Ljubljana - More than 150 Jews, most of them from Croatia, were remembered with a "stumbling stone" unveiled in front on the Cukrarna Gallery in Ljubljana on Friday as the Jewish community symbolically paid respects to the group who found refuge at Cukrarna during the Nazi persecution in 1941.

Croatian Jews started being systematically persecuted after the establishment of the pro-Nazi Independent State of Croatia.

Many fled to Ljubljana area, which was occupied by Fascist Italy following the attack of Nazi Germany on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in April 1941.

The group that found refuge at Cukrarna - a 19th century sugar factory later turned into a shelter for the poor - was later deported to Italy and then on to concentration camps around Europe.

Their stories testify to the universal nature of refugees in history and of how topical the tragedy of war is, said Robert Waltl, head of the Ljubljana Jewish Cultural Centre.

He noted that because of these 150 Jews, as well as all those who find themselves in war, the appeal "never again war" must not be just empty words.

The Stolperstein or stumbling stone was unveiled by National Assembly Speaker Urška Klakočar Zupančič, Ljubljana Deputy Mayor Dejan Crnek and Rabbi Alexander Grodensky.

The event was organised by the Ljubljana Jewish Cultural Centre, the Ljubljana City Museum and the Ljubljana municipality.

Ljubljana was also the city where the first Stolpersteine were laid in Slovenia in August 2018. Since then, the capital has gotten 69 stumbling stones around the city.

The project was originally launched in Germany by artist Gunther Demnig in 1992 to remember the last addresses at which Jews lived before being deported by the Nazis.

The Slovenian segment is coordinated by the Ljubljana Jewish Cultural Centre and the Maribor Synagogue Centre of Jewish Cultural Heritage.