Editing Serbia (section)

===World War II===
{{Main|World War II in Yugoslavia|The Holocaust in German-occupied Serbia|Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia}}

In 1941, in spite of Yugoslav attempts to remain neutral, the [[Axis powers]] invaded Yugoslavia. The territory of modern Serbia was divided between Hungary, Bulgaria, the Independent State of Croatia, Greater Albania and Montenegro, while the remainder was placed under the [[Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia|military administration]] of [[Nazi Germany]], with [[Government of National Salvation|Serbian puppet governments]] led by [[Milan Aćimović]] and [[Milan Nedić]] assisted by [[Dimitrije Ljotić]]'s fascist organisation [[Yugoslav National Movement]] (Zbor).

[[File:Старо сајмиште 2012-09-09 15-07-54.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|A monument commemorating the victims of the Nazi German established [[Sajmište concentration camp]], a part of [[the Holocaust in German-occupied Serbia]] and [[Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia|Genocide of Serbs]]]]

The Yugoslav territory was the scene of a civil war between [[Chetniks|royalist Chetniks]] commanded by [[Draža Mihailović]] and [[Partisans (Yugoslavia)|communist partisans]] commanded by [[Josip Broz Tito]]. Axis auxiliary units of the [[Serbian Volunteer Corps (World War II)|Serbian Volunteer Corps]] and the [[Serbian State Guard]] fought against both of these forces. The [[siege of Kraljevo]] was a major battle of the [[Uprising in Serbia (1941)|uprising in Serbia]], led by Chetnik forces against the Nazis. Several days after the battle began the German forces committed a massacre of approximately 2,000 civilians in an event known as the [[Kraljevo massacre]], in a reprisal for the attack.

[[Loznica|Draginac and Loznica massacre]] of 2,950 villagers in Western Serbia in 1941 was the first large execution of civilians in occupied Serbia by [[Nazi|German]]s, with [[Kragujevac massacre]] and [[Novi Sad Raid]] of Jews and Serbs by Hungarian fascists being the most notorious, with over 3,000 victims in each case.{{sfn|Pavlowitch|2008|p=62}}<ref>{{cite news|title=The Kragujevac massacre |first=Karl |last=Savich |url=http://www.pogledi.rs/kragujevac/english/1e.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121217101508/http://www.pogledi.rs/kragujevac/english/1e.php |archive-date=17 December 2012 }}</ref> After one year of occupation, around 16,000 [[Serbian Jews]] were murdered in the area, or around 90% of its pre-war Jewish population during [[The Holocaust in Serbia]].
Many concentration camps were established across the area. [[Banjica concentration camp]] was the largest concentration camp and jointly run by the German army and Nedić's regime,<ref name="Israeli2013">{{cite book|first=Raphael|last=Israeli|title=The Death Camps of Croatia: Visions and Revisions, 1941–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M66fG2bhi1AC&pg=PA31|access-date=12 May 2013|date=4 March 2013|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-4930-2|page=31|archive-date=18 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018094222/https://books.google.com/books?id=M66fG2bhi1AC&pg=PA31#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> with primary victims being Serbian Jews, [[Romani people|Roma]], and Serb political prisoners.<ref name=JewishHeritage>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu/country/serbia/serbia2.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100630011836/http://www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu/country/serbia/serbia2.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 June 2010|title=Jewish Heritage Europe – Serbia 2 – Jewish Heritage in Belgrade|publisher=Jewish Heritage Europe|access-date=28 April 2010}}</ref>

Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Serbs fled the Axis [[puppet state]] known as the [[Independent State of Croatia]] and sought refuge in German-occupied Serbia, seeking to escape the large-scale persecution and [[Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia|Genocide of Serbs]], Jews, and Roma being committed by the [[Ustaše]] regime.<ref>{{cite web|website=Britannica OnlineEncyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/620426/Ustasa|title=Ustaša|publisher=Britannica.com|access-date=28 April 2010|archive-date=26 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150426184217/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/620426/Ustasa|url-status=live}}</ref> The number of Serb victims was approximately 300,000 to 350,000.<ref>{{cite book |last=Yeomans |first=Rory |title=The Utopia of Terror: Life and Death in Wartime Croatia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8HEDCwAAQBAJ |year=2015 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-58046-545-8 |page=18 |access-date=19 July 2019 |archive-date=27 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927204208/https://books.google.com/books?id=8HEDCwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Ustasa |url=https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205904.pdf |publisher=yadvashem.org |access-date=25 June 2018 |archive-date=8 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808002505/https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205904.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| title=Genocide of the Serbs| url=http://combatgenocide.org/?page_id=86| publisher=The Combat Genocide Association| access-date=27 July 2019| archive-date=9 December 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131209115245/http://combatgenocide.org/?page_id=86| url-status=live}}</ref> According to Tito himself, Serbs made up the vast majority of [[Anti-fascism|anti-fascist]] fighters and [[Yugoslav Partisans]] for the whole course of [[World War II]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tito |first=Josip Broz |date=1945 |title=Nacionalno pitanje u Jugoslaviji: u svjetlosti narodnooslobodilačke borbe |location=Zagreb |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MPsfnQEACAAJ |publisher=Naprijed |language=hr |page=11 |quote=Moram ovdje podvući činjenicu da su u redovima naše Narodno-oslobodilačke vojske i partizanskih odreda u Jugoslaviji, od samog početka pa do danas, nalaze u ogromnoj većini baš Srbi, umjesto da to bude obratno. |access-date=27 September 2020 |archive-date=31 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240831013307/https://books.google.com/books?id=MPsfnQEACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Republic of Užice]] was a short-lived liberated territory established by the Partisans and the first liberated territory in World War II Europe, organised as a military mini-state that existed in the autumn of 1941 in the west of [[Serbia under German occupation|occupied Serbia]]. By late 1944, the [[Belgrade Offensive]] swung in favour of the partisans in the civil war; the partisans subsequently gained control of Yugoslavia.<ref>{{cite web|author=PM|url=http://www.bulgaria-italia.com/bg/info/storia/partigiani.asp|title=Storia del movimento partigiano bulgaro (1941–1944)|publisher=Bulgaria – Italia|access-date=28 April 2010|archive-date=13 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513161540/http://www.bulgaria-italia.com/bg/info/storia/partigiani.asp|url-status=live}}</ref> Following the Belgrade Offensive, the [[Syrmian Front]] was the last major military action of World War II in Serbia. A study by [[Vladimir Žerjavić]] estimates total [[World War II casualties|war-related deaths]] in Yugoslavia at 1,027,000, including 273,000 in Serbia.<ref>{{cite book |last=Žerjavić |first=Vladimir |title=Yugoslavia: Manipulations with the Number of Second World War Victims |year=1993 |publisher=Croatian Information Centre |url=http://www.hic.hr/books/manipulations/index.htm |isbn=978-0-919817-32-6 |access-date=29 July 2018 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303230428/http://www.hic.hr/books/manipulations/index.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>