Gradska opstina Palilula

76 years ago, on February 12, 1942, 105 detainees from the Nazi concentration camp at the Red Cross in Nis organized breakthrough. Every year, the Memorial complex “12. Februar “marks this date in memory of the victims. In the presence of the leadership of the City of Nis Municipal Municipalities, the representatives of the Serbian Armed Forces, police, combat organizations, the Serbian-Russian Humanitarian Center and citizens, Red Cross volunteers and a large number of citizens, a commemorative gathering was held with wreath and also hearing the memories of the survivor’s detainee Vladimir Jovanovic.

The wreath was laid by the delegation of Palilula Municipality with the Mayor of the Municipality, Aleksandar Zdrale. The celebration of the anniversary of the breakthrough of the Red Cross camp traditionally also included the Nis Scouts who organized the “Marsh of the victims trails” along the trails near Nis, where detainees were passing after the escape from the camp. In the memory of those who did not survive the terror of the camp in the Memorial complex “12. Februar “, a new setting of the Niš National Museum was opened. According to the curator-historian Ivana Gruden Milentijevic, after the first exhibition in the camp in 1967, this is the second item on the floor of the camp building, while the multimedia exhibition on the ground floor was opened in 2013.

The concentration camp in Nis was founded in 1941 as a detention center, from where thousands of prisoners were transferred to other camps throughout Europe or taken to the Bubanj hill to be shot. In addition to being known for its escape organized on February 12, 1942, the Red Cross camp is the only camp that is now in the function of a museum in Serbia.