Croatia commemorates the tens of thousands of victims, mostly Serbs and Jews, killed by the country’s pro-Nazi World War II regime at a notorious concentration camp dismantled 70 years ago.
Several hundred people, including survivors of the Jasenovac camp, victims’ relatives, officials, religious leaders and foreign diplomats gather for a multi-denominational service and wreath-laying ceremony at the camp site.
“The horrors of Jasenovac warn us… not to allow discrimination and persecution based on national, religious, ideological or gender differences ever again,” parliamentary speaker Josip Leko says.
Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic says the country, which has been independent since 1991, had distanced itself in its constitution from the pro-Nazi Ustasha regime which set up the camp in 1941.
A man looks at the World War II Jasenovac memorial camp model on April 26, 2015, during a ceremony to remember the tens of thousands who were killed by the country’s pro-Nazi regime. (photo credit: AFP PHOTO / STRINGER)
Underlining the role of Croatian anti-fascist partisans during WWII, he adds: “There was only one Croatian army during World War II and these were Croatian partisans.”
The total number of people killed there — mostly Serbs, Jews, Roma and anti-fascist Croatians — remains disputed, varying from 70,000 to 700,000, according to Serbian figures.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that 100,000 people were murdered there.
— AFP
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