By July and August of 1941, a popular uprising in Serbia against this brutal German occupation had begun in Bela Crkva, which then spread to Leskovac and across region. It was instigated by anti-Axis resistance forces such as Josip Tito's communist 'Partisan' army, as well as the Serbian nationalist 'Chetnik' fighters. Over the following months, hundreds of citizens from Leskovac organized into armed rebel units in the wooded outskirts of the city, creating units such as the Babički, Kukavica, and Jablanica Partisan Squads. On February 7th 1943, all of these Partisan units came together to unit as the large and formidable 1st South Moravian Partisan Detachment at the nearby village of Kaluđerce. Due to the German army having vastly superior weaponry, much of the rebel fighting towards the beginning of the resistance was of a more guerilla-style warfare, employing such tactics as sabotage, sneak attacks and hit-and-run operations (Photo 1). In response to these attacks and incursions by the rebels, the German occupiers carried out many reprisal attacks and punishments against the local population of Leskovac. One particularly grisly retaliatory act in Leskovac was in December of 1941, just after the killing of three locally-stationed German officers by rebel fighters. In an attempt to strike fear into city's residents and prevent future rebel attacks, Germans rounded up and arrested over 300 civilians from the Arapova Dolina neighborhood of Leskovac. Then, on December 11th, 1941, they were all executed on the southern outskirts of the city on Hisar Hill (Photo 2). The vast majority of those killed that day were Roma civilians.