businessmen, city officials, teachers, clerks, students, tailors, shopkeepers and restaurant owners were among the randomly selected, young, old and middle aged. Milutin Milivojevic was not even from a Pančevo but was a teacher in town from the nearby village of Omoljica. Josef Feigel (???? – ????), a Volksdeutsche resident of Pančevo, testified that they were “picked up indiscriminately” and that he himself “knew at least twenty-five people personally among the dead. They were harmless citizens who had done no harm to anyone.” History teacher Jovan Maksin had criticized Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reichchancellor”) Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945). Ljubomir Ristić, City Librarian, was progressive and popular with Pančevo’s youth. City Clerk Milenko Jeftić was an active member of the conservative People’s Radical Party. The hostages were taken to the magistracy courts and prison at the city hall where 40 were selected for trial. 10 men were marched into the court at a time and given no opportunity to speak in their defense. Any attempt to do so was immediately silenced. 4 men were found not guilty and released after the intercession of prominent Swabian German residents of the town. Since the Panzergrenadier Division Großdeutschland lacked a judge, SS-Sturmbannführer Rudolf Hoffmann (???? – ????), Divisionstabsrichter (“Divisional Staff Judge”) of the Reich Feldgericht (“Reich Field Court”) was brought in for trials. These were little more than show trials, as Hoffmann found all 36 Serbs brought before him guilty. 36 were sentenced to death. 4 Serbs were immediately found guilty of “rioting and the unauthorised possession of weapons” and taken out at once to be summarily shot. The following morning the remaining prisoners were led into the hall of the Hotel Esplanada and sentenced. Bandelow refused to allow any of the accused to speak out against the charges and silenced anyone who tried to argue their innocence. “Ten people in civilian clothes were brought into the room in the Hotel Esplanada…Bandelow accused each of them of doing something When they answered or tried to justify themselves, Bandelow harshly ordered them to shut up. Nobody had the opportunity to justify themselves. The first ten people then left the hall … A total of forty people were led into the hall.” Hoffman arbitrarily decreed “Du Strick, Du Kugel,” as he sentenced them, “You hang, you take the bullet.” Officially death by shooting was for those men who openly wore their weapons and the more grisly fate of hanging was reserved for those who had concealed their weapons. In reality, it was as random as the hostage taking, though the humiliation of the rope seems to have been favored for the more affluent and prominent of the victims. They were marched off to the old Serbian Orthodox Cemetery, the supposed scene of the sniping, escorted by German soldiers and accompanied by sightseers from Pančevo, many of them but not exclusively ethnic Germans. Many of the mourners at that morning’s funeral, still dressed in their best, came in a less respectful and more celebratory mood to enjoy the staged spectacle of revenge. The families of the condemned were forced to witness the deaths of their fathers, sons and brothers. For the people of Pančevo the deaths were to be a lesson, a deterrence against any future resistance. 14 men were lined up against the cemetery wall and summarily shot by an execution squad of the Grossdeutschland regiment. The Exekutionskommando (“firing squad”) was formed under the command of the leader of Pionierzug III.Großdeutschland. 1 of the 18 volunteer marksmen, Horst Hohenberg (???? – ????) later recalled that the victims were not bound and that “two soldiers had to shoot each of the civilians.” Any men still alive were finished off by a gunshot to the head. Their bleeding bodies were left sprawled against the cemetery wall. The men chosen to be shot were painter Tihomir Humanović (1912 – April 22, 1941); peddler Ivan Grobanović, (1891 – April 22, 1941); workman Gojko Tesanović (1924 – April 22, 1941); tailor Sava Pantelić (1924 – April 22, 1941); launderer Dušan Hajić (???? – April 22, 1941); civil servant Đura Grujić (1889 – April 22, 1941); Jewish upholsterer Šandor Haker (1905 – April 22, 1941); harvest worker and tailor Toma Markov (1924 – April 22, 1941); schoolboy Stefan Perić (1925 – April 22, 1941); journeyman cobbler Đuro Zgrnić (1905 – April 22, 1941); student Marjan Novak (1923 – April 22, 1941), postman Dragutin Milenković (1879 – April 22, 1941); farm worker and ploughman Pera Nedić (???? – April 22, 1941); civil servant Tihomir Dinković (1912 – April 22, 1941); restaurant owner Radivoje Atanacković (1901 – April 22, 1941); hotelier Drago Atanacković (1905 – April 22, 1941); Vasa Avramov (???? – April 22, 1941); and Ištvan Pinter (1897 – April 22, 1941). Gronefeld stated in 1997 that the shootings was “the most terrible scene that I have ever photographed.” Next came the hangings. Hermann Brumm (???? – 1943), from the Volksdeutsche, was paid 33 dinars to conduct the executions. Librarian Ljubomir Ristić (1911 – April 22, 1941) was 1st; Brumm had to hold on Ristić’s body