Obj. ID: 40241
Jewish Funerary Art  Memorial to the soldiers of WWI and victims of the Holocaust in Koprivnica, Croatia, 1918, 1975

To the main object: Jewish cemetery in Koprivnica, Croatia

Memorial Name

No official name

Who is Commemorated?

9 soldiers of World War I and 214 Jewish Holocaust victims from Koprivnica.

Description:

The monument is situated in the northwestern part of the cemetery, on a raised plot adjacent to the cemetery back wall, at the end of an alley. Six wide stairs lead to it. The monument consists of a wall of black marble, dedicated to nine Jewish soldiers from Koprivnica killed during World War I, two pillars of white marble inscribed 1941 and 1945, and a polished, prone stele similar to a grave marker.

The polished stele contains a verse from the poem “Jama” (The Pit) by the Croatian poet Ivan Goran Kovacić whose mother was Jewish. In 1942 he became a partisan and he was killed by Serbian Chetniks in 1943. Under the verse, there is a five-pointed star, under which a dedicatory inscription in Croatian is placed. An inscription about the installation of the monument in 1975 is placed in the bottom of the stele.

Inscriptions:

On the wall dedicated to the soldiers of World War I:

Pali u svjetskom ratu

Translation: Died in the World War

לזכרון
נופלים במלחמת העולם
גבורי עמנו

Translation: In memory of those killed in the World War, heroes of our people.

On the prone stele:

Na žezi strašnoj
          tiho su nas želi
ko mrtvo klasje
          koje jedva susti
             I.G.Kovacić: Jama

Translation: In the terrible heat, they want us quietly like dead ears of corn that barely budge. I.G.Kovacić: The Pit.

U spomen
na 214 židovske djece, žena i
muškaraca koji su izgubili
svoje nedužne zivote u
fašističkim logorima
1941. – 1945.

Translation: In memory / on 214 Jewish children, women and / men who lost their innocent lives in fascist camps / 1941 – 1945.

O 30-godišnjici pobjede
nad fašizmom ovu spomen-ploču
postavio savez udruženja boraca NOR
Koprivnica 1975. g.

Translation: At the 30th anniversary of the victory / over fascism, this memorial plaque / was built by the Association of Fighters NOR [=National Liberation War]. / Koprivnica, 1975.

Commissioned by

The Jewish Community of Koprivnica