Aleksandar Tasic
Head of the Serbian Delegation to the IHRA
Member country since: 2011
Remembrance Days: 27 January (International Holocaust Remembrance Day), 22 April (National Holocaust, WWII Genocide and other Fascist Crimes Victims' Remembrance Day), 16 Dec (National Roma WWII Genocide Victims' Remembrance Day), 10 May (Holocaust Victims in Belgrade)
Irina Zarin (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) – Deputy Head of Delegation
Nevena Bajalica (Anne Frank House) – Museums and Memorials Working Group
Jovan Culibrk (Commission on Staro Sajmište Memorial Ground) – Museums and Memorials Working Group
Milan Koljanin (Institute for Contemporary History) – Academic Working Group
Robert Sabados (President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Serbia)
Misko Stanisic (Terraforming) – Education Working Group
Since joining the IHRA, the Republic of Serbia has stepped up its efforts to connect the numerous institutions related to the Holocaust in order to promote Holocaust education, remembrance and research. There is a strong intention in the Republic of Serbia to renovate the Nazi concentration camps as memorial sites on the territory of former Yugoslavia. Personal stories and testimonies, rather than solely historical facts, numbers and archival documentation, have a much stronger impact on visitors to the memorial centers and in the education of young people.
The central remembrance site in the Republic of Serbia is Staro Sajmiste, the place of mass killing in World War II. This memorial center is intended to be a relevant centre from the point of view education, museology, science and research, as well as serving as a memorial complex. Lessons on the Holocaust have become part of Serbian school curricula.
The Republic of Serbia believes that an international Advisory Board could be an appropriate forum to continue IHRA activities in the process of memorializing Staro Sajmiste. This Board will be formed soon. Also, the drafting of the Law on the Staro Sajmiste site is close to a final version of the text.