The Fate of the Professors of Belgrade University under German Occupation, 1941–1944

Abstract

The University of Belgrade was one of the most important educational and scientific institutions in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. On the eve of the Second World War it employed some 300 didactic personnel. The present article depicts the typical experiences of distinguished Belgrade University professors during the Second World War and the occupation of Belgrade in the years 1941–1944. Overall, these fates were shaped by Nazi policy towards the intelligentsia of occupied countries, but they also depended on specific ideological and political attitudes, and particularly on the behavior of individual scholars. Professors who were reserve officers were taken into captivity after the Yugoslav capitulation. Later, several professors cooperated with the Serbian wartime administration. On the other hand, some gave direct or indirect support to the anti-Fascist movements participating in the country's Civil War (i.e. to the Partisans or the Royalists). But the majority of university teachers abstained from any public involvement, dedicating themselves to everyday life and survival. A large number of professors were placed under strict administrative control, with many being persecuted and arrested by the local police or Gestapo; two were shot in Banjica concentration camp. The present text forms part of a project entitled Serbian Society in the Yugoslav State in the 20th Century: between Democracy and Dictatorship (177016), which is financed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of the Republic of Serbia.