President Milanović Attends Unveiling of Monument to Victims of the Holocaust and Ustasha Regime

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović attended the unveiling of a monument to the victims of the Holocaust and the Ustasha regime, erected at the central railway station in Zagreb on the occasion of Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day Yom Hashoah.

The monument was erected in memory of the 30,000 Jews killed in the Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia, as well as the numerous victims of other genocides and mass atrocities committed by the Ustasha regime and the Third Reich. It was jointly unveiled by the “last boy” from Auschwitz, Oleg Mandić, and the Mayor of the City of Zagreb, Tomislav Tomašević.

The City of Zagreb published, implemented and financed the tender and the construction of the monument to pay lasting gratitude and respects to all people of Zagreb who were killed during the Holocaust and the Ustasha regime of the Independent State of Croatia. Namely, in August 1942 about 800 Zagreb Jews were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp from the point at Zagreb’s central railway station where the monument was erected.

Thirty-eight works were submitted to the tender. The jury, chaired by Branko Lustig, selected the work of sculptor Dalibor Stošić and architect Krešimir Rogina entitled ‘Present Absence’. The monument was built as a wall of victims’ luggage placed on a horizontal concrete monolithic slab that takes the shape of a monumental tomb, with 6 million tiny Stars of David imprinted in the concrete.

Head of the Cabinet of the President of the Republic Bartol Šimunić and Adviser to the President of the Republic for Human Rights and Civil Society Melita Mulić were alongside President Milanović at the unveiling of the monument.

PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Marko Beljan