On the eve of January 15, Peaceful Reintegration Day of the Croatian Danube Region, students from the “Mladost” Elementary School in Osijek, together with their teachers Marta Gubina and Jasna Jakopović, commemorated this important date through an educational field program dedicated to the culture of remembrance, peace, and reconciliation. The commemoration was conducted in cooperation with the Auxilium association as part of the B1 activities Young Peacemakers and Detectives of the Past.
The program began with a visit to the Memorial Center in Aljmaš, one of the powerful symbols of suffering and faith in eastern Croatia. The students were guided through the memorial space by priest and university professor Tomislav Ćurić, Ph.D., who spoke to them in an understandable and appropriate manner about wartime events, the suffering of the civilian population, and the importance of preserving memory while building peace. Special emphasis was placed on the message that the past must be known so that its tragedies are not repeated.
As part of the field instruction, students were introduced to the peaceful reintegration memorial plaque in Erdut, a place of exceptional significance in recent Croatian history. The Erdut Agreement of 1995 laid the foundation for the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube Region, a unique process by which Eastern Slavonia, Baranja, and Western Syrmia were returned to the constitutional and legal order of the Republic of Croatia without new armed conflicts. This process is today considered one of the most successful examples of peaceful conflict resolution in Europe.
In the peacebuilding part of the program, students were addressed by Marijan Gubina, a renowned Croatian peacemaker and witness to wartime suffering, who spoke with several personal and powerful messages about the importance of forgiveness, non-violence, and building a society based on mutual respect. His testimony left a strong impression on the students, further emphasizing that peace is not merely a historical fact, but an enduring responsibility of all generations.
Through this commemoration, Peaceful Reintegration Day gained its educational dimension, demonstrating how the values of peace, dialogue, and tolerance can and should be passed on to the youngest. Students from “Mladost” Elementary School in Osijek, through the activities of Young Peacemakers and Detectives of the Past, once again demonstrated that remembrance of difficult moments in Croatian history can be the foundation for building a more peaceful and responsible future.
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