Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told the opening of an exhibition commemorating the victims of the WW 2 Jasenovac death camp that that crimes should not be forgotten.

“By not forgetting crimes committed against us we are also not forgetting the crimes committed against others,” he said. He said that Jasenovac victim memorial day is not just remembrance but a reminder of how much is needed “for maniacal ideas of extermination”. The exhibit was created by nun Marija from the women’s convent in Jasenovac.

The Jasenovac death camp complex was set up by the fascist Ustashe in the Nazi puppet Independent State of Croatia. Thousands of Serb, Jew, Roma adults and children were killed in those camps which were reported to have been among the cruelest in WW 2. “Being a Serb then meant only one thing, you were unwanted,” he said. “We take the right to call things by their true name… and the motive for that are not only the frightening numbers of people killed,” he added. Vucic said that “forgetting the unwanted would mean that we their descendants are surplus in this world,” he said.

The ceremony was attended by Serbian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Porfirije who said that Jasenovac was known across the world for the most extreme evil thought up by man, adding that the people who committed those crimes belong to no nation and not to humanity.