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Serbia marks Holocaust Remembrance Day |
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27 January
2008 |
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 | Tadić, second from left, Koll, Nećak, during the ceremonies today (Beta)
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Today, Serbia, along with the rest of the world, remembers the victims of the Second World War Holocaust.
The central commemoration was held today at the site of the former Nazi camp of Topovske Šupe in Belgrade.
President Boris Tadić took part in the ceremonies at the memorial park, which marks the location that saw around 5,000 of Serbia's Jews and Romas transported to execution.
"We will never accept the destruction of others simply because they are different, because they belong to another ethnic, religious or political group. We condemn intolerance, we do not accept prejudice and hatred which aims to justify and deepen these differences, to separate us," Tadić said.
Describing the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of some six million European Jews, as the biggest concentration of evil and martyrdom, the president said the Jewish and other communities in Serbia must always feel equal to the majority population.
"We reject any denial of the Holocaust. Count on us, your fellow citizens and neighbors to remember, to know that this memory serves to recognize a future with a better and more humane world," Tadić said during the ceremonies.
Speaking at the same gathering, the chairman of the Serbian Jewish Community, Aleksandar Nećak, pointed out that the Jewish people will never again allow the Second World War suffering to repeat itself.
"Serbia too paid a huge price in the Second World War. Therefore, neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism do not suit a democratic Serbia. I am calling on Serbians to prevent the strengthening of racism and anti-Semitism," Nećak said.
Israel's ambassador to Serbia, Arthur Koll, whose mother is a Holocaust survivor from the Auschwitz death camp, described the results that the Nazi persecution had on his nation as a scar on the face of mankind, that ought to serve to remind how low that mankind can stoop, and how dangerous racism and hatred can be.
"I believe that we are here because we believe in a better world, and because we are aware of the dangers that anti-Semitism and racism bring with them," Koll said.
The commemoration was also attended by UN's representative to Serbia, Lance Clark, who urged parents to bring up their children in a way that will create a sense of responsibility, and enable them to, as adults, build societies that respect human rights.
In 2005, the United Nations decided to declare January 27, the day when Auschwitz was liberated by the Russian Red Army, the Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Nazi German state killed 1.5 million people in the notorious death camp. Over one million of the victims were Jewish. |
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Sunday, 27 January 2008 |
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