Obj. ID: 44757
Memorials Holocaust Memorial in the Jewish cemetery in Bačko Petrovo Selo, Serbia, 1947
To the main object: Jewish cemetery in Bačko Petrovo Selo, Serbia
Memorial Name
No official name
Who is Comemmorated?
Holocaust victims from Bačko Petrovo Selo
Description
This memorial is shaped like an upright stele, with a triangular capstone, standing on a two-stepped plinth. It is made of white stone (possibly marble).
The inscriptions on the memorial are in Hebrew and Serbo-Croatian. There is also a separate commemorative inscription in memory of the last community's rabbi, teacher, and rabbinical judge Shlomo Präger, and his wife Rivka. The names of the victims are written in Yiddish orthography. They are written not as a list of victims but are commemorating entire families. The pattern of commemoration is the following: the man’s profession or status within the community (aka. rabbi, teacher, gabbai, etc.), the name of the man of the house, the name of his wife, and the names of their children.
Inscriptions
On the Capstone (Hebrew)
הקדושים מקהילתינו שנהרגו ונשרפו על קד' ה'ש באושוויץ, באוקריינא, בהונגריא ובגרמניה
אבינו מלכנו נקום לעינינו נקמת דם עבדיך השפוך
קהל
אלם [?] לפעטראוואסעלע
Translation: The names of the martyrs from our community who were killed and burned for sanctification of the Name [Kiddush HaShem] in Auschwitz, Ukraine, Hungary, and Germany. / Our Father, our King avenge before our eyes, the blood of your servants that has been spilled. / Community [illegible]. Petrovoselo
On the Main Body of the Monument
Hebrew
הר"הג הב"ד ומוה"ר ]מורנו הרב[שלמה ברוך פראגער ואשתו רבקה, והי"ד [הילדים] חיים יעקוב, יודא מרדכי
Translation: Great Rabbi, rabbinical judge, and our teacher Rabbi Shlomo Baruch Präger and his wife Rivka, and children Chaim Yaakov, Judah Mordechai
[List of Victims]
תנצבה
Translation: May their souls be bound in the bundle of life
Serbo-Croatian
Večna uspomena 274 Jevrejima stanovnika ovog mesta nesrećnim žrtvama nemačko-
mađarske fašističke agresije istrijebljenim u Aušvicu, Ukrajini, Nemačkoj i Mađarskoj.
Translation: Eternal memory of 274 Jewish residents of this place, the unfortunate victims of the German-Hungarian fascist aggression exterminated in Auschwitz, Ukraine, Germany and Hungary.
Commissioned by
The Jewish community of Bačko Petrovo Selo.
9 image(s)
sub-set tree:
Data on individual Jews settling in Bačko Petrovo Selo dates back to 1526. A larger number of Jews settled there in the second half of the 18th century. The cemetery was founded around 1800. The community was Orthodox. There were also a Jewish school and a yeshiva. The first synagogue was built in 1854 and the second in 1905. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the community had about 400 members. Both synagogues were destroyed after the war, in 1950 and 1951 respectively. There are no memorial plaques.
The monument’s creation was initiated by the surviving members of the community and erected before they immigrated to Israel. The memorial to the victims was unveiled on 13 July 1947. Based on the archival image of the monument held at the Jewish Historical Museum in Belgrade, we see that initially the memorial was topped with the Magen David, which, however, is missing in the present.
Between 1947 and 1948, there were several similar "ad hoc, uncoordinated initiatives that were driven largely by the sense of obligation of the surviving Jews towards their murdered relatives and friends" [Kerenji, p. 209]. As a result of these initiatives, small monuments and plaques were dedicated by communities in Vojvodina, among them Subotica, Sombor, Stara Kanjiža and Senta.
There are no commemoration ceremonies held by this memorial. The memorial and the entire cemetery, which has some 50-75 gravestones, are in excellent condition owing to the care and efforts of Mr. Endre Bovánovics, a resident of the village.
Kerenji, Emil, “Jewish Citizens of Socialist Yugoslavia: Politics of Jewish Identity in a Socialist State, 1944–1974,” Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 2008, p. 209., https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/60848/ekerenji_1.pdf?sequence=1. June 2020 (accessed February 23, 2022)
"Memorials in Bačko Petrovo Selo," Locations (Vojvodina Holocaust Memorials Project), https://www.vhmproject.org/en US/Locations/Memorials/6 (accessed June 11, 2023)
Ungar, Olga, "Remembering the Victims: Vojvodina Holocaust Memorials," in Jewish Literatures and Cultures in Southeastern Europe: Experiences, Positions, Memories (=Schriften des Centrums für jüdische Studien, vol. 37) eds Renate Hansen-Kokoruš and Olaf Terpitz, pp. 217-236.
Šosberger, Pavle. Sinagoge u Vojvodini: Spomanica minulog vremena (Novi Sad, 1998)
https://www.vhmproject.org/en-US/Locations/Memorials/6