4/23/2025
Stamps commemorating breakthrough of prisoners from Jasenovac death camp
The Post of Serbia presented to the public a commemorative postage stamp issue "Breakthrough of Prisoners from the Death Camp in Jasenovac" at the ceremony marking the Day of the Museum of Genocide Victims, as well as the Holocaust, WWII Genocide and other Fascist Crimes Victims' Remembrance Day.
At a gathering at the Archives of Yugoslavia, the Acting Director of the Post of Serbia, Zoran Anđelković, spoke about Jasenovac as a symbol and not the only place of suffering. He highlighted the contribution of the commemorative postage stamp issue to the cultivation of the culture of remembrance. “The fight for freedom is always expensive and has cost many lives, but it has also made legends out of many, such as those who initiated the breakthrough and those like Ristić, and it has also given our future generations the opportunity to learn more about the cruelty in the Ustasha camps. If there had been no breakthrough, if there had been no survivors, we would probably have remained poorer in knowledge of what happened in Jasenovac,” said director Anđelković.
He thanked the Museum of Genocide Victims and the Eparchy of Pakrac and Slavonia of the Serbian Orthodox Church for their professional cooperation in the realization of the issue. "The contribution of the Post of Serbia is a small contribution and a tribute to all victims, but also a vow to fight and preserve relations with freedom fighters against Nazism and fascism that still persists today. When we remember Jasenovac, it is an incentive to continue to fight strongly against all fascist and Nazi evils. Thank you for including the Post of Serbia in the commemoration of the Day of the Museum of Genocide Victims", concluded Director Anđelković.
The heroic feat of the last Jasenovac prisoners who won their freedom on April 22, 1945, will as of now be recorded on commemorative postage stamps as well. The breakout of the camp under the leadership of Ante Bakotić was planned in secret on the night between April 21 and 22, and on April 22 in the morning, at his signal, breaking through the doors and windows and surprising the camp guards, about six hundred prisoners rushed across the cleared area, suffering significant losses from the guards who were firing at them from machine gun nests. Mile Ristić, one of the camp inmates, managed to seize a machine gun and return fire, thus providing protection for the participants in the breakout. Having made their way through the southeast gate, the survivors headed for the forests where they found refuge and freedom.
In the graphic realization of the academic painter Anamari Banjac, the creator of the stamps for the Post of Serbia, the commemorative postage stamp issue "Breakthrough of Prisoners from the Death Camp in Jasenovac" features the work of the nun Marija, Holy New Martyrs of Jasenovac, as motifs for the stamp, vignette and envelope, depicted with the blessing of His Grace Bishop Jovan of Pakrac and Slavonia.
This year's commemoration of the Day of the Museum of Genocide Victims, as the main institution for matters of the culture of remembrance in the Republic of Serbia, takes on special significance in light of the jubilee - the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of Jasenovac, one of the cruellest concentration and death camps in occupied Europe, which will be marked in 2025.