Presentation of the Website

A public presentation of an interactive map available on the website starosajmiste.info, providing an overview of the history and the present of Staro Sajmište was held on Thursday, 24 March at 7 pm at Cultural Centre REX in Belgrade.

The website offers a variety of views on Staro Sajmište – the stories of suffering and loss of life in the concentration camp, tales about the live and work of its current residents and the visions for the future of the locality. The visitors of the website is given an opportunity to discover the history of this place and the on-going discussions about the plans and initiatives for its development or for its becoming a memorial complex.

The information shown on the map of the former fairground refers the visitors of the website to a topography of personal stories about Staro Sajmište. Another layer of the map reveals the fight for remembrance of the former concentration camp and gives voice to different views in the discussion about the future of this place.

This interactive map is a result of interviews with many people who are linked to this place and its history in various ways. It was made after a group of young researchers from Serbia and Germany visited Sajmište and is based on the interviews, lectures and discussions held as part of the workshop and the seminar "A Visit to Staro Sajmište. The Sajmište Nazi Concentration Camp – Documentary Media Research".

Around thirty public figures, experts, artists and representatives of memorial and other initiatives showing an interest in the future of this location and today's residents of Sajmište participated in the interviews, lectures and discussions.

The website is conceived as a working archive. It offers resources for further research. The presentation was held by the initiators of the workshop and website editors, Belgrade-based artist Rena Rädle and Dirk Auer, journalist and radio reporter from Sofia, together with project participants from Serbia. The initiative A Visit to Staro Sajmište continues through a series of public events to be organized in collaboration with Cultural Centre REX.

The website starosajmiste.info is primarily an invitation to visit Staro sajmište on one’s own initiative and reconsider the present there with the awareness of the past. The aim of the website is to stimulate public discussion about Staro Sajmište and provide a working platform open to everyone interested.

The research was conducted with the support of the EVZ foundation (Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung, Zukunft), Goethe-Institut Belgrade in cooperation with Network for Reporting on Eastern Europe and Cultural Centre Rex. The website was developed with the support of Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southeast Europe and was produced by Fond B92 in the frame of the project “Visit to Staro Sajmište. Measures and criteria of memory”.