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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Fighting every form of discrimination based on race, creed and ethnicity

Belgrade, 27 January 2006

As part of the observation of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica unveiled today a memorial plaque in the commemorative park Topovske Supe at Autokomanda in Belgrade. The plaque will serve as a memory to the suffering of Belgrade Jews and Roma who were taken from this park to execution or concentration camps.

Kostunica's speech at unveiling memorial plaque in Topovske Supe commemorative park

During the ceremony, Kostunica recalled that Topovske Supe is a place of one the greatest human sufferings at the beginning of World War Two and said that it is very important for Belgrade and Serbia that the commemorative park is opened today when the remembrance day to victims of the Holocaust is observed for the first time.

From this place our fellow citizens, Jews and Roma, were taken to concentration camps where all of them, except for very few exceptions, found their death, said the Prime Minister and added that in only one day, 2,200 Jewish men were killed in Topovske Supe.

He said that insane things were happening and stressed that today is the day when our feelings, thoughts and silent prayers are much stronger than any word. Those people are not forgotten, they never will and must not be forgotten, Kostunica said.

The Prime Minister said that all of us have two big obligations - never to forget the suffering of those killed in Topovske Supe, and to constantly fight against all forms of discrimination based on race, creed or ethnicity.

Israeli representative to Serbia-Montenegro Clara Svitenberg recalled that in the Second World War, two-thirds of European Jews were killed, of whom 1.5 million were children, and pointed out that the victims were killed and tortured not only by the Nazis, but by the world's silence as well.

According to Svitenberg, this is an opportunity to remember the potential victims of the Nazis today, and our duty is to teach the young that no country or society can make any progress without the respect for every human being.

She warned that the world must be on alert in the case of revival of anti-Semitism and be ready to respond to new forms of discrimination that appear today.

In the Second World War, out of a total of 16,000 Jews in Serbia 14,500 were killed, as well as 90% of 12,000 Jews in Belgrade.

Memorial plaque as remembrance to the killing of Belgrade Jews and Roma

Topovske Supe was a transit concentration camp for Jews and Roma who were deported from there to Auschwitz, and a considerable number of them were killed there in retaliation.

A religious service at the opening of the commemorative park and unveiling of memorial plaque was made by Rabbi of the Jewish religious community in Serbia-Montenegro Isak Asijev and Archpriest of the Serbian Orthodox Church Dragan Terzic.