Today, the European Day of Remembrance of the Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes is marked on Daksa, Dubrovnik’s island of ghosts.
As DuList reports on the 23rd of August, 2017, Mayor of the City of Dubrovnik Mato Franković and President of the City Council Marko Potrebica laid a wreath and lit a candle on the island of Daksa in memory of all victims of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.
The ceremony was attended by Dubrovnik-Neretva County’s Prefect Nikola Dobroslavić, Deputy Prefect Joško Cebalo and others.
By marking the European Day of Remembrance of the Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, Croatia joins most other EU member states, which, at the recommendation of the European Parliament, are encouraged to reflect on sensitive and complex issues of our common European history and its preservation so that the next generations can learn from the mistakes we have made in the past, as well so build upon co-existence on the foundations of democracy and respect for human and fundamental rights.
”The European Day of Remembrance of Victims of Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, on August the 23rd, is an important and significant reminder. We remember those who have been affected by the totalitarian regimes: Nazism, Fascism and Communism. However, we also remind ourselves of the obligation to preserve and advance the democratic system in which we live. There are societies which are free, and those which aren’t. There are democratic systems, and there are also totalitarian systems. We will not allow the return of totalitarian regimes in any form. We protect our homeland, our freedom and our democracy, they are worth the effort, the suffering and sacrifice.” stated Nikola Dobroslavić.
Daksa was the site of a brutal massacre carried out by the Yugoslav partisans against unarmed civilians and several prominent Dubrovnik figures upon their arrival in Dubrovnik in October 1944. Niko Koprivica, the then Mayor of Dubrovnik was among those arrested and sadistically slaughtered on Daksa without trial. To find out more about Daksa, click here.
