Prayerful remembrance of the suffered in Jajinci

1/10/2011

His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch served today, on October 1, 2011 in the church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Jajinci a memorial service for the suffered in the greatest scaffold from the Second World War on the territory of Serbia. Serbian Patriarch previously has attended a commemoration at the Memorial park Jajinci.

The words of the guardian of truth about Jajinci remind us today: Jajinci with 80000 victims, after Jasenovac, are the greatest Serbian cemetary, greater than Kragujevac, Kraljevo…Jajinci is a silent witness of the time gone and a painful wound of the Serbian people. About Jajinci there was silence for a long time, like that truth can be silenced, and that the bloody terror could be forgotten. Long after the Second World War Jajinci were pushed on the margins of history. Some people thought that from the memory of the Serbs could erase the Banjica camp, stake and burial mounds where the dead were killed once again, burnt, where their bones were ground and their powder was thrown away. From the bonfire of the dead Serbs, the smoke rose into the sky that could be seen even from Belgrade. Meticulous fascist destruction industry here showed in the worst light. Lives were gone of those who wanted the most precious thing in life – freedom.

In years after the Second World War the scaffold in Jajinci became a place where our people gathered (unscrupulous individuals as we often call them!) who use burial fields, where rest the mortal remains of several thousand innocently killed, as places for picnic, sport and fun. Unfortunately, a simiral situation is also at other scaffolds throughout Serbian lands. Does our negligent attitude to the scaffold in Jajinci tells us about our forgetfulness of our glorious ancestors, about the lack of human and historical consciousness, as well as the lack of care and effort that the truth about the suffering of our people – not just during the Second World War, but also those from our recent history – come out to light?

The Serbian government decided that this year mark at the highest state level the 70 years since the beginning of mass executions in Jajinci which were carried out until the autumn of the 1944. Through the competent Ministry of labour and social politics – the sector for the protection of war veterans and invalids, the Serbian Government launched an initiative that the scaffold in Jajinci becomes again a place of the memory in which silence rules and a feeling of respect for ten thousands victims of Serbian, Roma and Jewish nationality who were executed there. As they say in this ministry, our mutal obligation is that to preserve Jajinci from further decay, devastation and violation from the unscrupulous individuals, as well as to preserve a dignified memory for all the innocently suffered at this site. Stressing that we are responsible not only as individuals but also as the society, from this Ministry they call to remember our past and with it to create healthy foundations for tomorrow.

In the presence of the highest state official, representatives of the traditional Churches and religious communities, representatives of the diplomatic corps from forty countries and lots of people, the message of peace from the Memorial park was sent today the President of the Republic Mr. Boris Tadic.

Mr. Ljubomir Zecevic, a survived prisoner, also addressed the attendees, and reminded that on this day in 1944 the ocupator killed about 433 prisoners in one of the most massive executions.

At the event today at the Memorial park Jajinci there were also the Serbian Prime MInister Dr Mirko Cvetkovic, President of the Assembly of Serbia Dr Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, the Chief of the Staff Miloje Miletic, war veterans and survived prisoners of the death camp from the Second World War.

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