POPOVIĆ: ŠUMARICE - SYMBOL OF SERBS' MARTYRDOM THAT SERVE AS WARNING TO HUMANITY

BELGRADE, OCTOBER 21 /SRNA/ – Šumarice will forever remain a symbol of Serb people’s martyrdom and an eternal reminder to humanity of Nazi crimes brutality, Nenad Popović, Minister without Portfolio in Serbia's caretaking government, said.

He stressed that the victims' sacrifice bears witness to the enormous price the Serb people paid for survival and freedom.

Speaking at the commemoration of Remembrance Day for Serb Victims of World War II, Popović said that the Serbs would never forget the atrocities and suffering inflicted upon them by Nazi Germany and its allies.

"They tried to eradicate everything with Serb prefix, destroy Serb holy sites, erase historical memory, and break the freedom-loving spirit of the Serb people, but they failed.

The Serb people survived, prevailed, and preserved their freedom, national dignity, and unbreakable spirit of freedom," Popović said.

He warned that some peoples in Europe are now seeking to revise history, portraying victims as executioners and executioners as victims. He stressed that it was the duty of the Serbs to preserve the truth and pass it on to future generations.

"We must not allow the world to forget who the liberators and who the occupiers were, who defended freedom and who sowed death and destruction.

As long as Serbia and the Serb people exist, the memory of our children who were executed, their teachers, and all the innocent victims of Nazi terror will live on," Popović said.

Remembrance Day for Serb Victims of World War II is observed in memory of October 21, 1941, when Nazi occupiers executed approximately 3,000 Serb civilians in Kragujevac. Among the victims were around 300 students and teachers from the First Kragujevac Gymnasium, as well as 15 children between the ages of eight and 15.