The Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, Genocide and Other Victims of Fascism in the Second World War, April 22, is a national holiday. It is dedicated to the memory of Serbs, Roma and Jews who died in mass crimes during the Second World War in the Independent State of Croatia and in occupied Yugoslavia.
That date was chosen because on the night between April 21 and 22, 1945, two groups with more than 1000 inmates tried to escape from the Ustasa concentration camp Jasenovac. 91 of them succeeded.
On this occasion, from Monday, the original list of 5800 Serbian children who were rescued from Ustasha camps by Diana Budisavljević will be available in the Museum of Genocide Victims in Belgrade. a humanitarian of Austrian origin, married to a doctor of Serbian nationality in Zagreb, saved around 12.000 children from Ustasa camps. She kept a file on the children, hoping that one day they would be returned to their real parents. Her file was confiscated in 1945 by order of the Croatian Ministry of Social Policy.
The list was created in the Institute for Deaf and Dumb Children in Zagreb in the second half of 1942 after the Battle of Kozara. It contains the names and surnames of the children, their parents, the place and date of birth, the place of the camp from which they were rescued, as well as the identity of the Croatian adoptive parents.
The list is a first-class historical source hitherto unknown to the public, which was thought to have disappeared. The Genocide Victims Museum received it last year. The only thing that is known is that he was searched for a long time, and that he came to Serbia thanks to the state authorities.
The museum can help anyone on that list or their descendants find out the identity. After the Museum presented the list to the public yesterday, a large number of citizens responded by email and via the Facebook page.
"The messages are emotional and touching. These are the children and grandchildren of those who are considered to have survived and are on the list. We will respond electronically to the requests of fellow citizens," said Dejan Ristić, director of the Grenocide Museum, to RTS this morning.
"Now, for the first time, we can offer living children, who are now old people and who are still searching for their identity, as well as their descendants, information about their real identity," Ristic said.
The material, which was acquired last year more than in the previous 30 years since the Museum was founded, will be used for both exhibition and research. There are thousands of artifacts in question.
S.Ć./RTS
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