Commemoration held for WWII Serb orphans in Sisak

NEWS 05.10.201918:22
Nikola Cutuk/PIXSELL

A commemoration event was held at the children's cemetery in Sisak on Saturday for about 2,000 children who died in a local children's concentration camp between 3 August 1942 and 8 January 1943.

The commemoration was organised by the Serb National Council (SNV) and the Serb Minority Council of Sisak. They thanked the citizens who helped save the Serb orphans in WWII.

Many surviving inmates arrived from Belgrade, Zagreb, Banja Luka, Petrinja, Sisak, Glina, Dvor and other places to lay white flowers by the monument to the victims and light candles.

Slavko Milanovic of Belgrade, a survivor of the Jasenovac concentration camp, said that “about 6,500 children passed through the Sisak concentration camp” and that many died of diseases.

He added that one doctor gave them injections of poison, and underlined the role of humanitarian Diana Budisavljevic, who saved the largest number of children from the camp.

“With this commemoration, we condemn all war crimes as well as historical revisionism and neo-Nazism,” he said.

MP and SNV vice president Dragana Jeckov said many of those children in Sisak had been nameless, orphaned and doomed.

“The surviving inmates have been the first to oppose the denial of genocide. By defending the right to remember, we defend human dignity,” she added.

Also present were Independent Democratic Serb Party leader Milorad Pupovac, the ambassadors of Norway and Serbia, the coordinator of the Jewish communities of Croatia, Ognjen Kraus, representatives of the Anti-fascist Fighters Alliance and others.