REMEMBERING VICTIMS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING

BANJA LUKA, JANUARY 27 /SRNA/ - Remembrance is the most important thing; the victims of the Holocaust must not be forgotten, Aleksandra Stevandić, President of the Jewish Community of Banja Luka, told SRNA after wreaths were laid at the Jewish memorial at the New Cemetery on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Stevandić told SRNA that the Holocaust was not a crime against just one people, but a time when all of humanity failed, and hatred became law. "The Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers in the camps; it began with words, exclusion, belittlement, and ridicule of a religious community," Stevandić stated. According to her, besides honoring the Jewish victims every year, they also pay tribute to the millions of other innocent victims killed during World War II, many of whom do not even have a memorial bearing their names. "The culture of remembrance is essentially something we must care for and nurture so that future generations grow up respecting and preserving diversity, rather than fearing it or seeing it as a threat," Stevandić said. She said that before World War II, the Jewish Community of Banja Luka had nearly 600 members, and that after the war, only about 15 percent survived, some of whom emigrated to Israel, while very few returned to Banja Luka. "That community has been rebuilding for years, making the Jewish Community of Banja Luka the second largest in BiH. We are very active, with nearly 100 members, about 25 percent of whom are children, which we are proud of," Stevandić concluded. Wreaths were also laid by representatives of the Office of the President of Republika Srpska, the Society for Serbian-Jewish Friendship, the Council of Peoples, the Ministry of Labor, War Veterans and Disabled Persons' Protection, the Center for Socio-Political Research, the Consul General of Croatia in Banja Luka, representatives of the City Administration, and Dragan Davidović, Director of the Republic Secretariat for Religious Affairs. International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed on January 27, the day in 1945 when Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious death camp in occupied Europe, was liberated.