GREIF: TRUTH ABOUT JASENOVAC MUST BE PASSED ON EVERY DAY

PALE, JUNE 9 /SRNA/ - World-renowned Israeli historian and Holocaust expert Gideon Greif has stated today in Pale that he has spent the past 14 years documenting the suffering of Serbs, Jews and Roma in Jasenovac, describing the camp as a site of unprecedented brutality whose victims must never be forgotten.

Speaking at the Faculty of Philosophy in Pale on the topic "The Holocaust and the Culture of Remembrance", Greif said his long-term research uncovered numerous methods of torture and execution used in the Ustasha-run Jasenovac camp.

"I discovered as many as 57 different methods of execution. In terms of the brutality of taking human life, what happened in Jasenovac was even more horrific than what the Germans did in Auschwitz and other camps. That is why I decided to create a documented record of the suffering and everything people endured there", Greif added.

He noted that far less was known about Jasenovac before his research began.

"The most important thing is that people now know what happened there and that many facts have been documented and proven. Not everything has yet been fully investigated, but we are on the right path to revealing the truth about Jasenovac and the crimes committed by the Ustashas against Serbs, Jews and Roma during World War II", Greif stated.

Greif stressed that the brutality of the crimes committed at Jasenovac is difficult to describe and that people were murdered in a bestial manner.

Discussing the culture of remembrance, he said the victims must remain permanently present in collective memory, adding that this would also be their wish and message.

"Some of them have been proclaimed martyrs, such as the Jasenovac martyrs, but it is equally important to remember them every single day", Greif said.

Commenting on tomorrow's screening of the film Son of Saul, based on his book We Wept Without Tears, Greif said the movie authentically depicts the horrors of Auschwitz.

He added that it is a difficult film to watch, but an important one because it realistically portrays part of the terror prisoners endured, and he believes as many people as possible should see it in order to understand the scale of the suffering.

The lecture was held as part of the scientific conference "The Holocaust and the Genocide Against Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia: Sociological and Political Science Aspects", which began yesterday at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Istočno Sarajevo in Pale.

The conference is organized by the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Istočno Sarajevo and the Center for Socio-Political Research of Republika Srpska.