Today Serbia marks the Day of Remembrance of the Serbian victims of the Second World War.
The Memorial Day of the Serbian victims in World War II is meant to commemorate the 21st of October, 1941 and the bloody Autumn of that year, when the occupying forces committed massive war crimes against civilians in Kragujevac and the rest of Serbia.
On 20th and 21st of October 1941, the occupying forces shot several thousand civilians in Kragujevac in retaliation, which is considered one of the most tragic events on the Serbian soil in World War II. At the Nuremberg trial it was accepted that about 7,000 civilians were executed in Kragujevac, while the newer researches verified the names of 2,792 people that were killed, including 270 children, of whom the youngest was 11 years old.
Here are some of the messages written with trembling hands just hours before a Nazi firing squad took the lives of thousands of innocent civilians on that 21 October 1941.
“Don’t send the bread tomorrow…”
“Goodbye, Mica. I died today. Goodbye, sweetheart. My last thought is of you. Be happy, my daughter, even without me.”
“Mira, kiss the children for me. Listen to your mother, kids and look after yourselves. Goodbye forever, your dad Laza.”
Source: fb page Meet the Serbs
