Sarajevans still remember the sacrifice of the 55 civilians who Croatian Ustashas hanged 75 years ago because they refused to cooperate with the Nazi occupiers.

“Today we remembered 55 Sarajevo antifascists whom the Ustasa troops hung in the night between March 27 and 28, 1944, because they were antifascists who loved their country and didn't want to work for Nazi Germany,” said the head of the Centar Municipality's Association of antifascists and World War II veterans in Sarajevo, Sretko Hadziabdic, at an event marking the anniversary of the tragedy on Thursday.

The Ustasha movement was a Croatian fascist organisation that murdered hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Roma, as well as other peoples in Yugoslavia during World War II. Their ideology was a blend of fascism, Croatian nationalism and Roman Catholicism.

Hadziabdic added that it was a shame that no officials attended the event on Thursday and that the Association is doing everything it can to convey their antifascist values to younger generations.

Apart from members of the Association, many high school students attended the ceremony, which took place at the memorial to the 55 civilians in front of the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo's centre.

The students read out the names of the murdered civilians.