Ada into an open graveyard, earning a moniker "Island of death". Interbellum During Interbellum, Ada wasn't the most popular recreational area as the major beach area was across its northern tip, in the Gospodarska Mehana section of the Senjak neighborhood. Still, even then, one of major Serbian writers Branislav Nušić, nicknamed it Vodeni cvet (watery flower) because of its beauty. In 1920 city decided to arrange the Ada as part of the international design competition concerning the arrangement and expansion of Belgrade. Competition was announced in 1921. One of the submitted works, titled Urbs Magna ("Great City"), proposed construction of the large, multi-functional stadium and transformation of the island into the sports park. First facilities of the swimming and rowing clubs on the island were built after that. The Belgrade's first general urban plan, completed in 1924, envisioned the island as an excursion and leisure area. In 1936 city government adopted a new general urban plan which projected Ada as the "sports island". By the early 1930s, state rowing championships, and Danube States Rowing Championship have been held at Ada Ciganlija. The 1932 European Rowing Championships was held 2–4 September 1932 at the island. A straight, long track was arranged. Hangars and stands ("water stadium") were built, so as the administrative headquarters of the Belgrade Rowing Club at the mouth of the Topčiderka. World War II and after During the German occupation, as the food became scarce and parts of population began to starve, city administration parceled part of the island and awarded the lots to its clerks and other employees to grow vegetables and other food. Occupational administration planned to establish a concentration camp on the island, right after the capitulation of Yugoslavia in April 1941. They decided to push the idea after the attack on Soviet Union in June 1941, but ultimately had to drop the idea of the island camp due to the constant flooding of Ada. Instead, they decided to use the barracks of the 18th Infantry Regiment of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Banjica, creating the Banjica concentration camp in July 1941. Until 1941, a prison was located on Ada Ciganlija. On the night of 17 July 1946, new Communist authorities executed a number of former politicians on Ada Ciganlija, while military officers were tried as collaborators with the Nazis during World War II, including Chetniks leaders Draža Mihailović and Kosta Mušicki, and ministers in