25 years since Velimir Teodorović, better known as Velja Ribar, saved nine people from the Danube during the demolition of the Freedom Bridge from the aggressors. May the name of this Man live forever as well as his works.

Velja spent his life on the river, and he was on the Danube when the planes flew over Novi Sad. He was also in his boat on April 3 when the missiles hit the Freedom Bridge. “At first I pulled out seven people on the Kameni coast. A little later it broke again and then I saw that there were two people on the Novi Sad side and I managed to pull them out as well,” Velja Ribar remembered his feat. “Feelings do not change much. Just as it was difficult then, and now that you remember that event directly, it is certainly not easy for you. After that event itself, and today after 10 years, I personally as a person, on the one hand, am happy , that I had the opportunity to help people who were in trouble,” said Velja at the time. He received various awards for his actions, he was declared the most humane Yugoslav. However, Novi Sad did not thank him in the right way, and in order to get a job in City Cleanliness, the people of Novi Sad had to stand behind him, who demanded it from the city authorities. He died in 2015 at the age of 58. Two years after his death, a part of the promenade in Sremska Kamenica was named Kay Velje Ribara.

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