Obj. ID: 44758
Memorials Holocaust memorial in the Jewish cemetery in Bačka Palanka, Serbia, 1955
To the main object: Jewish cemetery in Bačka Polanka, Serbia
Monument Name
Memorial to Jews of Bačka Palanka and the Surrounding Area Fallen as Freedom Fighters and Victims of Fascist Terror
Who is Comemmorated?
Jews of Bačka Palanka and its surrounding who perished in World War II and the Holocaust.
Description
The memorial is shaped like an upright stele standing on an elevated platform. Three steps that lead to the high platform are inscribed with verses from the poem “Bright Graves” by poet Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj (1833–1904). On this platform, a memorial plaque made of black stone (granite?) is mounted that commemorates fallen Jewish fighters and Jewish victims of the fascist terror of Bačka Palanka and its surrounding area. The plaque features the five-pointed star.
The vertical section, also made of black stone, is divided into three sections. It is crowned with the tridimensional Ner Tamid. It features the engraved Menorah (the top sections) and the Magen David with a commemorative inscription in Hebrew to the Bačka Palanka community in the middle section. The top section is hexagonal-shaped with a flat bottom and stands on two small columns. On the bottom section is inscribed a verse from the poem “My Night” by poet Aleksa Šantić (1868–1924).
Inscriptions
Inscription in Serbo-Croatian on the steps, from the poem “Svetli grobovi” [Bright Graves] by Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj:
„Gde ja stadoh — ti ćeš poći!”
|„Što ne mogoh — ti ćeš moći!”
„Kud ja nisam — ti ćeš doći!”
„Što ja počeh — ti produži!”
„Još smo dužni — ti oduži!”
Translation: ‘Where I stopped – you will go!’ / ‘What I couldn’t – you will do!’ / ‘Where I couldn’t – you’ll arrive!’ / ‘Whatever we owe – you pay it off!’
The vertical section at the bottom in Serbo-Croatian, from the poem “Moja noći” [My Night] by Aleksa Šantić:
Moja noći kada ćeš mi proći?
- Nikad!
Moja zoro kada ćeš mi doći?
- Nikad!
Translation: My night, when will you pass me by? / - Never! / My dawn, when will you come to me? / - Never!
Vertical section in Hebrew:
זכרון
לארבעה מאות יהודים יושבי
ק"ק" [קהילה קדושה] פאלאנקא
שנפלו כקורבנות הפשיזם
בשנות 1941-1945
יזכרם אלהינו לטובה עם שאר צדיקי העולם
תנצב''ה [=תהי נשמתם צרורה בצרור החיים]
Translation: In memory / of four hundred Jewish residents / of the Palanka Jewish community / who fell as victims of fascism / in the years 1941-1945 / May our Lord remember them for good / together with the other righteous of the world / May their souls be bound in the bundle of life
Horizontal part in Serbo-Croatian:
Spomen i sećanje na 400 Jevreja iz Bačke Palanke i okoline, palih kao borci za slobodu i žrtve fašističkog terora
Translation: In memory of 400 Jews of Bačka Palanka and the surrounding area, who fell as freedom fighters and victims of the fascist terror
Inscription on the side in Serbo-Croatian:
Ovaj spomenik podiže
Jevrejska opština B. Palanka
uz saradnju Saveza boraca narodno oslobodilačkog rata.
20. oktobar 1955. god
Translation: This monument is erected by / the Jewish Community of B. Palanka / with the cooperation of the Association of Fighters of the National Liberation War. / October 20, 1955
Commissioned by
Jewish Community of Bačka Palanka and the Association of Fighters of the National Liberation War.
sub-set tree:
| 161 Svetozara Miletića Street, Bačka Palanka, Serbia
Granite (possibly)
The first Jews settled in Bačka Palanka in 1771. At that time, the Jews of Bačka Palanka did not have their own religious organizations but were under the jurisdiction of the Jewish community of Neoplanta-Novi Sad. Religious services were carried out in a private home. The Jewish cemetery was founded around 1800. The construction of the synagogue was completed in 1807, at today's address 62 Žarka Zrenjanina Street. On the same street, next to the synagogue, a ritual bath (mikveh), a kosher butchery, and a Jewish elementary school were built in 1835.
Before World War II, 229 Neolog Jews and about 50 Orthodox Jews lived in the town. Most of the Holocaust survivors immigrated to Israel in 1948. Only a few Jews who were in mixed marriages remained to live in the town.
The synagogue was demolished in 1956. The cemetery with about 500 gravestones underwent thorough clean-up work in 2015.
The memorial to the victims was unveiled in the Jewish Cemetery on October 20, 1955. Photographs from the unveiling ceremony are held in the Jewish Historical Museum in Belgrade. The Jewish community of Bačka Palanka and the Association of Fighters of the National Liberation War initiated the erection of the monument.
The Municipality of Bačka Palanka maintains the monument to the victims at the cemetery.
Gužvica, Stefan. “Jevreji u Bačkoj Palanci Gužvica.” in Zbornik radova o nastanku, prošlosti i istorijskom razvoju grada Bačke Palanke, no. 3 (2017), pp. 109-125.
Romano, Jaša. Jevreji Jugoslavije 1941-1945. Žrtve genocida i učesnici Narodnooslobodilačkog rata. Beograd: Savez jevrejskih opština Jugoslavije, 1980.
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.
Šunjka, Radovan, Bačka Palanka u pet vekova, (Bačka Palanka: DNV Logos, 2009)
https://www.vhmproject.org/en-US/Locations/Memorials/2