Serbia marks Remembrance Day on Jasenovac anniversary

Serbia marks Remembrance Day on Jasenovac anniversary

"It is our obligation to oppose aspirations to a revision of history and a twisting of facts by spreading the truth, as well as to fight a resurrected Nazism and Ustashism," Serbian Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic said.

Remembrance of the victims and gatherings such as this are a guarantee that genocide will not happen again, Selakovic said.

In places such as this, Roma, Jews and Serbs revisit the lessons of history, but are also warned that they must become even closer to each other, he said.

The ceremony was attended by the ambassadors of Croatia, Germany, Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the US and other countries, death camp survivors, members of the families of those killed, representatives of the Federation of Jewish Municipalities of Serbia and the Roma national minority council, as well as diplomats, representatives of associations and citizens. Day of Remembrance is marked to commemorate April 22, 1945 and the breakthrough of prisoners from the Ustasha death camp of Jasenovac, in the Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia (NDH).

A group of 1,075 remaining prisoners of the camp started the breakthrough, but only 127 reached freedom.

According to estimates based on the first exhumations conducted by the State Commission of the post-war Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FNRJ), which have also been confirmed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, some 500,000 Serbs, 80,000 Roma, 32,000 Jews disappeared in Jasenovac, along with tens of thousands of anti-fascists of different nationalities.

According to Croatian sources, so far the names of 83,145 victims are known. 47,627 of them are Serbs, 16,173 Roma, 13,116 Jews, 4,255 Croats and 1,128 Bosniaks (Muslims). More than 20,000 children were among the victims killed at Jasenovac.