The Memorial Academy “Eyes to eyes = Gradina” was held at the House of Culture at Kozarska Dubica, as a part of the marking of the Remembrance Day of the victims of the Ustasha crime genocide at the Jasenovac camp and its biggest execution site at Donja Gradina.
The Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Srpska, Mr Dane Malešević said that the Memorial Academy is an opportunity to remind ourselves to those horrible days when long columns of people from Kozara region were brought to Jasenovac and then transferred to Donja Gradina, where they were killed.
He said that this is another opportunity to pay tribute to the victims who lost their lives just because they had different names or they prayed to a different God, different to some from the NDH, and to convey the remembrance culture to the youth. According to his words, the NDH killed all the people at Jasenovac, from the youngest to the oldest, although they weren’t guilty for anything, but just because they were Serbs, Roma or Jews.
The municipal mayor of Kozarska Dubica, Mr Radenko Reljić, talked about the beginnings of the Jasenovac camp and Donja Gradina, which was the biggest execution site and a mass grave for the victims of that camp and he underlined the significance to talk and write about what happened in the camp.
“My message from this place is that we shouldn’t let that such a genocide and such a horrible history happen ever again as it happened in the Jasenovac concentration camp, where also some members of my family were murdered”, Mr Reljić said.
Talking about the atrocities committed at that camp, he emphasised that Jasenovac and Donja Gradina are the biggest execution sites of the Serbs and other nations and antifascists.
The director of the Memorial Zone, Ms Tanja Tuleković reminded that the Memorial Academy has been held annualy at Kozarska Dubica, the evening before the annual commemoration for the victims of the Jasenovac concentration camp.
“This year the Academy is called “Eyes to eyes ꞊ Gradina”, and the theme of the Academy is facing the executioner to the victim, because Donja Gradina is the only execution site of all the concentration camps where the victim and the executioner were face to face, eyes to eyes, it was the place where hundreds of thousands of innocent Serbs, Jews and Roma were tortured in the most cruel way and killed in the most horrifying ways.”, said Ms Tuleković.
The Serbian Singing Association “Višnjić”, the Drama Studio “Artist” from Kozarska Dubica took parts in the Memorial Academy, and the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska parliamentary representatives Mr Darko Banjac, Mr Perica Bundalo and Mr Duško Ivić, as well as the director of the Pedagogical Institute of the Republic of Srpska, Mr Predrag Damjanović, the President of the Republic of Srpska’s secretary, Mr Milan Ljepojević and numerous others municipality officials and citizens were present at the event.
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