Croatian PM: Reverence for Victims of Jasenovac Camp and All Totalitarian Regimes

Jasenovac (Photo: HINA/Damir SENCAR)

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in Jasenovac on April 23 that it was important to nurture a public culture of dialogue and clear condemnation of totalitarian regimes under whose leadership atrocities like those at the Ustashi camp of Jasenovac were committed in World War II.

In a statement to the press after a commemoration for the victims of the Ustashi camp, he said reverence and respect were expressed at Jasenovac and all victims of the Holocaust, all victims of all totalitarian regimes were remembered.

The commemoration for the victims of the World War II Ustashi camp at Jasenovac on April 23 included a march of remembrance and the laying of flowers and wreaths at the Flower monument in the presence of the entire state leadership led by President Zoran Milanovic and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, representatives of the targeted peoples and anti-fascist associations.

There were no political speeches. Excerpts of testimony from surviving camp prisoners were read as part of the program. The commemoration at Jasenovac was dedicated to the breakthrough of the remaining 600 prisoners on April 22, 1945, some 100 of whom survived.