Israeli President Shimon Peres, who is on a visit to Croatia of several days, on Sunday visited the Jasenovac Memorial Site and with his host, President Ivo Josipovic, paid tribute to the victims of the World War II concentration camp.
As a Jew, I can't visit this place and not be touched, Peres said.
This camp is different from other concentration camps because its victims were not only Jews, the Israeli president said, adding that the way the camp's prisoners were killed - with mallets, knives and stones - bore witness to hatred and brutality.
President Josipovic said that Jasenovac was a place for coming to terms with the past. "The past was difficult and painful, but we must learn lessons from it so that our future could be better and the horrors that happened here and in many other places never happen again," he said.
"Jasenovac is the place of a horrible crime where the criminal Ustasha regime killed many Serbs, Jews, Roma and Croats, just because they were different," said Josipovic.
The two presidents agreed that it was important to educate future generations so that tragedies like Jasenovac did not recur.
Not forgetting is not enough, one should teach about the tragedy that poisons the dignity of both the victims and the survivors, said Peres, also mentioning in his brief address the Iranian president, who he said was negating the Holocaust in order to give legitimacy to the continuation of killing.
I can't keep silent or forget, but I am proud that we are trying to build a civilisation of humanity and respect for all human lives, Peres said.
The Israeli president also took part in Kaddish, the mourner's prayer that was said by the Croatian Rabbis Kotel Da Don and Lucijan Prelevic, after which he and Josipovic laid wreaths at the Jasenovac Flower Memorial. They also toured the Jasenovac Memorial Museum, accompanied by the museum's director, Natasa Jovicic.
Later in the day, President Peres was expected to meet Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and thus end his visit to Croatia.
Peres is the second Israeli head of state to have visited Jasenovac, the place of suffering of the victims of the pro-Nazi Ustasha regime, mostly Serbs, Jews, Roma and Croat anti-fascists.
Moshe Katsav was the first Israeli president to visit Jasenovac, during a visit in 2003.
Upon his arrival in Zagreb on Friday, Peres held talks with Josipovic.
