Nazi Germany occupied most of Yugoslavia
by April 1941. After a Serbian uprising
of July 1941, Gen. Hermann Bohme, was
given emergency powers to govern the
country. SS - Gruppenfuhrer Harold
Turner and SS Untersturmfuhrer Fritz
Stracke handled the administration of
Serbia. Milan Nedic was the
"nomial" local ruler, comparable to the
collaborationist regime of Quisling in
Norway.
Under the Nedic regime a heavily
anti-semitic "Grand Anti-Masonic
Exhibition" opened in occupied Belgrade
on 22nd October 1941 and ended January
19, 1942.
The central theme was an alleged
Jewish-Communist-Masonic plot for world
domination, similar to propaganda once
put out by the Tsarist secret police
before the Russian revolution in the
well-known forgeries The Protocols of
the Elders of Zion. Besides the exhibits
at the exhibition, an enormous amount of
propaganda material was prepared: over
200 thousand various brochures, 60
thousand posters, 100 thousand flyers,
108 thousand of samples of 9 different
types of envelopes, 176 propaganda movie
clips, four different postage stamps
etc. Organizers advertised that "This
concept of exhibition will be unique not
only in Serbia and the Balkans, not only
in southeastern Europe and Europe, but
in the world."
