06.10.2024.
Commemoration held in memorial park “Jajinci”
A sate ceremony commemorating the Remembrance Day for the Suffering of Serbs, Roma and Jews in the Second World War was held in the memorial park “Jajinci”.
The ceremony honouring the victims was led by Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, the representative of the President of the Republic and Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić.At the beginning of the event, Bishop Petar of Toplica, Vicar of the Serbian Patriarch, concelebrated a mass with the priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and then a prayer was offered for the Serbian, Roma and Jewish victims.
With a guard of honour in attendance, Prime Minister Vučević laid a wreath near the monument to the victims of this infamous execution site, as the Serbian national anthem “Bože pravde” (God of Justice) was played by the Serbian Armed Forces’ Guards Orchestra.
After the wreath-laying ceremony, Prime Minister Vučević addressed a large gathering consisting of numerous local and foreign officials and citizens, pointing out that the 20th century could be called the end of the world for certain peoples. - From 1912 to 1945, more than two million of our compatriots were killed in wars or fell victim to monstrous policies of the occupation regimes. During the First World War, Serbs were the first people in Europe to experience firsthand what concentration camps meant for civilians. The unthinkable extermination and destruction of Serbs seems to have set the stage for the evil that would take place in the next world war - said Prime Minister Vučević.
He recalled that an entire town had been killed at the execution site in Jajinci.
- As a society, we have lost here so many doctors, teachers, lawyers, farmers, above all fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. The task of historians is to carry out research into their lives and collect their biographies so that we can fully and clearly understand the true magnitude of our loss - said Prime Minister Vučević.
The event was attended by representatives of the National Assembly, government ministers, representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the City of Belgrade, the Voždovac municipality, diplomatic and military diplomatic corps, the Association of Surviving Camp Prisoners, the National Council of the Roma National Minority, the Federation of Jewish Communities, the Union of War Veterans of the National Liberation Wars of Serbia (SUBNOR) and numerous veterans.
The commemoration in Jajinci is held in memory of tens of thousands of Serbs, Roma and Jews, members of the National Liberation Movement and anti-fascists killed in the Second World War.
The large memorial park in Jajinci, which includes a monument to the victims, was opened on October 20, 1964, on the 20th anniversary of the entry of Partisan troops into Belgrade.