Concentration Camp Concert Called Off

Talk about an incredibly insensitive idea.

A rock concert planned for Saturday at the site of a World War II Nazi death camp in Belgrade has been called off after protests by Jewish groups.

The Serbian organizers of the concert by British band Kosheen said the event was canceled after "pressure from foreign and domestic media."

Some 48,000 Jews, Serbs and Gypsies perished at the Sajmiste camp in the 1940s.

"We hope that the big publicity created around the Staro Sajmiste site will be used for solving the problem of renovating the place," said the concert organizers, the Long Play company.

Efraim Zuroff, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi hunter, in a statement Friday called the planned concert "a heartless insult to the memory of the victims of the Nazis."

For Serbia's dwindling Jewish community, the planned concert was the latest indignity to befall the site, which they say needs to be saved from decades of neglect.

Via their site, Kosheen issued the following statement.

Kosheen have been distressed and sorry to learn in past few days, of Poseidon Hall's, Belgrade former use.

If Kosheen had known it's true history, they would never have agreed to play the venue, and as such Kosheen have canceled their show there.

They have been trying to reschedule the show into another venue in Belgrade, since they were made aware of the controversy surrounding the Hall, but couldn't at short notice, and now hope to re-schedule the gig in another venue in the near future.

Kosheen would like to thank the fans that brought this to their attention, and apologise to anyone upset by the proposed show and to our fans who have bought tickets to see us