08.08.2017.
Commemorated Anniversary of the Death of Archibald Reiss
The anniversary of death of the renowned humanist, criminologist and friend of Serbia, Archibald Reiss was commemorated today by a state ceremony held in Topčider Park.
The wreaths were laid at the monument to Reiss by President’s Secretary General Nikola Selaković, the State Secretary in the Ministry of Labour, Negovan Stanković,on behalf of the Government, as well as the representatives of the Ministry of Defence, Serbian Armed Forces, Criminology and Police Academy, the City of Belgrade, Association for fostering the tradition of liberation wars, Association of descendants of the warriors of Thessaloniki front and citizens.President’sSecretaryGeneralNikola Selakovićbelieves thatwe will not forget Doctor Archibald Reiss as long as we do not remember him solely on the day of marking his death “but as long as we repeat, each step that we make, what he used to repeat over the entire period since 1914 until the end of his life”.
“Andherepeatedthetruth about the suffering of Serbian people, especially between 1914 and 1915, and he witnessed its Golgotha, the retreat through Albanian ravines, the resurrection of the state on Corfu, Thessaloniki Front and the liberation”, Selakovićsaid.
But, ashepointed out, Serbs should remember Reiss not solely for his professional calling and ethics which he demonstrated in that period, when as a criminologist he worked in Serbia, mostly in the area of Mačva, Podrinje, western Serbia, but we should “live through his messages from his famous writing “Listen Serbs –Be Wary of Yourselves”, and to know ourselves in order to be able to resolve the greatest problems.
Archibald Reiss was a Swiss forensic scientist, publicist, doctor of chemistry and professor at the University in Lozano. Hegainedhisrenownthroughhisworkascriminologist on his research of crimes over Serbian population during the First World War.
He came to Serbia to investigate the crimes of Austro-Hungarian, German and Bulgarian armies over civilian population, upon an invitation of Serbian government in 1914.
Before the end of his life he published his war journal in the book “The Things I Have Seen and Experienced in the Great Days” and previously he had published “The Letters from Serbian-Macedonian Front” while he left an unpublished manuscript of the Book “Listen Serbs!” as his death bequest to the Serbian people.
