occurrence in urban development of Belgrade at the time, not only due to its economic importance. The complex was the only fully encircled spatial unit, excelling and singling out itself compared to other social centers in the city. It also included the first planned greening of the modern New Belgrade area. The project for the greenery arrangement in the complex was done by engineer Aleksandar Krstić. War years After the April war of 1941 when Germany and its allies occupied and partitioned the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, entire Syrmia region (including the left bank of the Sava) became part of the Independent State of Croatia. Nazi secret police, Gestapo, took over Sajmište. They encircled it with several rings of barbed wire turning it into what they referred to as "collection center" – a euphemism for a prison. It eventually became a concentration camp. Until May 1942 Germans used Sajmište concentration camp to mostly kill off Jews from Belgrade and other parts of Serbia. From April 1942 onwards, Serbian prisoners were transported in from Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška concentration camps run by Croatian Ustaše collaborators. Partisans captured throughout Serbia were also sent to Sajmište. Detainees were also sent in from other parts of Yugoslavia, especially Serbs after major German offensives on briefly liberated territories. Executions of captured prisoners lasted as long as the camp existed. During their heavy “Easter bombing” of Belgrade, Allied aircraft bombed Sajmište on 17 April 1944, killing some 100 inmates and inflicting heavy damage on the camp itself, destroying all the buildings except for the Spasić pavilion and the Central tower. Among others, prisoners included Serbian women, children and the elderly from Kozara region, entire Jewish families from Belgrade and other cities, Romani families, as well as entire Serbian populations of different Syrmian villages. Initial Yugoslav estimates conducted in 1948 put the death toll at 50,000, with 100,000 total inmates. According to the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, the death toll was exaggerated by the Communist Party for political purposes, with the real number of inmates being about 50,000 and 20,000 killed. It is estimated that half of all Serbian Jews perished in the camp. The Staro Sajmište memorial cites 23,000 fatalities, of which 10,000 were Jewish. After 1945 After the war the settlement was totally neglected for years and gradually started falling apart. Former fair buildings were awarded to some prominent artists (painters and sculptors)