JASENOVAC JASENOVAC, July 13 (Hina) - It is our elementary obligation to come here and recall what happened in the darkest period of the history of mankind, Israeli President Moshe Katsav said on Sunday morning in the memorial park of
Jasenovac.
JASENOVAC, July 13 (Hina) - It is our elementary obligation to come
here and recall what happened in the darkest period of the history
of mankind, Israeli President Moshe Katsav said on Sunday morning
in the memorial park of Jasenovac. #L#
Katsav and his host, Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, visited the
Memorial Museum and the monument erected in tribute to victims of a
concentration camp near the Croatian town of Jasenovac run by the
Ustasha during the Second World War. According to the latest
estimate, about 83,000 people were detained in the camp of whom
13,000 were Jews.
Presidents Mesic and Katsav signed the book of comments in the
museum. The Croatian head of state wrote that "one should remember
and thus help prevent the recurrence of a crime".
The delegations, led by the two presidents, then laid wreaths and
lit candles in front of the monument called the Stone Flower. The
chief rabbi for Croatia, Kotel Dadon, said a prayer.
History's message for us and all future generations is that the most
terrible events can take place in an exemplary society, Katsav told
reporters after he held brief talks with a few surviving inmates of
that camp. Katsav explained that he was referring to German society
before the Second World War when Germany, as he said, set a model to
the entire humanity because of its sophisticated society and the
best artists and poets in the world at the time.
However, such a society perpetrated the most horrendous things in
the history of the human race, the Israeli head of state added.
He said that both Croatian and Israeli people as well as Jews all
over the world would never forget what had happened in Jasenovac. He
voiced confidence both peoples would direct future generations
towards the path of co-operation and understanding.
The memories of the events from the past will show us the right road
to the future, Katsav told reporters.
Croatian President Mesic described the Jasenovac camp as a scene of
some of the gravest crimes from WW2 where people were killed only
because they had different opinions or belonged to other religions
or had other ethnic background.
"I believe this will never again happen, but to this purpose young
people must know what happened here," Mesic said.
Therefore, Croatia's schooling system should make it possible for
children to learn about all the horrible events which people kept in
the Jasenovac camp had experienced. That is why history textbooks
in Croatia are being changed because those until 2000 contained
many untruths, Mesic explained.
Before wrapping up his three-day official visit to Croatia on
Monday afternoon, Katsav will visit the Moses' Monument at Zagreb's
central cemetery of Mirogoj. From Zagreb he will fly to Slovakia.
(hina) ms