“TO SAVE ONE LIFE IS TO SAVE THE WORLD ENTIRE”: THE RESCUE OF JEWS IN BELGRADE DURING THE WORLD WAR II

The re­scue of Jews du­ring World War II has re­ce­i­ved in­suf­fi­ci­ent atten­ti­on in Ser­bi­an hi­sto­ri­o­graphy. Most existing stu­di­es ha­ve fo­cu­sed pri­ma­rily on iden­tifying tho­se who re­scu­ed Jews and tho­se who were re­scu­ed. In this study, the aut­hor aims to pro­vi­de a mo­re com­pre­hen­si­ve ac­co­unt of the re­scue of Jews in Bel­gra­de du­ring World War II. This in­vol­ves iden­tifying and analyzing both un­derlying and im­me­di­a­te fac­tors that sha­ped the context in which the­se acts oc­cur­red. In se­lec­ting and struc­tu­ring the ca­ses of re­scue, the guiding prin­ci­ple was not to inc­lu­de and descri­be every in­stan­ce, but to hig­hlight spe­ci­fic causa­li­ti­es and di­stinc­ti­ve fe­a­tu­res, such as the ro­les of par­ti­cu­lar or­ga­ni­za­ti­ons, mem­bers of the oc­cu­pa­ti­on re­gi­me, and the im­me­di­a­te so­ci­al en­vi­ron­ment. The study is ba­sed on arc­hi­val so­ur­ces, per­so­nal te­sti­mo­ni­es, and existing hi­sto­ri­o­grap­hi­cal re­se­arch.