DONJA GRADINA MEMORIAL ZONE - STARO SAJMIŠTE MEMORIAL CENTRE COOPERATION OFFICIALLY ESTABLISHED

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 17 /SRNA/ – The representatives of the Donja Gradina Memorial Zone and the Staro Sajmište Memorial Centre signed an agreement in Belgrade, establishing and strengthening cooperation in fields of common national, cultural, educational and historical importance, with a focus on preserving the culture of remembrance of the victims of the NDH genocide against Serbs, Jews and Roma.

The agreement was signed by Tanja Tuleković, director of the Donja Gradina Memorial Zone, and Krinka Vidaković Petrov, director of the Staro Sajmište Memorial Centre.

Tuleković said that the agreement would allow raising the research and the presentation of this subject to a higher level, and that it would bring for the Donja Gradina Memorial Site a wider audience and an opportunity to reach beyond the borders of Republika Srpska.

"We would like to devote as much as possible to creating educational content for new generations," Tuleković told the press after the signing at the Staro Sajmište Memorial Centre.

Tuleković announced that an exhibition by the Staro Sajmište Memorial Centre would be held on October 7, presenting the suffering of Serbs in the territory of present-day Republika Srpska, followed by a gathering in Belgrade.

"It is important that we connect, network and spread the truth about the suffering during the NDH," Tuleković said.

She stressed that cooperation between the two institutions is important precisely because a very large number of people from the area around Kozara and Potkozarje were deported to Belgrade, to the Sajmište camp, where many of them perished.

Petrov said that the Staro Sajmište Memorial Centre covers three of the four Ustasha and Nazi prison camps in Belgrade, which at the time was the only capital city in Europe with four camps.

She says the Centre has common links with the Donja Gradina Memorial Zone because the Ustasha authorities deported prisoners from the Donja Gradina area to the two camps at Sajmište.

She stresses that the goal is to place the two Nazi camps at Sajmište in Belgrade on the European map of Nazi camps.