TULEKOVIĆ: IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO COMPILE A LIST OF JASENOVAC VICTIMS

BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 1 /SRNA/ - Tanja Tuleković, director of the Donja Gradina Memorial Area, said that it is not too late to compile a list of victims of the Ustasha-run Jasenovac concentration camp and called on everyone who has a photograph, document, or piece of information to contact the institution.

"Even a small photograph or the most basic information, such as a first name, last name, and year of birth, is enough. We do not need to have all the details. We have ways of reconstructing the information, and we urge everyone whose ancestors were killed or passed through the Jasenovac camp system to contact us," Tuleković told SRNA.

She said that she and her colleague Mirko Dimić had researched four specific locations in the Kozarska Dubica area, namely the villages of Draksenić, Međeđa, Pucari and Sreflije, and had managed to uncover new information, document previously unrecorded victims and publish books on the subject.

"It is not too late; we can do it. We need to focus much more on families, talk to them and find clues that will lead us to our murdered relatives," Tuleković said.

She stressed that the Donja Gradina Memorial Area is continuously working to collect materials that can provide evidence of the suffering, primarily of the civilian population during the NDH /Independent State of Croatia/.

Tuleković said that they had managed to compile a collection of photographs in cooperation with the Republic Pedagogical Institute.

"It has been introduced into all schools in Republika Srpska as a teaching aid, and by presenting this subject to school-age children in an accessible way, we have done a great deal to educate our children," Tuleković said.

Tuleković announced that next year will see the promotion of the audiobook A Grief That Lasts a Lifetime by the recently deceased president of the Association of Jasenovac Camp Survivors, Dobrila Kukolj. This is one way to bring the story of the suffering of Serb children imprisoned in the camps to the attention of the world.

"Working with the Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Republika Srpska, we came up with the idea of making our publications accessible to them as well, and we chose this particular book as the first title. The book has been printed in Serbian, English, Russian and German," Tuleković said.

She added that audio editions had also been prepared in all four languages, as they wanted to broaden the reach of their efforts to present this subject to the world.

She noted that the implementation of the project was made easier because the Library already has staff who work on other publications. "It is important for institutions to cooperate, as together we can contribute to preserving the culture of remembrance," Tuleković concluded.