Soon, the site where some 48,000 Jews, Serbs and Gypsies perished in the 1940s will be throbbing to the rhythms of rock music.But there's nothing personal about this--it's just business:
For Serbia's small Jewish community, the weekend concert at the Sajmiste camp near the center of Belgrade is the latest indignity to befall a site they say needs to be saved from decades of neglect and deterioration.
"It's like holding a wedding at a graveyard," said Aleksandar Mosic, a Jewish chairman of the camp's memorial center, ahead of the concert by British band Kosheen.
Nearly all of Belgrade's 8,000 Jews were killed at Sajmiste soon after it was set up in 1941 at the site of the Belgrade Fair exhibition ground, Mosic said. Thousands of leftists and Serb nationalists also were killed at the camp. Stray dogs wander forlornly around the rundown gray brick barracks that used to house of one of the most notorious World War II Nazi death camps in the Balkans.
Poseydon, the company that bought the hall, says the concerts simply make business sense.Of course it does--just like the original decision to sell the building to a private entrepreneur.
UPDATE: Kosheen has canceled the concert--look in the comments.
[Hat tip: Hot Air Headlines]
Technorati Tag: Sajmiste and Poseydon and Holocaust and Kosheen.
Kosheen concert in Belgrade Sat 3 November 2007 cancelled
ReplyDelete"Kosheen have been distressed and sorry to learn in past few days, of Poseidon Hall's, Belgrade former use.
If Kosheen had known it's true history, they would never have agreed to play the venue, and as such Kosheen have canceled their show there.
They have been trying to reschedule the show into another venue in Belgrade, since they were made aware of the controversy surrounding the Hall, but couldn't at short notice, and now hope to re-schedule the gig in another venue in the near future.
Kosheen would like to thank the fans that brought this to their attention, and apologise to anyone upset by the proposed show and to our fans who have bought tickets to see us"
http://www.kosheen.com/news/?id=629
sat 3pm 3rd November 2007