Scars and cruel memories marked by the brutality of World War II (WWII) occupiers run deep in people of Serbia, which was then a part of Yugoslavia and lost around half a million people during the war years. On October 21, 1941, in the Serbian town of Kragujevac, the German troops killed more than 2,800 civilians, including 300 children, as retribution for the rebellion. A poem called "Bloody Fairtale", written by Desanka Maksimovic just days after the Kragujevac massacre, was one of the famous pieces in Serbian literature. Massacre witness Leon Lukman was just 10 years and six days old when the horror unfolded before his eyes. In Kragujevac, there is a monument for the executed children, represented by a bird with broken wings. At a museum nearby, the last notes scribbled before captives were marched to the killing field lie under glass. Three years after the massacre, Kragujevac was liberated by the Soviet Red Army and Serbian partisans. Around the same date, the capital, Belgrade, saw the end of occupation as well. The military museum in Belgrade stands inside Kalemegdan Fortress, where the Danube meets the Sava, and it displays artefacts spanning centuries, including the 1944 battle to liberate Belgrade. Witnesses say the liberators defended the city's heritage with their lives, and Belgrade still flourishes because of them. Shotlist: Kragujevac, Serbia - Recent: 1. Aerial shot of monument; 2. Various of old photos; 3. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Leon Lukman, witness of Kragujevac Massacre (starting with shot 2/ending with shot 4): "We, then children, played close by, and we heard gunshots. I looked up, and I saw people falling. They weren't falling theatrically, but like cards. It happened in a sudden, all of them fell down. I thought it was an exercise. But they brought a second group, and then I realized it was a killing. Particularly when some of them tried to escape, and Germans killed them with pistol shots. I still have dreams about that till today."; 4. Old photo; 5. Various of school buildings; 6. Notes on wall; 7. Various of memorial sculpture; 8. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Nenad Dordevic, staff member of memorial park "October in Kragujevac": "As written in German documents -- for every killed German soldier, 100 Serbians were to be shot, and for every wounded, 50. In that time, according to German data, at least 40,000 people were executed. It shows how brutal the German soldiers were to the unarmed civilians who didn't participate in any military operations."; 9. Various of monument; 10. Various of notes on wall; Belgrade, Serbia - Recent 11. Cityscape, river; 12. Exterior of military museum in Belgrade; 13. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Marijana Jovelic, staff member of military museum in Belgrade: "German strongholds in Kalemegdan resisted most persistently and fiercely, so on Oct 20, 1944, a general assault was carried out on German battle positions, that is, the strongholds of positions in Kalemegdan. After that, the German resistance at the Sava Bridge and at Cukarica was broken."; 14. Various of photos, exhibits on display; 15. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Vlasta Velisavljevic, Serbian actor: "I remember one soldier with blond hair was pulling his hair out in frustration, because it was only possible for him to hit a bunker there with his cannon, but he was prohibited to do so."; Kragujevac, Serbia - Recent 16. Aerial shot of monument. [Restriction - No access Chinese mainland]