Sarajevo names a park after WWII heroine

The proposal was submitted by state parliamentarian, Damir Arnaut in February this year.

“Jelena Vitas was active in the People’s Liberation Movement (NOP) from the beginning of the occupation of Sarajevo in 1941. Ustasha (extremists) arrested her in 1942, tortured and interrogated her in the headquarters of the Ustasha Control Service (UNS). Despite the most horrible tortures, she never betrayed the NOP members, saving many of their lives. In mid-1943 she was transported to Jasenovac (concentration camp) where she was killed in the end of 1944,” said the MP in his initiative, recalling that a Sarajevo street where she used to live and a kindergarten were earlier named after Vitas.

This was the first time that an initiative sent out from the State Parliament was adopted at a lower level of authority.

The MP’s initiative was previously endorsed by the Sarajevo Centre Municipality’s local community Trg Oslobodjenja, where the park is located.

Besides the fact that the memorial park will keep reminding the citizens of the heroic past of Sarajevo, said Arnaut, the city will also properly mark the 100th anniversary of Vitas’s birth.