Commemoration held in Jasenovac on the 81st anniversary of the camp inmates' breakout

Today, the 81st anniversary of the breakout of the Ustasha concentration camp from World War II was marked with a memorial column and a commemorative program in Jasenovac.

The commemoration entitled "Remembrance for the Future", under the auspices of the Croatian Parliament, was attended by Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, while President Zoran Milanović's Chief of Staff Orsat Miljenić was present on behalf of his cabinet.

The commemorative gathering in Jasenovac was attended by several ministers, including foreign affairs Gordan Grlić Radman, interior affairs Davor Božinović and culture Nina Obuljen Koržinek, Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević, representatives of the peoples of the victims, anti-fascists, camp survivors, representatives of the diplomatic corps and political parties.

A commemorative program was held at the "Flower" monument, during which some of the testimonies of camp inmates were read. The program was led by students from the Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Arts, while prayers were led by representatives of the Orthodox, Catholic, Jewish and Islamic communities.

Last year, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the camp inmates' breakout, the entire state leadership gathered in Jasenovac, led by President Zoran Milanović and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, who led the column of remembrance.

It was one of the rare events in recent years where both the president and the prime minister attended without avoiding each other.

They come from different political parties, and for years they have had extremely strained relations with each other, often exchanging insults in public, and in recent years they have mostly avoided each other at the rare events they were present at at the same time.

In the last ten years, there have been many disagreements about the commemoration and its holding, so people went to Jasenovac in several columns.

For several years, representatives of the people of the victims and anti-fascists went to Jasenovac separately, and two years ago, the Jewish community did so, refusing to be part of the official state commemoration.

They then laid wreaths separately, as did representatives of the opposition parties Mozome and the Social Democratic Party. The main reason for the boycott was dissatisfaction with the lack of an explicit ban on the Ustasha salute "For the Homeland, Ready".

The commemoration in Jasenovac is dedicated to the breakout of the 600 remaining Jasenovac camp inmates on April 22, 1945, of whom about 100 survived.

The Jasenovac concentration camp was a death camp and the largest execution ground in Croatia. It was established during World War II as a place of imprisonment, forced labor, and liquidation primarily of Serbs, Roma, Jews, but also anti-fascist Croats and others, with the aim of creating an ethnically pure territory of the quisling NDH.

In that camp, from August 1941 to April 22, 1945, people were killed because of their religious, national or ideological affiliation. It included camps in Bročice, Krapje, Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška.

The Jasenovac Memorial Site public institution has collected the names of 83.145 victims. Of these, 47.627 are Serbs, 16.173 Roma, 13.116 Jews, 4.255 Croats and 1.128 Bosniaks.