Memorial Museum "12. februar" - Concentration Camp

In the immediate vicinity of the railway station "Crveni Krst" in Niš, German-Nazi Concentration Camp was located in the buildings which used to be military storage facilities before the German occupation. It was one of the most notorious and the biggest concentration camps in Serbia. During four years, more 15.000 patriots and supporters of National Freedom Movement, imprisoned partisans, Roma people and Jews were imprisoned there. It is especially known for the escape of 105 prisoners on February 12th, 1942. After the great camp break, 1100 people were shot as the retaliation for 11 killed German soldiers. The organized escape from the concentration camp was the unique event in the occupied Europe of that time.

The concentration camp buildings kept their authentic outlook. They were marked by memorial notes and they were transformed into Memorial Museum "12. februar" in 1969. Before prison break, the camp was surrounded bywire. After the camp break the walls were build around the camp. The camp consists of central prison building, three auxilliary building, four guarding houses, two lookouts and two towers. Central prison building is two floor high with the attic where 20 individual cells were located. The preservation and restauration works were done in 1979 and 2004.