TULEKOVIĆ: GOLD MEDAL - INCENTIVE IN THE FIGHT TO SPREAD TRUTH ABOUT JASENOVAC AND NDH

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 20 /SRNA/ - The director of the Donja Gradina Memorial Area, Tanja Tuleković, stated that the Golden Medal of Merit for the People, awarded to the institution today in Belgrade, serves as an incentive to continue work on spreading the truth about the suffering of Serbs, Jews, and Roma in Jasenovac and the NDH /Independent State of Croatia/.

"Our duty is to preserve Donja Gradina and to speak in the language of those who can no longer speak. We hope to continue receiving this kind of support from the authorities of Serbia and Republika Srpska in the future," Tuleković told SRNA. Tuleković emphasized that this decoration, awarded by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, is a great honor and recognition for them. She emphasized the importance of building an adequate Memorial Center in Donja Gradina to round out the content, allowing the institution to take on the role of a regional center for research on this topic. "It is very important that we extend our reach far beyond the borders of Republika Srpska and Serbia, and because we do this institutionally, to network with organizations that research Holocaust and genocide crimes of the Second World War. We have concrete steps - cooperation with Hungary and Russia, and we want to expand this even further to other countries," Tuleković stated. She emphasized that the Donja Gradina Memorial Area has been cooperating for three years with the Holocaust Memorial Center in Budapest, which is highly influential and brings together a large number of scholars and researchers on this topic from around the world. "We are invited to all international conferences at the request of our colleagues and friends from Budapest. It is important that the voice of Donja Gradina is heard there, far beyond the borders of the region, precisely because of revisionism and everything that has happened in the past 30 years since the end of the Defense Patriotic War," she said. She emphasized that the Donja Gradina institution makes continuous efforts to tell the truth about the Jasenovac Concentration Camp and that participation in international conferences is crucial. On the occasion of the Day of Serbian Unity, Freedom, and the National Flag, decorations were awarded to 15 deserving individuals and institutions, including the writer Ljiljana Habjanović-Đurović, the Kolo Cultural and Artistic Society from Berane, and the parents of 11 children, Aleksandra and Milija Stanić from Stapari near Zrenjanin. The awards were presented at a ceremony in the Serbia Palace, attended by the highest leadership of Serbia and Republika Srpska.