German state official on first ever visit to site of WW2 massacre in Serbia

Tanjug / Miloš Milojević

A senior German state official paid the first visit to the site of a WW 2 massacre by Nazi forces in the central Serbian city of Kragujevac on Thursday.

Bundestag Vice-President Claudia Roth paid homage to some 3,000 victims, including school children and teachers, who were gunned down over a three day period in October 1941 in retaliation for the deaths of Wehrmacht troops.

“I want to apologize at this place even though I don’t know whether you can apologize for what was done here but I promise that we will live in friendship and trust together in one European family remembering everything that happened and not forgetting these victims,” she said at the Sumarice memorial complex where she laid a wreath. Homage to the victims in Kragujevac was paid by German ambassadors to date.

The annual memorial service is named Great School Class in memory of the children killed there.

Roth voiced gratitude for being “given the opportunity to be here today as a German… for being here as a representative of Germany and the Bundestag,” she said, adding: “Everything can be said in two words for both Auschwitz and Kragujevac – never again”.

Franfurter Algemeine Zeitung said tht German foreign policy included politicians visiting sites of German crimes in WW2 but failed to do the same in Serbia. The daily said that President Aleksandar Vucic tried but failed to convince former German Chancellor Angela Merkel to attend the annual memorial service in Kragujevac believing that this could mean a change in relations between the two countries.