A commemoration was held at the Jewish cemetery in Djakovo, eastern Croatia on Sunday for the victims of a former local concentration camp.

The commemoration, which included a religious service, was attended by representatives of the Jewish Communities of Zagreb, Osijek, Sarajevo and Belgrade as well as Djakovo town representatives. They also laid wreaths. Also present were several surviving inmates, now in their 90s.

The president of the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Communities in Croatia, Ognjen Kraus, recalled the victims and said the Holocaust was an evil which must not happen again.

The Djakovo Jewish concentration camp was in operation in 1941 and 1942. Mainly transferred there were Jews from Bosnia and Herzegovina, about 2,000 women, children and elderly people. About 550 inmates died in the camp. For many, it was just a stop on the way to Jasenovac, Auschwitz and other death camps.

Those who died in the Djakovo camp were buried by gravedigger Stjepan Kolb at the local cemetery, alongside tin plates with their names, age and places of birth. This makes the cemetery unique in the world. The tin plates were recently replaced with stone ones.