ZAGREB, July 29, 2019 – Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem on Monday, expressing deep sorrow for the victims in Croatia, Europe and the world and saying that the Shoah, the tragedy of the Jewish people, would and must never be forgotten.
She also expressed sympathy with the victims’ families and their descendants.
In the Hall of Remembrance, she lit the Eternal Flame in memory of the six million Jews killed in Nazi pogroms and camps during WWII, and laid a wreath at the slab beneath which are victims’ ashes.
This was not the president’s first visit to Yad Vashem. She said that every time she visited it, she was shaken by the tragedy of the Jewish people and the blackest hour of humankind.
As president of Croatia, a country founded on antifascism and the Homeland War, I’m especially proud of all the Croatian righteous among the nations and the many other Croats who, in the darkness of war and unspeakable crimes, were a symbol of light and courage, she said.
There are 115 Croatian righteous among the nations.
The tragedy of the Jewish people and the pain of the survivors are a lasting reminder that the values of humankind, peace and democracy must never be taken for granted, the president said.
May it not be forgotten so that it never happens again. Tikkun olam – let’s be better, Grabar-Kitarović said.
She gave Yad Vashem director Dorit Novak a book by Esther Gitman, an American Jew from Sarajevo, about the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, “Pillar of Human Rights”.
Novak thanked Grabar-Kitarović for her commitment in recent years and advocacy of preserving the memory of, as she said, the six million cruelly killed souls.
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