Gradska opstina Palilula

The 79th anniversary of the breakthrough was marked by laying wreaths on February 12 in the Red Cross Camp in Nis. From this place, on a cold February night in 1942, the largest mass escape of detained citizens was organized, when 105 detainees managed to escape to freedom through barbed wire.

In addition to representatives of the City and military associations, descendants of camp inmates, after the funeral and speeches, representatives of the Association of Veterans and the Mayor of Nis Dragana Sotirovski, the wreath was laid at the memorial by the President of Palilula Bratislav Vuckovic with guests from Aerodrom Municipality in Northern Macedonia.

For 60 years, the Scout Association of the City of Nis has been participating in the celebration of this day, by organizing the March “In the Footsteps of Detainees”. In a single escape from the camp, 42 inmates failed to survive. This event accelerated the already prepared plan of the Nazis for the mass shooting. Thus, on February 16 and 17, more than 1,500 citizens were killed in Bubanj Hill.

The concentration camp in Nis was founded in 1941 as a reception camp, from where thousands of prisoners were transferred to other camps throughout Europe or taken to the Bubanj hill for execution. Apart from being known for the escape organized on February 12, 1942, the Red Cross camp is the only camp that is today a museum in Serbia.