Serbia: At rehabilitation trial, historian claims that Nazi-puppet Leader ‘Did Not Kill Jews’

90% of Serbia's 16,000 Jews were killed between August 1941 and May 1942.




Via Balkan Insight:

Historian Bojan Dimitrijevic told the Belgrade-based Higher Court on Monday that the Nazi backed WWII-era puppet government led by Nedic never physically murdered any Jews, as killings were only carried out by German occupation troops in the country at the time.

“The Jewish question was not within the competence of Nedic’s government, but rather the German forces. In implementing this policy, Nedic’s government merely made statistical records of the Jews in Serbia,” Dimitrijevic said.

“All the activities of arresting [people], putting [them] in concentration camps and killings were carried out exclusively by German forces,” he added.

Asked by the judge whether the Nedic government published anti-Semitic posters, Dimitrijevic admitted that it did use propaganda against Serbia’s Jewish community.

“There were some elements of that, but that is not the same as killing people,” Dimitrijevic said.

(...)

Nedic, who was prime minister from 1941 to 1944, was declared a war criminal by the Yugoslav Communist authorities after the Nazi occupation of the country ended, but his great-grandson and his allies are hoping that the court will posthumously clear his name.

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