Dragomir "Dragi" Jovanović (27 July 1902 – 17 July 1946) was a Serbian politician and Axis collaborator who served as the

mayor of Belgrade The Mayor of Belgrade ( sr, Градоначелник Београда / ''Gradonačelnik Beograda'') is the head of the City of Belgrade (the capital and largest city of Serbia). The Mayor acts on behalf of the city, and performs an executive f ...

from 1941 to 1944, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. He was captured by communist forces on December 11, 1945 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

in Allied occupied Germany following the war and tried alongside other Serbian collaborationist leaders in 1946. He was found guilty of collaborating with

Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...

and

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

and other German officials and executed in Belgrade.

Early life

Dragomir (Dragi) Jovanović was born on 27 June 1902 in

Požarevac Požarevac ( sr-cyr, Пожаревац, ) is a city and the administrative centre of the Braničevo District in eastern Serbia. It is located between three rivers: Danube, Great Morava and Mlava and below the hill Čačalica (208m). As of 2011 ...

, Kingdom of Serbia to Ljubomir and Vilma Jovanović (''née'' Draškoci). Jovanović was married and had one child. He was a

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

sympathizer before the outbreak of

. His links to German intelligence services dated back to the mid-1930s. On 10 May 1939 Dragomir went to the Berghof near Berchtesgaden to meet with

and Karl Wolff

World War II

Mayor of Belgrade

On 17 April 1941, the day

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

surrendered to the

Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

, Jovanović left the town of

Gornji Milanovac Gornji Milanovac ( sr-Cyrl, Гoрњи Милановац, ) is a town and municipality located in the Moravica District of central Serbia. The population of the town is 24,216, while the population of the municipality is 44,406. The town was found ...

and went to Belgrade. The following day, he was received by

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

officers Karl Kraus and Hans Helm. The two suggested that he reorganize the Belgrade police and take control of the city's government. The German field commander in Belgrade, Colonel Ernst Moritz von Kaisenberg, then appointed Jovanović to the position of extraordinary commissar for the city. As mayor, Jovanović proposed that Belgrade be divided into sixteen boroughs and two commissariats and that the local police be used to quell anti-German acts in the city. The Germans accepted this plan. The Belgrade police was organized in mid-May 1941 and grew to a size of 878 police officers and 240 agents by the following month. That summer, Jovanović was appointed chief of Serbian State Security ( sr, Srpska državna bezbednost, script=Latn, SDB) by ''SS- Gruppenführer und

Generalleutnant is the Germanic variant of lieutenant general, used in some German speaking countries. Austria Generalleutnant is the second highest general officer rank in the Austrian Armed Forces (''Bundesheer''), roughly equivalent to the NATO rank of ...

der Polizei'' (SS-General of Police)

August Meyszner August Edler von Meyszner (3 August 1886 – 24 January 1947) was an Austrian Gendarmerie officer, right-wing politician, and senior ''Ordnungspolizei'' (order police) officer who held the post of Higher SS and Police Leader in the Germ ...

. The SDB assumed the administration of the

Serbian State Guard The Serbian State Guard ( sr, Srpska državna straža, italics=yes, SDS; sr-Cyrl, Српска државна стража; german: Serbische Staatsgarde/Serbische Staatswache) was a collaborationist paramilitary force used to impose law and o ...

(''Srpska državna straža'', SDS). In early July, the Germans ordered Jovanović to convert the former 18th Infantry army barracks of the

Royal Yugoslav Army The Yugoslav Army ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Jugoslovenska vojska, JV, Југословенска војска, ЈВ), commonly the Royal Yugoslav Army, was the land warfare military service branch of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (originally Kingdom of Serbs, ...

into the

Banjica concentration camp The Banjica concentration camp (german: KZ Banjica, sr-Cyrl-Latn, Бањички логор, Banjički logor) was a Nazi Germany, Nazi German Nazi concentration camps, concentration camp in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia, the ...

. Banjica held 23,697 inmates throughout the war, 3,849 of whom perished. According to the post-war testimony of the camp's administrator,

Svetozar Vujković Svetozar Vujković ( sr-Cyrl, Светозар Вујковић; 1899–1949) was a Serbian police officer who commanded the Banjica concentration camp during World War II. He was a high-ranking official in the pre-war Belgrade police and was invol ...

, Jovanović saved countless Serb civilians from being executed as German hostages by swapping them with Roma prisoners. In his own post-war testimony, Jovanović recounted an incident in which he recognized a wounded Yugoslav

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

as a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

. He claimed to have singled the officer out and reported him to the Germans, who arrested him and took him to Banjica, where he was shot. Beginning in mid-1942, Jovanović provided financial aid to the Chetniks of Draža Mihailović from his own personal fund. By late 1943, he was working as a Chetnik agent within the Serbian collaborationist government. In mid-August 1944, Jovanović, Mihailović and Nedić secretly met in the village of Ražana, where Nedić agreed to give one-hundred million dinars for wages and to request from the Germans arms and ammunition for Mihailović.

Escape, capture and death

Jovanović left Belgrade in early October 1944, alongside other Serbian collaborationist leaders. He was captured following the war and tried as part of the

Belgrade Process Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mil ...

in 1946. He was found guilty of collaborating with the Germans and was executed in Belgrade on 17 July 1946.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jovanovic, Dragomir 1902 births 1946 deaths Politicians from Požarevac People from the Kingdom of Serbia Serbian anti-communists Serbian people of World War II Serbian people convicted of war crimes Romani genocide perpetrators Holocaust perpetrators in Yugoslavia University of Belgrade Faculty of Law alumni Mayors of Belgrade Serbian collaborators with Nazi Germany People executed by Yugoslavia by hanging Executed Serbian people Executed Yugoslav collaborators with Nazi Germany Executed mass murderers