On October 14. 2022, at the Memorial Cemetry in Kraljevo , a commemoration was held in memory of 2255 innocent victims who were shot, among whom were representatives of the Roma people, from the German occupation units of the Wermaht stationed in Serbia during the second World War. On that occasion, after the commemorative session held in the Assembly hall of the city of Kraljevo, for the first time in 80 years since this unfortunate event in the history of the Serbian and Roma people, a wreath was laid at the Memorial Cementery in memory of the innocent victims of the Roma people. Wreaths were laid by Mr. Dejan Marković on behalf of the Roma Forum of Serbia and Mr. Zoran Petrović on behalf of the local organization Roma -Kraljevo. After the ceremonial laying of wreaths in the same place of the Memorial Cementry – the historian Milan Petrović gave a lecture in memory of the innocent martyred Roma with the title – “The suffering of the people – without a home and without a grave.”
On that occasion, in the presence of local Roma people from Kraljevo – it was said that until today, the official history has not given an accurate judgment about the total number of Roma victims during the second World War, and that the figure ranges from 250.000 to 500.000 people, and that the historian Mr. Rajko Đurić has dealt with this topic the most in the past 50 years. If we talk about the area of the former Yugoslavia, during the Second World War the most Roma died in camp of Jasenovac- around 20.000. then in Bačka and in Novi Sad during the famous action called the Raid, and then there are the places of suffering Jabuka near Pančevo, camp Banjica and Staro Sajmište in Belgrade, then the camp of the Red Cross in Niš, Šumarice in Kragujevac and then Cementery in Kraljevo where about 70 Roma were shot on two occasions during the Second World War.
At the end, it was stated that during the Second World War, Roma were killed as victims in the territory of the former Yugoslavia by all armed forces on the both sides.
