Šumarice Memorial Park

Powerful World War II memorial on the site where German forces shot thousands of civilians in October 1941.

Šumarice Memorial Park, on the western edge of Kragujevac, occupies the meadows and woods where the Kragujevac massacre took place. The park covers 352 hectares and is laid out as a slow walk: ten monuments mark the principal execution sites, with the route designed to make you stop and look at each one in turn.

The most photographed is V3 — the "Interrupted Flight" monument — a vast concrete wedge split in two, commemorating the murdered schoolboys. The 21st of October Museum at the entrance gives the historical context, with photographs, recovered objects, and last letters written by some of the victims. Allow at least two or three hours, and try to come on a quiet weekday. This is one of the most affecting places in the country.

things to do sight memorial history
A story
On 21 October 1941 the German occupiers shot between 2,778 and 2,794 men and boys here, in reprisal for partisan attacks that had killed 10 German soldiers — a ratio of 100 Serbian civilians for every German fatality, set by Hitler personally. Among the dead were 300 high-school students; their teachers reportedly insisted on being shot with them. A series of modernist sculptures, including the haunting V3 Monument by Miodrag Živković, marks the execution sites.