ZAGREB, Apr 13 (Hina) - Yom Hashoa, the Jewish remembrance day for the victims of the Holocaust, was marked at Zagreb's central cemetery on Tuesday with the lighting of candles, wreath-laying and a prayer for the six millions of Jews
killed in World War Two. The Zagreb service was the central ceremony staged in Croatia in honour and memory of all victims of the Holocaust and the victims suffered by the Jewish community in Croatia in WW2. A service was also held in the eastern town of Osijek. This year the Jewish community in Croatia remembered its members, the young and the children who were killed at Croatia's WW2 concentration camp in Jasenovac with special piety, the president of the Jewish Community Zagreb and of the Coordination of Jewish Municipalities in Croatia, Ognjen Kraus, said today. Wreaths were laid by Kraus, the Croatian President's envoy Ivica Kostovic, parliament vice president Vladimir Seks, deputy prem
ZAGREB, Apr 13 (Hina) - Yom Hashoa, the Jewish remembrance day for
the victims of the Holocaust, was marked at Zagreb's central
cemetery on Tuesday with the lighting of candles, wreath-laying and
a prayer for the six millions of Jews killed in World War Two.
The Zagreb service was the central ceremony staged in Croatia in
honour and memory of all victims of the Holocaust and the victims
suffered by the Jewish community in Croatia in WW2. A service was
also held in the eastern town of Osijek.
This year the Jewish community in Croatia remembered its members,
the young and the children who were killed at Croatia's WW2
concentration camp in Jasenovac with special piety, the president
of the Jewish Community Zagreb and of the Coordination of Jewish
Municipalities in Croatia, Ognjen Kraus, said today.
Wreaths were laid by Kraus, the Croatian President's envoy Ivica
Kostovic, parliament vice president Vladimir Seks, deputy premier
Ljerka Mintas-Hodak, and representatives of the City of Zagreb. A
traditional Jewish prayer for the dead was said by Croatia's head
rabbi Kotel Dadon.
In his address, Kraus noted that this year's Yom Hashoa coincided
with the trial of the former commander of the Jasenovac camp, Dinko
Sakic, and asserted that the Jewish community in Croatia would not
allow anyone to manipulate with facts showing what the Jasenovac
camp was and with the fact that the Independent State of Croatia of
WW2 did have racial laws.
Had those laws not existed, children and young people could not have
been at Jasenovac, Kraus said, adding Croatian Jews were offended
by claims that the Jasenovac camp had a theatre and performances of
"Little Floramy".
"We expect the new Croatian state to take a clear stand with regard
to Ustashi crimes," Kraus said.
He assessed anti-Semitism in the world was on the rise, as were
anti-Semitic statements in Croatia. The Jewish community in
Croatia demands the state attorney to react to instances of
religious and national hatred, Kraus added.
Jews in Croatia welcome new ideas on tolerance in Jewish-Christian
relations, Kraus said, and cited the recent promotion of the
Croatian edition of "Our Age", a book by rabbis Jack Bemporad and
Michael Shevack, as an example of the promotion of tolerance.
Kraus recommended the book to the Croatian public, and pointed out
the Catholic Church of today condemned anti-Semitism as a crime
against Catholicism.
Kraus also noted that this year's Yom Hashoa was marked under the
impression and shadow of the Kosovo crisis and the fact that we are
witnesses of genocide and ethnic cleansing in our immediate
vicinity.
(hina) ha