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JASENOVAC RESEARCH INSTITUTE
"LET THE TRUTH BE KNOWN"

PO BOX 10-0674
BROOKLYN, NY 11210

www.jasenovac.org
webmaster@jasenovac.org

JRI Press Release

APRIL 10, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

THIRD ANNUAL JASENOVAC DAY OF COMMEMORATION CEREMONY TO BE HELD AT NEW YORK'S HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL PARK IN BROOKLYN ON APRIL 25, 2004 AT 3 PM

On Sunday, April 25, 2004, the Jasenovac Research Institute will hold its third annual Holocaust commemoration ceremony to honor and remember the victims and Survivors of the Holocaust in Yugoslavia and their families. The ceremony will include a wreath laying, religious service and speeches by Survivors, scholars and political leaders. The ceremony comes one year after the approval of an inscribed monument dedicated to the memory of those who perished in the largest Nazi camp in the Balkans, Jasenovac, by the Holocaust Memorial Park Committee.

April 22nd marks the fifty-ninth anniversary of the heroic attempted breakout by the imprisoned victims of the Jasenovac camps. The memorial is timed to coincide as closely as possible with that date. Among those invited to attend are elected U.S. government officials, representatives of the governments of Serbia & Montenegro, Republika Srpska, and the state of Israel, as well as UN officials.

The Holocaust Memorial Park, which is located at West End Avenue between Emmons Ave & Shore Blvd in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, is the only monument park commemorating the Holocaust in the New York City area. Directions are below.

The names of loved ones lost at Jasenovac will be read and candles lit in their memory. A religious service in honor of the estimated 700,000 who were killed there will be performed by Father Djokan Majstorovic, Priest of St. Sava's Serbian Orthodox Church in Manhattan. A permanent monument to the victims is to be erected in the park. The work of commemorating and educating the world to the lessons of the crimes of Jasenovac are the fundamental steps to the establishment of peace and justice in the future. It is our obligation to our families to see this work through and the duty of a people.

The day of the breakout, April 22nd, was the last day the camp operated. A passage recounting those last heroic moments by an eyewitness recalls how the starving prisoners sacrificed their lives to overcome the Croatian guards and run a gauntlet of machine gun and rifle fire. They did this not so much to save themselves but so that just one of them might live to tell the world what happened there. All present at this year's ceremony shall likewise rededicate themselves to that same goal. All who support justice and recognition for Yugoslav Holocaust victims and Survivors are encouraged to enrich this commemoration with their participation.

What was Jasenovac?

Following the Nazi invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the "Independent State of Croatia" was established by Hitler as a pro-Nazi regime. Dedicated to a clerical-fascist ideology, it commenced on a systematic policy of racial extermination of all Jews, Serbs, and Romas living within its borders. From August 1941 to April 1945 hundreds of thousands of these three groups along with anti-fascists of other nationalities were killed at the complex of camps known as Jasenovac which lay along the Sava River in central Croatia. Jasenovac was among the largest and most brutal of concentration camps during the Holocaust. Jasenovac was the largest of the concentration camps established during the Nazi occupation of the Balkans. Recognition of the Jasenovac death camps has been ignored, suppressed, or neglected by many U.S. institutions over the years. And yet the consequences of this event led to the destruction of Yugoslavia and the revival of neo-fascism in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, leaving a path of death and destruction still unhalted to this day. It is believed that as many as 700,000 Serbs, Jews and Romas as well as anti-fascists of many other nationalities were murdered at Jasenovac in the most brutal ways in what were surely the worst war crimes ever committed in the Balkans. No honest discussion of genocide or human rights in the Balkans can begin without the history of Jasenovac.

The Jasenovac Research Institute

This ceremony is sponsored by the Jasenovac Research Institute. If you agree with this project and would like to help you can send your tax deductible contributions to Jasenovac Research Institute, PO Box 10-0674, Brooklyn, NY 11210. If you would like to more information you may contact us on the web at www.jasenovac.org . The Jasenovac Research Institute is a fully accredited 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to building public awareness and promoting education and activities designed to enlighten the world about the crimes of genocide committed at Jasenovac. Let the history be known!

TRAVEL DIRECTIONS TO THE COMMEMORATION

By Car From Manhattan: Take the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) Westbound to the Belt Parkway. You will travel on the Belt Eastbound and exit at Exit 8 (Coney Island Ave.). Follow signs for Kingsborough. Be warned that Exit 8 follows closely upon Exit 7.

The exit leaves you on Guilder Ave. You will take Guilder straight - past Coney Island Ave - and to its end at East 12th Street. Make a right turn on East 12th St. Then make an immediate left turn (at the light) onto Neptune Ave. You will then make another rapid turn - your first possible right - onto Cass Place (also at a light). Take Cass Place about 2 blocks past the light. West End Ave. and the Park are immediately on your left. You can find parking on the streets adjoining the park. Please follow posted parking regulations.

By Car From New Jersey: Take any of the 3 or 4 bridges going to Staten Island and head onto the Verrazano's Narrows Bridge (no toll out of Staten Island). Exit the bridge onto the Belt Parkway going East. Now follow the directions from Manhattan.

By Car From Queens or Long Island: Take the Belt Parkway West to Exit 8 (Coney Island Ave.). At the end of the exit turn right onto Voorhies Ave. Make another right from Voorhies onto Sheepshead Bay Road at the first light. Take Sheepshead Bay Road to the end (2 lights) and make a right turn. Make your first possible left turn at the second light onto West End Ave. The Holocaust Memorial Park is on this block on your left. You may park on any of the adjoining streets. Please follow posted parking regulations.

By Bus: The B-49 Bus stops within one block of the Holocaust Park. Any bus connection to the B-49 bus is good.

By Subway: The best lines to take are the D or the Q trains. Both go to Sheepshead Bay Station. Remember to get a transfer ticket at the token booth. In front of the train station is a bus stop for the B-49 bus.

We at the JRI know of your heartfelt commitment to the cause of Jasenovac awareness and look very much forward to your presence at the ceremony. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.