The Serb National Council (SNV) organised a commemoration in Banski Grabovac, near Petrinja, on Saturday for Serbs killed by the Ustasha in 1941, at which SNV president Milorad Pupovac said that remembering them represented resistance against those who wanted to downplay that crime.

The ceremony commemorated 1,285 people killed on 25 and 26 July 1941 as victims of the Nazi-styled Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and participants in one of the most important Partisan uprisings in Croatia, the SNV said in a press release.

“This area paid a high price for the decision to rise up, but despite that, they did not give up,” Pupovac said at the commemoration.

“Celebrating the insurgents of this area, we are here first of all for the victims, the 1,285 Serbs… so that we don’t forget them,” he added.

“We wish future young generations not to be raised in the spirit of downplaying so that they don’t confuse the honourable desire of every people for its freedom, and for its own state if that is the price of freedom. The NDH was created by the Ustasha movement and those who want to see ‘God’s work’ in it should always face shame and a huge responsibility because of the evil seed which was sown in 1941 and which some think they should reap even today,” Pupovac said.