Every year on 22 April Serbia marks Remembrance Day for the Victims of the Holocaust, Genocide, and other Victims of Fascism. HRH Crown Prince Alexander sends his message appealing that we must always remember the innocent victims of these evils.
“We remember one of the most tragic periods in history, not only of our people and our country but of mankind. The dark days of World War Two brought terrible suffering and fear to millions of innocent Serbs, Jews, and Roma, who were killed in the most notorious ways in occupied Yugoslavia, and the so-called Independent fascist State of Croatia.
Victims of the crimes of unimaginable atrocities are obliging us to never forget their suffering and martyrdom. Concentration camps, all marked and unmarked pits in which even today lay the earthly remains of the savagely murdered children, women, and men, remind us to which extent beasts disguised as people can go.
It is something we must never forget! Terrible images from those dark days and upsetting testimonies of those who survived must always be in our minds, so crimes like this will never happen again. We owe it to the victims, but also to future generations. Creating and maintaining a society of free and equal people, in which anti-Nazi and anti-fascist values will have a special place, that is our obligation”, said Crown Prince Alexander.
The Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, Genocide, and other Victims of Fascism in the Second World War is a national holiday, i.e., the day of remembrance, which is marked in Serbia every year, on 22 April. It is dedicated to the memory of Serbs, Roma, and Jews, who died in mass crimes during the Second World War in the Independent fascist State of Croatia and occupied Yugoslavia.
That date was consciously chosen because, on the night between April 21st and 22nd, 1945, two groups with more than 1,000 prisoners tried to break out of the Ustasha concentration camp Jasenovac. Only 91 were saved.