05.10.2014.

Paid respects to the victims in Jajinci

State commemorative ceremony in memory of several tens of thousands brutally killed camp inmates, shot in the period between 1941 and October 1944, was held today at the Memorial Park Jajinci, with highest state and military honors.

At the former scaffold, where over 60,000 people, mostly Serbs, Romani and Jewish people were killed in various ways, wreaths were laid by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, representatives of the National Assembly and Government of Serbia, diplomatic corps, the City of Belgrade, veteran organization, associations of Romani and Jewish people, survived camp inmates and their descendants.

The commemoration was attended by President of the National Assembly Maja Gojkovic, Government members, State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence Zoran Djordjevic, Head of the General Staff General Ljubisa Dikovic with associates, diplomatic and military diplomatic officials, representatives of religious communities and many citizens.

Addressing the guests, President Nikolic said that Serbian history is a history of constant demise, but that our people have written the history of liberation during all those years, because “they never went for conquering or enslaving, but for liberation, defending and liberation, bringing themselves to the brink of biologic survival”.

He reminded of the tragic days that happened to Serbia and its people in October at the scaffold in Jajinci.

- Just outside Belgrade, in Jajinci, there was a second to largest killing field of Serbs, Jews and Roma, citizens of Serbia and former Yugoslavia. Statistics on the number of the killed will never be arranged because they were killed constantly, with no sense and without evidence, in the criminals’ attempt to hide their crimes as if they had never been committed – President Nikolic stressed.

He then spoke about forgiveness, tolerance, friendships, and remembrance.

- We leave the deed of this devastated town underground, with painful violence and memory of the innocent victims to whom Jajinci was the last home, to future generations, to keep it and nourish the memory of it – Nikolic said.

- We will forever keep the memory of the town of the innocent victims here in Jajinci. Their demise is a part of our collective memory, a historical scar on the soul of the state and society which binds us, in the name of all innocent tortured and killed Serbs, Jewish and Romani people, to remain that part of the humanity’s conscience and consciousness which does everything for such crimes never to happen again anywhere in the world. If anyone has the right to warn in the name of the innocent victims and to call for peace, reason and truce, it is Serbia. We do it proud of our ancestors and responsible to our descendants – Serbian President stressed in conclusion.

At the commemoration, a speech was also held by former prisoner of the Banjica concentration camp Dusan Stojiljkovic. An art program titled “They were taken to Jajinci” was also performed.