JAVOR: NDH AIMED TO DESTROY THE SERBIAN NATION

PRIJEDOR, JULY 19 /SRNA/ - Prijedor Mayor Slobodan Javor said that the fact that the Independent State of Croatia /NDH/ was the only state in Europe to have camps for children testifies to this state’s plan to destroy an entire nation.

"This was not an isolated or sporadic case; it was part of a state plan to destroy a nation. That is why we want this to be known and heard, and for the history that has been difficult and painful for us to be passed down from generation to generation," Javor said in Gornji Jelovac near Prijedor at the commemoration of the Day of Remembrance for the Children Killed in the NDH from 1941 to 1945.

He recalled that a large number of residents were killed in this area, 312 people, including 75 children under the age of 14.

"It is devastating that those children were killed without a single shot being fired," Javor stressed.

He said that future generations must know what happened here and how children were killed and taken to camps.

"If we lose and forget our history, we lose our identity, and we must never allow that to happen," Javor said.

He stressed that it is the duty of all residents of the Potkozarje region to nurture the culture of remembrance of their ancestors and, in this way, look towards the future.

"We are not doing this to take revenge on anyone, nor out of hatred, but out of respect for the victims," Javor said.

The Mayor of Kozarska Dubica, Igor Savković, said that this is a day of remembrance for the innocent victims of the Ustasha genocide in Gornji Jelovac, where the remains of 312 residents are buried, including 75 children under the age of 14.

"It is our duty to nurture the culture of remembrance, protect the truth from being forgotten, and pass it on to future generations so that such a crime never happens again, to anyone," Savković stressed.

The Day of Remembrance for the Children Killed During the Genocide against Serbs, Jews and Roma in the NDH from 1941 to 1945 was commemorated in Macure near Prijedor.