The representatives of the Serb National Council (SNV) visited last Thursday the Krapje Site, a part of the Jasenovac Memorial Site (JMS), where they paid tribute to the victims and also announced an action plan to restore and invest into that camp complex
VIDEO: SNC
PHOTO: HINA/Edvard ŠUŠAK/es
The Krapje Site belongs to the very beginnings of the establishment of the concentration camp system near Jasenovac and it was active until April 22nd, 1945.
ĐORĐE MIHOVILOVIĆ, the senior curator at JMS says that Krapje is the central and most notable site which makes part of the Memorial Site because this is where the concentration camp system originated from.
The camps in Krapje and Bročice were active only for a short period, until mid-November 1941, which was due to frequent flooding, Mihovilović added.
The representatives of the SNV laid flowers at the place where the monument used to stand in the forest near Krapje, at the location of the camp, all the way until the war of the 90s, when it was destroyed. It is not known what exactly was written on the monument nor how many victims there were in total.
The monument was built by Ninoslav Janković, and it represented a flower bud, something along the lines of the Stone Flower monument by Bogdan Bogdanović in Jasenovac.
Mihovilović said that in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, they were investing in the restoration of the central monument at Krapje.
The president of the SNV, Milorad Pupovac, pointed out that after having talked to the Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and line ministers, decision had been made to go forward with an action plan that would soon be adopted by the Croatian Government.
“Our goal is to restore the camp complex and everything else that we have in Jasenovac to the state that it deserves to be in”, he said.
He added that the plan would contain various aspects of indispensable budget funds, including building additional annexes for different research, educational, and media activities, as well as commemorating and clearing up the memorial site complex.
Pupovac emphasised that the point of today’s visit to Krapje was to make sure that none of those places should be forgotten, and also that they would be treated as part of the Jasenovac camp complex and that all grave sites would be marked with piety.
“So that we would make sure that the general awareness and the culture of the character and nature of the Ustasha regime of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) enters the public eye of all of our citizens and everyone who wishes to come here, which has not been the case thus far”, said Pupovac.
Before the visit to the Krapje Site, a liturgy was held at the Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah in the village of Mlaka, led by the Bishop of Slavonia, JOVAN ĆULIBRK.
(Hina) xar ymd
Photogalleries
The liturgy in Mlaka on the Occasion of the Day of the Jasenovac Camp Breakthrough, April 21st, 2022
Paying Tribute to the Victims of the Ustasha Terror at the Krapje Site (Jasenovac), April 21st, 2022