for several minutes until his neck snapped. The mostly ethnic German crowd, which had jeered and thrown stones, fell silent. The Nazi Germans claimed that snipers had shot a German soldier from the basement of his house and that rifles were found buried in his garden. Law student Vladimir Žestić (1922 – April 22, 1941) was next. Accused of possessing weapons, at his court martial he had refused to be shot and insisted on being hanged as his sentence. Then Pančevo Gymnasium maths teacher Mirko Skovran (1901 – April 22, 1941); followed by the merchant Kosta Radak (1893 – April 22, 1941), who defiantly cried out his last loyalty to his king and country. Then they hanged Student and lawyer’s son Aleksandar Topolovački (1922 – April 22, 1941) and the only woman, Darinka Šiškulovič (1898 – April 22, 1941), as part of a group of 7 who came next. Finally, 3 prominent Serbian citizens, including Pančevo Gymnasium history teacher Jovan Maksin (1881 – April 22, 1941) and Pančevo official and economist Milenko Jeftić (1902 – April 22, 1941). The other victims were elementary school teacher Milutin Milivojevic (1901 – April 22, 1941); a teacher visiting from Omoljica Milan Milanović (1898 – April 22, 1941); journeyman tailor Milorad Covan (1907 – April 22, 1941); Jewish civil servant Jakov Čardik (1897 – April 22, 1941); surveyor Pera Azicki, Đorđe Mirđić (???? – ????); Milenko Jeftić (1902 – April 22, 1941); furrier Jovan Adamović (1881 – April 22, 1941); launderer Dušan Stojkov (1897 – April 22, 1941); Franja Koceš (???? – ????); and merchant Taja Ćosić (1897 – April 22, 1941). As they were hanged, the victims were abused; some were kicked in the genitals; some were beaten. After death, they were mocked. A top hat was placed on Ljubomir Ristić’s head. A terrified young boy was made to pull out his tie and spin his corpse around. Many Nazi Germans took keepsake photographs with the dead. The victims went to their deaths smartly dressed, pristine suits, that stood opposite the lie that they were snipers in a muddy cemetery; so the Nazi Germans pulled their suit jackets off, rent their clothes, their corpses defiled. As this happened, Gronefeld and Kessel continued filming. Many others took photographs of the atrocities. Copies were passed around Panzergrenadier Division Großdeutschland and used in leaflets to terrorize the Yugoslavian population. The Nazi Germans refused to let the bodies be cut down for 3 days. They were buried by their families in a mass grave. Some 21,500 people were shot by the Nazi German occupation forces from 1941-1944 in Yugoslavia. From January 15-20, 1945, members of Commission for Investigation of Pančevo led the exhumation of mass graves to confirm the method of execution and the number of victims. Altogether, 34 trenches, 1 1/2 meters (5 feet) deep, and 2 (6 1/2 feet) to 3 (10 feet) meters wide, and ranging in length from 2 to 38 meters (a 125 feet), were dug up. In 12 trenches varying from 3 to 28 meters (90 feet) in length, they found layers of charred remains of burned bones, tiny remains of scorched bones, and tiny and separate batches of bones of human skeletons. It was evident that Germans were there earlier to unearth the mass graves, burn the remains of their victims, and remove traces of their crimes. Investigations were conducted into SS-Sturmbannführer Rudolf Hoffmann’s court proceedings in 1953, 1965, 1982, and 1989. On September 28, 1973, the investigation was ordered to be discontinued. The shootings were ruled a lawful act of war, and the victims were designated as partisans because of the killings of the 9 Kulturbund on April 20, 1941. It’s highly unlikely that any of the condemned of Pančevo were involved in those killings; more likely retreating Yugoslav Army forces committed those executions. The German court’s decision remains controversial in Germany and Serbia to this day. Student Vladimir Žestić had a street in Pančevo dedicated in his honor. Gottfried Kessel made his Pančevo massacre footage public in 1996 and Gerhard Gronefeld, who enjoyed a successful career as a professional wildlife photographer for Look, LIFE, and many other magazines, made his photographs of the Pančevo executions public in 1997 in an exhibition that revealed the atrocities of the Wehrmacht. Elements of the German public were not ready to accept that murders were committed not only but the SS, but by the rank and file Heer troops, and demonstrations against the exhibition culminated in a firebombing of the touring exhibition. Gronefeld claims that he had to hide the photographs from his superiors in his Propaganda Kompanie; he claims they would have destroyed them. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0708.jpg |
| Image Size | 355.27 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1427 x 1965 |
| Photographer | Gerhard Gronefeld |
| Photographer Title | Propaganda Kompanie |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 22, 1941 |
| Location | |
| City | Pancevo |
| State or Province | Vojvodina |
| Country | Yugoslavia |
| Archive | Yad Vashem |
| Record Number | 6284/30 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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