Mihajlović urges law on memorial center

BELGRADE Staro Sajmiste (Old Fairgrounds) must become a memorial center, Energy Minister and SNS party Vice-President Zorana Mihajlovic has said. The WW2-era camp in Belgrade, set up by the occupying German Nazi forces, was the place where than 20,000 people were detained to later be killed. Mihajlovic urges law on memorial center "We need to create a center that will serve to remind and teach about the crimes committed against innocent civilians, political opponents," she wrote on her Facebook profile on the occasion of International Day of Holocaust Remembrance. Most importantly, she said, as part of the Memorial Center a special Holocaust Memorial should be built, because of the particular importance of this place for Jews in Belgrade and elsewhere in Serbia. "It is from this place that more than 6,000 women, children and elderly Jews were driven to their deaths as part of a monstrous mission to exterminate an entire nation." "This must become a place not only to memorialize, remember, but also to learn about respect for national, religious, political and other differences - the place where generations will learn about tolerance." "We need to celebrate our own anti-fascist past, and the role of the' 'righteous ones', all those who have exposed their own lives to help Jews," wrote Mihajlovic. She stressed that it was "high time to adopt a special law on the memorial center on the national level, and unite the capacity of the city of Belgrade and Serbia to honor the victims in a dignified manner by creating a center that will testify about the crimes that must not be repeated, and most importantly, help new generations get enough information on how dictatorial, criminal regimes are created through hatred." Mihajlovic quoted a letter sent from the camp by Hilde Dojc who voluntarily went there to help the weak. To her friend who was free she wrote: "You do not know, as I did not know what it means to be here. I want you to never find out." "I do not know the date of the death of Hilda Dojc, but it is certain that she died in the infamous gas truck, as did more than 6,000 women and children of Jews. It is because of Hilda's sacrifice and courage, for all the victims of the camp, that we have to remember, and it is our duty to make this a place where we remember every day, not just when on appropriate anniversaries," wrote Mihajlovic. "The party which I represent will do everything so that in a short period what has not been done for more than 60 years is done - for this place to be marked in a worthy manner," she wrote. Mihajlovic and other state officials take part in a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony on Monday (Tanjug) Tanjug

Mihajlović urges law on memorial center

"We need to create a center that will serve to remind and teach about the crimes committed against innocent civilians, political opponents," she wrote on her Facebook profile on the occasion of International Day of Holocaust Remembrance.

Most importantly, she said, as part of the Memorial Center a special Holocaust Memorial should be built, because of the particular importance of this place for Jews in Belgrade and elsewhere in Serbia.

"It is from this place that more than 6,000 women, children and elderly Jews were driven to their deaths as part of a monstrous mission to exterminate an entire nation."

"This must become a place not only to memorialize, remember, but also to learn about respect for national, religious, political and other differences - the place where generations will learn about tolerance."

"We need to celebrate our own anti-fascist past, and the role of the' 'righteous ones', all those who have exposed their own lives to help Jews," wrote Mihajlović.

She stressed that it was "high time to adopt a special law on the memorial center on the national level, and unite the capacity of the city of Belgrade and Serbia to honor the victims in a dignified manner by creating a center that will testify about the crimes that must not be repeated, and most importantly, help new generations get enough information on how dictatorial, criminal regimes are created through hatred."

Mihajlović quoted a letter sent from the camp by Hilde Dojč who voluntarily went there to help the weak.

To her friend who was free she wrote: "You do not know, as I did not know what it means to be here. I want you to never find out."

"I do not know the date of the death of Hilda Dojč, but it is certain that she died in the infamous gas truck, as did more than 6,000 women and children of Jews. It is because of Hilda's sacrifice and courage, for all the victims of the camp, that we have to remember, and it is our duty to make this a place where we remember every day, not just when on appropriate anniversaries," wrote Mihajlović.

"The party which I represent will do everything so that in a short period what has not been done for more than 60 years is done - for this place to be marked in a worthy manner," she wrote.