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Por Yosef Cohen –Especial Total News Agency-TNA-
At that place, Vučić unveiled a memorial plaque to the victims of Jasenovac, which reads: “From 1941 to 1945, the system of concentration camps and death camps of the Independent State of Croatia in Jasenovac was the most cruel part of the system of terror in the Second World War.”
Many of Jasenovac’s victims were brought by the Sava River to the Old Fairgrounds, which functioned for a time as part of the Jasenovac camp system from the summer of 1942.
“We dedicate this coast to the victims of Jasenovac, to the eternal memory, and to next generations to cherish the memory. Citizens of Belgrade.” Vučić then laid a wreath at the Monument to the Victims of Genocide.
After that, the wreaths were laid by the President of the National Assembly Ivica Dačić, the Minister of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs Darija Kisić, the Mayor of Belgrade and the Deputy Mayor Zoran Radojičić and Goran Vesić, representatives of the Association of Detainees…
The ceremony is attended by representatives of the diplomatic corps, including Russian Ambassador Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko. The Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, Genocide and Other Victims of Fascism in the Second World War is a national holiday, i.e. the day of remembrance, which is celebrated in Serbia every year, on April 22.
It is dedicated to the memory of Serbs, but also Roma and Jews, who died in mass crimes during the Second World War in the Independent State of Croatia and in the occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was the only state to have special camps for children (camps Sisak, Jastrebarsko and Gornja Rijeka).
“Serbia wants peace and wants life, for itself and for everyone else in this difficult moment, which has affected Europe and the world, and humanity has no right to the third great war, even if they only call it cold,” said President Aleksandar Vucic today.
“Life must overcome all obstacles, at least at the cost of changing paradigms, which serve to change and improve,” Vucic said at the celebration of Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Old Fair in Belgrade.
Testifying about the nature of crimes against Jews, Roma and Serbs, Vučić mentioned that the wife of the U.S. President, Eleanor Roosevelt, recalled that “in the winter of 1941-1942, neither she nor her husband believed that it was true, and they thought that it was that propaganda”, and that anything to be published about these crimes in the future will not be believed.
“Today, we have documented, with the name and surname of 17.016 innocent victims of the Semlin Judenlager camp. Faced with irrefutable evidence and testimonies of survivors, we cannot believe what happened here, because everything sounds like the fruit of a twisted imagination, like a nightmare from which we should wake up”, said Vučić.
As he said, there is no normal awakening from our nightmare, because that nightmare is called memory. He recalled that the Fair was opened in 1937, conceived as a place of meeting and pilgrimage for all who are attracted to the greatest achievements, but it suddenly ceased to be a symbol of civilizational achievement and became a place of execution for Roma, Jews and Serbs.
He pointed out that Sajmište, next to Banjica, was the only death camp in the city, unlike other execution sites that the Nazis hid from the citizens. In the camp on Sajmište, he says, they applied all the heartlessness and impersonality of Auschwitz and the lust for killing like in Jasenovac, which today still represents the most terrible execution site in Yugoslavia and one of the most horrible in Europe.
“Today, 81 years after the establishment of the system of concentration and death camps in Jasenovac, when there are fewer and fewer surviving detainees and Belgraders who personally witnessed terrifying scenes from the Sava coast, covered with corpses of innocents, it is important that we marked the tragic period of our people of the Sava coast called the Coast of the Jasenovac Victims”, Vučić emphasized.
He said that this sad place, as well as all our execution sites, puts us on the right side of history, which, he said, we paid dearly in millions, but not dollars, but millions of lives, souls of Jews, Roma, Serbs and members of other nations. “In both world wars, we were neither prosecutors, nor lawyers, nor juries, nor judges, but we have always been victims. In this place, every word is superfluous, and every tear is justified and insufficient”, said Vucic.
Today, he emphasized, we can only oppose life to that execution site, because we are the descendants of the victims and we know the value of life. “It is our obligation to continue life, we are indebted to our ancestors and even more to our children,” said Vucic.
He said that Serbia wants peace and life, for itself and for everyone else in this difficult moment that has affected Europe and the world, because humanity has no right to the third great war, even if they only call it cold. He reminded that Shimon Perez, with whom he met three times, said that dreaming is pragmatism. “True, if we do not dream of peace and prosperity, it will not happen,” Vucic underlined.
He also pointed out that Albert Einstein said that peace cannot be achieved by force, but only by understanding. “We want to believe in the primordial good in people. We owe our children peace and stability. Just as we paid for freedom in World War II with hundreds of thousands of lives, and with millions of lives in World War I, in the future we must preserve peace so that we do not need to pay with lives”, he underlined.
“Our Belgrade, our Serbia are being built and progressing. Those who suffered here are also responsible for having this kind of peace. This is a day we will always mark, where the victims we will always remember lie. This is a place of our memory, pride and dignity of all citizens of Serbia”, concluded President Vučić.
