ĐURIĆ: THE SERBIAN PEOPLE MADE GREAT SACRIFICES IN DEFEATING NAZISM AND FASCISM

DOBOJ, MAY 9 /SRNA/ - Fascism and Nazism were crushed on this day 81 years ago in World War II, but not entirely defeated, as current events around the world warn, it was stated today in Doboj during the marking of Victory Day.

Dalibor Đurić, president of the city Association of Anti-Fascists and SUBNOR veterans, told reporters that on this day in 1945 Nazi Germany capitulated, and that the Serbian people made a major contribution and suffered great sacrifices in that struggle.

He recalled that, at a time when Europe was under occupation, the Serbian people in 1941 organized what was then the largest uprising and established free territories in Serbia and in parts of what are now BiH and Croatia.

Head of the city Department for Veterans' and Disability Protection Dejan Kovačević said that today's commemoration opposes attempts at historical revisionism regarding the role of the Serbian people in the liberation struggle against the Axis powers, while also passing the truth about those events on to younger generations.

The event was also attended by Vaskrsija Spasojević, whose grandfather Božo, a volunteer from the Salonika front, was one of the organizers of the uprising on Ozren and was killed in 1942 at the Okolište locality while serving as a battalion commander.

Spasojević, whose father also actively participated in the National Liberation Struggle, said the fighting was fierce, but that after the war, due to the existence of two Serbian movements at the time, little was discussed about that period within the family.

Wreaths were laid today in front of the Memorial Ossuary in Doboj's Park of National Heroes, where tribute was paid to fallen fighters and civilians. Wreaths were also laid by delegations from Doboj's Association of Anti-Fascists and SUBNOR veterans, the Doboj City Administration, and other associations and political parties.

Victory Day over Fascism is marked on May 9 in remembrance of that date in 1945, when the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany came into effect, bringing World War II in Europe to an end.

In human history, it was the largest and deadliest conflict by number of casualties, claiming around 60 million lives.

From the Doboj area, about 690 fighters were killed in the National Liberation War during World War II.

The crypt of the Memorial Ossuary contains the remains of 111 insurgents, 110 of whom were Serbs, who were sentenced to death and executed by an Ustasha summary court in Doboj in 1941.