Crime and Punishment: The Fate of the Wehrmacht Officers Responsible for the Massacre in Kraljevo and Kragujevac in 1941

The lecture by Nenad Karamijalković, titled “Crime and Punishment: The Fate of Wehrmacht Officers Responsible for the Kraljevo and Kragujevac Massacres of 1941”, will be held at the Gallery of the National Museum Kraljevo on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025, beginning at 6:00 p.m. The event marks 84 years since the last day General Franz Böhme spent in Serbia.

On December 2nd, 2025, it will be exactly 84 years since General Franz Böhme, Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht in occupied Serbia, left the country. He was the officer responsible for the infamous order “One Hundred for One”, which during the autumn of 1941 cost the lives of around 30,000 Serbian civilians. Among the most notorious crimes of that period were the mass executions in Kraljevo and Kragujevac. In addition to General Böhme, Major Otto Desch – the direct commander of mass reprisals in Kraljevo and Kragujevac – was also among those most responsible. Other Wehrmacht officers likewise bore their share of responsibility for the tragedy of October 1941.

Anthropologist, curator, conservator, and archivist Nenad Karamijalković will present the story of General Böhme, largely familiar to historians, as well as the fates of Major Desch and numerous other officers following the massacres in Kraljevo and Kragujevac – stories that remain mostly unknown or clouded by conflicting information