Yom HaShoah, memorial to the six million Jews killed in Nazi and fascist camps during World War II was marked with a commemoration at the foot of the Flower Monument in Jasenovac.

PHOTO: HINA / Dario GRZELJ

The president of the Jewish Community of Zagreb and the Coordination of Jewish Communities in the Republic of Croatia, Ognjen Kraus greeted those who survived the Holocaust, as well as all other participants of the commemoration with the hope that they “all came for the same motives, reasons, and feelings,” and emphasised that Jasenovac was the biggest execution site for racial laws in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), in which there were more than 50 death camps. Almost 35,000 Jews went missing in the NDH, which, in other words, was more than 80 percent of the entire population.

The commemoration was dedicated to the victims of all camps: according to racial laws, apart from Jews, these also referred to the Roma and Serbs, as well as anti-fascists, who met their deaths there as opponents of the Ustasha regime, “the most shameful period in Croatian history,” he said.

In the photo: Aleksandar Tolnauer, Ognjen Kraus, and Luciano Moše Prelević (PHOTO: HINA / Dario GRZELJ / dag)

Kraus welcomed all those with whom the Jewish community is fighting for Croatia, which gained victory with its allies in World War II, based on the ZAVNOH (State Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia) and European principles of civilization

This year’s Yom HaShoah is dedicated to the transport of Jews to concentration camps, and most of the transport to camps in the NDH area led to this very place, the Jasenovac death camp, said Kraus.

In the photo: SNV’s general secretary Saša Milošević and the President of SNV and member of the Croatian Parliament Milorad Pupovac (PHOTO: HINA / Dario GRZELJ / dag)

In his prayer, the Chief Rabbi of Croatia Luciano Moše Prelević, among other things, asked that the world be ruled by the spirit of harmony and love, and that all nations lived peacefully and happily, and with them the people of Israel. May those who have suffered enjoy eternal heavenly delights in lavish paradise.

The commemoration was attended by minority representatives – the President of the Serb National Council (SNV) Milorad Pupovac, Veljko Kajtazi, and Furio Radin, the President of the Alliance of Anti-fascist Fighters and Anti-fascists of Croatia Franjo Habulin, the Advisor to the Prime Minister, academic Zvonko Kusić, and others.

(HINA)

PHOTOGALLERY:

Yom HaShoah: Remembering the victims of Holocaust in Jasenovac, April 28, 2022