Belgrade Celebrates 81st Anniversary of WW2 Liberation

(BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)

On Oct. 20, Belgrade is celebrating the 81st anniversary of its liberation in World War Two. On this day in 1944 came the end to days of combat which claimed thousands of lives, from Yugoslav Partisans and members of the Soviet Red Army to civilians.

According to the Belgrade City government, a two-day event titled The Days of Moscow in Belgrade will be held to mark the occasion. The event will include the signing of an agreement between the Serbian and Russian capitals, laying wreaths at the Liberators of Belgrade Memorial Park as well as a business forum called Belgrade-Moscow: New Business Possibilities.

The liberation of Belgrade put an end to 1,287 days of German occupation. The city, along with Paris to some extent, was the only European capital that was freed through the equal involvement of the local army and the great powers.

Historical sources state that just under 3,000 Yugoslav Partisans and around 1,000 Red Army soldiers died in the offensive, while 14,500 soldiers were wounded.

Germany, on the other hand, had about 15,000 of its soldiers killed and another 9,000 captured.

Liberation, however, found Belgrade in ruins. This was partly due to the April 6, 1941 bombing by Nazi Germany, which commenced an undeclared war against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. However, many more structures were levelled and countless civilian lives lost as collateral damage in the 1944 Allied bombings of Belgrade in April, May, June, July and September, whose objective was to destroy German infrastructure prior to the October land offensive.