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 World War II - Collaboration government

 

The head of the main security bureau of the Reich, Reinhard Heindrich together with the military commanders reviewed ways to establish a collaboration government as soon as possible. As an interim solution, the territory of the Administration of the City of Belgrade was established and organized, and Dragomir – Dragi Jovanovic was appointed its director.

Within the executive headquarters, there was a group for internal administration and a group for the police and gendarmerie. On the basis of Heindrich Reinhard’s instructions, Helmut Förster, Harald Turner and the general economic representative Franz Neuhausen, adopted a decision on forming a Serbian Commissary government. The Commissary Government, headed by Milan Acimovic, was established by an order of general Helmut Förster of May 1, 1941.

Due to the lack of success of Acimovic’s Commissary Government to pacify the already rebellious Serbia, on August 29, 1941 a National Salvation Government was formed. General Milan Nedic was appointed president of the Ministerial council.

The regime of general Milan Nedic was significant because a Commissariat for Refugees was established, which provided boarding and food for over 200.000 Serb refugees from the other occupied territories of Yugoslavia. It was estimated that the number of refugees was within the range of 200 to 400 thousand. A mixed police station was established for urgent interventions, with Belgrade’s first special combat department, the Serbian Gestapo. Police officer Strahinja Janjic, until then a member of the Presidency of Nedic’s government, started recruiting men amongst the former gendarmerie and members of Ljotic’s ranks in July 1942.

Due to the ever more difficult political – security situation, on October 1, 1943 Nedic personally took over the department of internal affairs. At a secret meeting of Nedic’s cabinet held on September 3, 1944, the German military command for the southeast region took over all the functions of the Serbian government. On that same night, members of the government were transported to Germany by a special train. On October 1, 1944, a large number of civil servants of the Administration of the city of Belgrade and Special Police Forces followed in the same direction, via Hungary.

 

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