The head of the Zagreb Jewish Community, Ognjen Kraus, called on Thursday for banning the "For the homeland ready" salute as well as Ustasha insignia and the denial of Ustasha crimes, in the name of the thousands killed under the salute.

Speaking at the Jadovno 1941 Remembrance Day commemoration, Kraus said he was making his appeal on behalf of the thousands who were killed at Jadovno and other Ustasha death camps in the Nazi-allied 1941-45 Independent State of Croatia (NDH), or who were taken to Nazi death camps.

Kraus also called for banning the denial of the existence of concentration and death camps.

The commemoration was held on the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Gospic-Jadovno-Pag complex, the first Ustasha death camp on NDH territory.

The Gospic-Jadovno-Pag camp was established in late June 1941 and the inmates were mostly Serbs, followed by Jews and some Croatian communists. The camp was dismantled around August 22, 1941 at the request of fascist Italy. That, it was said at the commemoration, temporarily saved over 3,000 inmates who were transported to Jastrebarsko and then the Jasenovac death camp, where many died.

Wreaths were laid at the monument at Jadovno by Boris Milosevic on the government’s behalf, Dragana Jeckov on parliament’s behalf, Serbian President’s envoy Veran Matic, Kraus and Pupovac on the behalf of the Serb National Council, and representatives of the SABA antifascist alliance and the Serbian and Austrian embassies.

The commemoration was organised by the SNV with the Coordination of Jewish Communities in Croatia, the Eparchy of Gornji Karlovac, and SABA.