Serbia's Nis To Renovate Park Honoring Great Patriotic War Victims - Russian Agency

Serbia's Nis to Renovate Park Honoring Great Patriotic War Victims - Russian Agency

The authorities of Nis, Serbia, will renovate a park near what was once a Nazi concentration camp to honor the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, in cooperation with Russia's agency for international humanitarian cooperation, the head of Rossotrudnichestvo's representative office, Yevgeny Baranov, told Sputnik on Tuesday

BELGRADE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd June, 2021) The authorities of Nis, Serbia, will renovate a park near what was once a Nazi concentration camp to honor the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, in cooperation with Russia's agency for international humanitarian cooperation, the head of Rossotrudnichestvo's representative office, Yevgeny Baranov, told Sputnik on Tuesday.

Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, Serbian Minister of Innovation and Technological Development Nenad Popovic, and Rossotrudnichestvo chief Yevgeny Primakov, were among the participants of a commemorative event on the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in Nis.

"It was a great joy for us that the city of Nis, in response to our request to plant five trees in the park near the former Crveni Krst concentration camp, came out with its proposals. As a result, instead of five birch trees that would have grown for decades, the city authorities decided to completely renovate the park, which was in poor condition, in front of the memorial complex of the former concentration camp. Therefore, there was no doubt where to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the terrible war," Baranov said.

The concentration camp near the Crveni Krst railway station in Nis was established in 1941 by German occupiers to hold captured Jews, Romanis, and Serbs. The total number of hostages during the existence of the camp until 1944 amounts to more than 30,00 people, 10,000 of whom died there.

The inmates were freed by Yugoslav Partisans.

On Tuesday, Russia and some other post-Soviet nations mark exactly 80 years after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union by attacking Brest, Kiev, and other Soviet cities with the largest force in the history of warfare.

The Great Patriotic War lasted 1,418 days and ended on May 9, 1945, when Nazi Germany capitulated. June 22 is the annual Remembrance Day for the Great Patriotic War victims.