The German Army initially responded by rounding up and executing 300 Serbian civilians, described in contemporary documents as "communists, nationalists, democrats and Jews."

Over the following several days, all men between the ages of 14 and 60 were arrested and herded into a makeshift detention centre at the local rolling-stock factory.

When the camp was full, the German Army ordered groups of 100 prisoners to march to pre-dug mass graves, where they were executed with heavy machine guns.

Following the shooting of hostages from the rolling-stock factory, the German Army deployed through the surrounding villages, burning homes and killing indiscriminately.

According to the 717th Infantry Division's own records, 1,736 men and 19 "communist" women from the city and its outskirts were executed, despite attempts by local collaborationists to mitigate the punishment.

Following the 1938 Anschluss between Germany and Austria, Yugoslavia came to share its northwestern border with the Third Reich and fell under increasing pressure as her neighbours aligned themselves with the Axis powers.

[3] Intent on securing his southern flank for the impending attack on the Soviet Union, Adolf Hitler began placing heavy pressure on Yugoslavia to join the Axis.

Two days later, a group of pro-Western, Serbian nationalist Royal Yugoslav Air Force officers deposed the country's regent, Prince Paul, in a bloodless coup d'état, placed his teenage nephew Peter on the throne, and brought to power a "government of national unity" led by the head of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force, General Dušan Simović.

Hitler had briefly considered erasing all existence of a Serbian state, but this was quickly abandoned and the Germans began searching for a Serb suitable to lead a puppet government in Belgrade.

[9] Communist resistance commenced in early July, shortly after the invasion of the Soviet Union, targeting both the Germans and the puppet authorities.

[13] Nedić's inability to crush the Partisans and Chetniks prompted the Military Commander in Serbia to request German reinforcements from other parts of the continent.

312 to Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) Wilhelm List, the Wehrmacht commander in Southeast Europe, ordering him to suppress all resistance in that part of the continent.

[16][17] It was intended to apply to all of Eastern Europe, though an identical policy had already been implemented in Serbia as early as 28 April 1941, aimed at deterring guerrilla attacks.

The commanders who bore the most responsibility for these atrocities were primarily of Austrian origin and had served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I.

[22] "In Serbia," he wrote, "it is necessary, on the basis of the Balkan mentality and the great expansion of insurgent movements ... to carry out the orders of the OKW in the most severe form.

When the camp was full, the German Army ordered groups of 100 prisoners to march to pre-dug mass graves, where they were executed with heavy machine guns.

Following the shooting of hostages from the rolling-stock factory, the German Army deployed through the surrounding villages, burning homes and killing indiscriminately.

[41] Generalmajor (Brigadier General) Paul Hoffmann [nl], the commander of the 717th Infantry Division, personally oversaw the reprisals and praised his men for their "enthusiastic fulfillment of what was required of them".

The killings led German military commanders in Serbia to question the efficacy of mass reprisal shootings, as they pushed thousands of Serbs into the hands of anti-German guerrillas.

The killing of airplane factory workers in Kraljevo convinced the OKW that arbitrary shootings of Serbs not only incurred a significant political cost but were also counterproductive.

[52] Hoffmann, whom the local population dubbed the "butcher of Kraljevo and Kragujevac", was promoted to command the more capable 352nd Infantry Division in November 1941.

[28] The historian Jozo Tomasevich describes the killings as "the two most horrible outrages that the Germans committed in Serbia" on the basis of Hitler's decree.

[44][54] A similar re-examining has taken place with regard to the massacre at Kragujevac, where both Serbian and German scholars agree that more than 2,700 civilians were killed.