Holocaust Remembrance Day in Mostar

(Patria) - Today is January 27 - International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this occasion, the UABNOR Mostar issued a statement.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted an official resolution in 2005 on the observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The resolution calls on all UN member states to honor the memory of Holocaust victims and encourages the development of educational programs on the history of the Holocaust, demonstrating a commitment to help prevent acts of genocide in the future.

The Jewish Encyclopedia cites a figure of 5,820,960 Holocaust victims. Therefore, let us recall that before the Holocaust, 310 Jews lived in Mostar, while today there are only 35 members of the Jewish community in Mostar.

In the fascist death camps, 142 Jews from Mostar perished, and six of them died in the National Liberation War. All Jews of Bosnia and Herzegovina who survived the Holocaust were mostly in the Partisans.

A large number of them, as refugees fleeing the onslaught of fascism, passed through Mostar, which during the war was the only port of salvation for a large number of Jews from occupied Europe (Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, etc.).

There were two mitigating circumstances that helped save a larger number of refugee and domiciled Jews in the city on the Neretva. Mostar was under Italian occupation from April 1941. They did not carry out major reprisals and managed to control the NDH authorities, preventing murders and mass transports of Jews and other patriots to death camps, which the NDH, together with the Gestapo, did en masse after the capitulation of Italy, from September 1943.

The people of Mostar showed a great deal of compassion for the suffering of Jews, hiding Jews and Jewish refugees in their homes, as the Ustasha captured them and took them to camps, or most often killed them immediately; they also helped them with accommodation and food.

After World War II, two streets and a school in Mostar bore the names of true patriots and prominent Jews: National Hero Dr. Jakob Baruh – Španac and National Hero Moša Pijade Street, and the school – Braća Ribar. Today, that too is in the past.

However, marking January 27 - International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we cannot help but recall a brilliant thought that we have all known and remembered for a long time. A prominent leader of the Jewish community in Bosnia and Herzegovina once said: We are the salt of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It can do without us, but it is bland.

And indeed, without all of them, both Mostar and our homeland can exist, but it is bland. Following this thought, how can we not remember Isidor Papo, Emerik Blum, Isak Samokovlija, Oskar Danon, Danijel Ozma, David Hajon, Erna Cipra, and many others. Even without them, there would be Bosnia and Herzegovina, there would be Mostar, but with them and their work, it is what we love; Mostar is what we breathe. So, in the name of that love, let us remember the Holocaust and its victims in order to learn lessons for the future and be ready to face all assaults of neo-fascism and anti-Semitism that are raising their heads in Europe, but also here, around us. By remembering, recalling, and observing today's phenomena, we must be more prepared and united and say in one voice: It shall not pass!

On this occasion, organized by the Jewish Community of Mostar, today at 3:00 PM we will gather at the Jewish Cemetery in Mostar to lay flowers and pay tribute to all victims of the Holocaust.

This will simultaneously mark the beginning of this year's Mostar Days of Anti-Fascism," the statement said.