The second expanded edition of the exhibition and catalogue Jasenovac – My Story has been presented at the Hospitality and Economics School in Prijedor. The exhibition was originally created last year to mark the 80th anniversary of the Jasenovac camp prisoners’ breakout.
The updated exhibition now includes 20 additional personal accounts describing the suffering of camp inmates, preserved through the memories of their descendants.
Among those stories is that of Anđelka Jarić, whose mother’s entire family was killed in the Jasenovac concentration camp.
“Because my grandfather worked as a railway employee here at the station, when the occupiers arrived, they took my grandfather, my uncles, my aunt and my grandmother Anđelka, after whom I was named, to Jasenovac, where they were killed,” Jarić said.
The exhibition highlights the importance of preserving historical memory, a task actively embraced by students of the Hospitality and Economics School.
“It first inspired me to learn about my own family history. When I asked my grandfather, he told me a story that I later shared here. It was the story of my great-grandfather Božo Topić,” said first-year student Jovana Tevanović.
Another student, Mićo Borić, contributed both a family story and a poem.
“I had two contributions. I wrote a poem, and I believe that Jasenovac is a wound of the Serbian people that will never fully heal,” Borić said.
The exhibition was conceived by school librarian Branka Kovačević, recipient of the Saint Sava Award for her contribution to the development of librarianship.
“Many of the stories are deeply moving and contain painful details. We try to present them in a way that also highlights examples of humanity and compassion, such as the people who rescued children from Kozara and cared for them as members of their own families,” Kovačević explained.
The exhibition is open to visitors on the first floor of the Hospitality and Economics School in Prijedor.
Source: RTRS
