Milan Nedić
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Milan Nedić (2 September 1878 - 4 February 1946) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who served as Minister of War in the Royal Yugoslav Government. During World War II he collaborated with Nazi Germany, serving as Prime Minister of the puppet Government of National Salvation in Occupied Serbia. During Nedić's rule approximately 94% of Serbian Jews were killed in Serbia or deported to concentration camps as part of The Holocaust. Recent attempts to rehabilitate Nedić's role in World War II have been rejected by Serbian courts.
Biography edit
Nedić was born in Belgrade on 2 September 1878. He was commissioned into the Serbian Army in 1904, and received multiple commendations for bravery during the Balkan Wars. He was promoted to the rank of colonel during World War I and participated in rearguard action during the retreat from Albania. During his time in the army, Nedić and his cousin Dimitrije Ljotić became involved in political activities.
In 1934 Nedić was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, a position he held until the following year, when he was removed due to his strained relationship with the Yugoslav War Minister. In 1939 Nedić was appointed Minister of War himself, and Ljotić assisted him in establishing contact with the German Reich Main Security Office. He also used his connection with Nedić to ensure that banned Serbian fascist movements would be able to disseminate their political publications without interference.
Nedić was dismissed on 6 November 1940 by Prince Paul of Yugoslavia because he was seen as being too sympathetic to the Nazi regime and their Axis Powers allies, particularly Fascist Italy and the Croatian Ustaše, who opposed the idea of a Yugoslavian state. Following Prince Paul's overthrow in a 1941 coup d'état, Nedić commanded the 3rd Army Group in the Axis-lead overthrow of the government. Afterwards, Commander Heinrich Danckelmann entrusted Nedić with the administration of Occupied Serbia in order to pacify Serb resistance. Nedić accepted the post of Prime Minister of the Government of National Salvation on 29 August 1941. At the same time mass imprisonment and deportation of Serbian Jews began. The police and gendarmerie under Nedić assisted the Germans in rounding up the Jews.
Upon his appointment as Prime Minister of Serbia, Nedić declared his intent to "save the core of the Serbian people" and urged the Serbians to accept German occupation. His administration promoted the Nazi ideology of the white Aryan master race, anti-Semitism, anti-communism and anti-masonry. In his speeches Nedić used phrases such as "Communist-Jewish rabble" and "Communist-Masonic-Jewish-English mafia" to describe Serbia's enemies. Meanwhile his government introduced measures stripping Jewish and Romani citizens of their rights and confiscating and selling their property. In 1942 the Serbian State Guard were established by Nedić to assist the Gestapo in the guarding of the Banjica concentration camp. The State Guard were responsible for the killings of camp inmates, including children, and the execution of suspected Partisans. Nedić also secretly diverted arms shipments to the Chetniks, who carried out atrocities against Muslims and Jews in Eastern Europe. Belgrade became the first city in Europe to be declared Judenfrei (free of Jews), followed by Serbia as a whole in August 1942. Overall, around 27, 000 Jews, or 94% of the Jewish population, were killed in Serbia and in German camps under Nedić's regime. SS General Harald Turner was the main culprit behind the shootings of Jews in Occupied Serbia.
On 4 October 1944, the Government of National Salvation were disbanded in light of Allied successes in Eastern Europe and the ongoing offensive against Belgrade. Nedić attempted to flee the country but was captured by British forces, who handed him over to the Partisans. He was incarcerated in Belgrade on charges of treason. On 4 April 1946, Nedić fell from a window in the hospital where he was detained and died. Official records state that he committed suicide by jumping from the window, but many suspect that he was pushed. The Register of Victims Killed After 12 September 1944 states that Nedić was "liquidated".