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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Jajinci place of memory, caution, collective conscience

Belgrade, 6 October 2024

Prime Minister Miloš Vučević said at the commemoration on the occasion of Remembrance Day for the Suffering of the Serbs, Roma and Jews at the Jajinci Mass Killing Site, that the government will do everything to preserve the memory of the murdered victims in a more dignified way in that place and to preserve and respect this memorial complex.

As the envoy of the President of the Republic, Vučević emphasised at the commemoration that Jajinci is a place of memory, sadness and pain, as well as a place of warning and collective conscience for all of us.

He said that it is important to preserve peace in these difficult times, as well as our freedom, which is the only guarantee that such horrors will never happen again.

According to him, the 20th century can be called a time of terrible judgment for certain peoples, and that from 1912 to 1945, more than two million Serbs lost their lives as a result of war actions of occupation regimes.

He recalled that more than 2,000 people were killed in Belgrade alone in the German bombing on 6 April 1941.

The beginning of the April occupation brought with it the concept of industrialised genocide. The former military shooting range near Jajinci was chosen by the occupying German authorities as a killing ground, and estimates say that more than 80,000 people perished here, he said.

The Prime Minister recalled that Serbs, Jews, Roma, as well as members and supporters of the resistance movement, were brought to Jajinci and killed en masse.

Today, a reborn Serbia is facing this place of mass suffering, like all other execution sites, with due reverence and respect, without any politicisation of the victims, Vučević pointed out.

We ourselves have to teach the children that our ancestors lie in Jajinci and that many would prefer that Serbian victims are not mentioned and that such things did not happen, so it is our duty to talk about that. A narrative is imposed on us that we are the nation of executioners, but in fact we are the nation of victims. What else can it be but a victim when, according to the official order, one hundred of our lives was worth as one Nazi life, the Prime Minister said.