SPECIAL ACTION 1005 AND THE REMOVAL OF NAZI CRIME TRACES IN NIŠ IN 1944. YEAR: NEW SOURCES

Abstract

Nazi Germany committed many atrocities throughout Europe during World War II. However, as the tide of the war shifted in favor of the Soviet Union, the leaders of the Third Reich realized that the mass graves in central, eastern, and southeastern Europe are a potentially great danger. If Germany were defeated, the Soviet Union could easily document and present to the entire political world the grave crimes committed by the Nazis through exhumations. For these reasons, the bureaucratic apparatus of the Third Reich organized Special Operations 1005, which excavated and burned the bodies of war victims in many places. This type of operation was also carried out in occupied Serbia. After the largest execution site, which was located in the vicinity of Belgrade, the bodies were also burned in Niš. The testimonies of witnesses who observed the burning or heard about it from direct witnesses are analyzed in this article, and thanks to them, the methodology of the work has been roughly reconstructed. In addition, after the liberation, inspections were carried out at the site of Bubanj in Niš, as well as trial excavations, on the basis of which assessments were made. They confirmed that mass graves were indeed located at that site, and that they were burned at the end of the war.