At the Great School Class, an anti-war event through which the City of Kragujevac preserves the memory of its victims killed on October 21, 1941, messages of peace were once again sent, reminding us of the interrupted youth and the mass execution of innocent civilians.

Wreaths were laid at the Monument to the Shot Students and Teachers by the teachers and students of the First Grammar School, on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Prime Minister Đuro Macut, accompanied by the Minister of Education Dejan Vuk Stanković, the President of the Constitutional Court Snežana Marković, the Mayor of Kragujevac Nikola Dašić, the President of the City Assembly Ivica Momčilović, representatives of the Serbian War Veterans' Union (SUBNOR), the diplomatic corps, the City of Kragujevac's sister cities, the University, national and local institutions, associations, organizations, and political parties.

The culture of remembrance is one of the fundamental prerequisites of our freedom-loving, national, and political identity. Today, we remember the innocent victims of the Kragujevac massacre that took place more than eighty years ago. Awareness of this event, of the tragedy of our people's struggle for freedom, is what forms an essential part of our national consciousness and self-awareness, and it constantly reminds us of the high price paid for us to live today in a free and independent country, said Minister Dejan Vuk Stanković. A people that does not relate to its past, that does not mark such moments, can hardly have clear guidelines for the present, and likewise, can hardly expect to defend and perfect the freedom it has won in the future, the Minister said, adding that the commemoration of the Day of Remembrance is not merely symbolic, but is fundamentally tied to the challenges we face today as a political community, living in a time of great uncertainties and war horrors that have cast a shadow over the continent where Serbia is located. It is a time when, as a society, we must show moral, political, and historical maturity.

This year’s Great School Class featured the poem "Heart of the Earth" by Dragan Bošković, directed by Marko Đorđević.

The author states that the inspiration for the poem came one night, as if it had come on its own and written itself on paper. The depth of the tragedy that tried to be written on paper, the question of violent victims - it wasn’t even my question, but those victims began to speak to me. That’s when I realized, says Bošković, how alive that world is, and how the attempt to erase or make people disappear through violent death is, in fact, short-lived. Like the shot of a firing squad, but behind that, there beats a heart. This is the main rhythm for me - between the rhythm of the heart and the firing squad. There is no historical distance from 1941 and from the massacre that took place here; there is a constant presence of them in our lives, or us in their lives, concluded the author of the poem "Heart of the Earth."