Serbia flies yellow-badge flag to honor Holocaust victims

President Aleksandar Vučić tweeted a photo of the flag flying over his official residence, with the words 'never again.'

By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDS
Yellow badge Star of David (photo credit: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/DANIEL ULLRICH)
Yellow badge Star of David
(photo credit: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/DANIEL ULLRICH)
A yellow flag, reminiscent of the badges Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust, is being flown in Serbia as a “badge of honor” to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the country’s president has said, adding regarding the attempted destruction of the Jews by the Nazis: “never again.”
The flag, featuring a Star of David and the word “Jude,” is being flown alongside the country’s national flag, above the north entrance to the Novi Dvor, or ‘New Palace’ in Belgrade, the official seat of the President of Serbia. Its design evokes the yellow badges Jews across Europe were forced to wear under threat of death, when much of the continent fell under Nazi occupation between 1939 and 1945.
President Aleksandar Vucic tweeted a photo of the flag on Tuesday morning, along with the message in both English and Serbian: “This badge was a symbol of the attempted destruction of the Jews by the Nazis. Now it is a symbol of honor. 75 years after. Never again.”

Vucic will join more than 40 world leaders and heads of state as they meet in Jerusalem this week for the Fifth World Holocaust Forum, commemorating 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet Red Army. More than 7,000 people, mostly sick and dying, were released, but it is estimated that at least 1.3 m. people, mostly Jews, were deported to the camp between 1940 and 1945, of whom at least 1.1 m. were murdered.
The theme of the forum will be “Remembering the Holocaust: Fighting Antisemitism.”


Related Tags
serbia