Obj. ID: 39096
Jewish Funerary Art Holocaust memorial in the Jewish cemetery in Sombor, Serbia, 1947
To the main object: Jewish cemetery in Sombor, Serbia
Memorial Name
No official name
Who is Comemmorated?
Holocaust Victims from the Jewish community of Sombor
Description
The monument is erected by the entrance to the cemetery, on the left-hand side. The memorial is a tall, wide, rectangular structure of worked stone with a stepped upper edge. In the upper section is a white marble plaque placed horizontally with identical commemorative inscriptions in Serbo-Croatian and Hebrew. On both sides of this plaque are engraved Magen Davids. Ten white marble panels with the victims' names are mounted on the structure on both sides of the memorial (five at the front and five at the back). The names of the victims are engraved in Serbo-Croatian in alphabetical order.
Inscriptions
Horizontal Plaque
Hebrew
המצבה הבכוה הזאת
נקדשה לזכר כל איש ואיש מחברי ק"ק סומבור, מזקניה וזקנותיה, בחוריה ובתולותיה עד יונקי שדים
שלא חטאו וגמולי מחלב שלא פשעו הנחנקים ונשחטים נהרגים ונשרפים בידי רצחני הפשיזם ונאציזם האכזריוה
ומגואלות בהם בקי של צאן הרשים ומובילה ככליל על מזבח דתה ולאומיותם בשנות המלחמה העולמית השנייה שהיא עת צרה
שלא היתה כמותה ליעקב
Serbo-Croatian
Ova spomen-ploča posvećena je svakom pojedinačnom članu somborske jevrejske veroispovedne opštine
počev od staraca i starica pa preko mladića i devojaka sve do nevine odojčadi odvojene od majčinog
mleka i nejake dece, svima onima koji su nemilostivim i oskrnavljevim rukama fašističkih i
nacističkih dželata obešeni, ubijeni, zaklani, spaljeni i odvedeni, koji su mučeničkom smrću kao
žrtve stradali na oltaru za svoju veru i narodnost u godinama Drugog svetskog rata
bezprimernog po svom vandalizmu i bedi u istoriji Izraela
Commissoned by
Jewish community (?)
sub-set tree:
Marble
Jews began settling in Sombor in the 18th century, and the community appointed its first rabbi in 1790. The Jewish cemetery was founded in 1803. The first synagogue was built in 1818, and in 1865 a new synagogue was built on the same site – on the corner of Jevrejska and Sinagoga Streets. It later served the Neolog community. The Jewish community and the Hevra Kadisha were founded in 1825. In 1925, the Orthodox community founded a separate community and built a synagogue on 34 St. Roko Street. Before World War II, 1,200 Jews lived in Sombor. The number of Holocaust survivors is 252. The Neolog synagogue was demolished, and no memorial plaque exists at the site. The building of the Orthodox synagogue still stands, however, it is used as an office building of the school "Čistoća i zelenilo." There is no memorial plaque. The Jewish community of Sombor is still active.
The monument to the Jewish victims was unveiled on 23 November 1947 in the Jewish cemetery. 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.
The Jewish Community Sombor holds commemorative ceremonies by this monument annually - on January 27, marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In 2023, Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) was commemorated by the memorial on 18 April. The Municipality of Sombor maintains the cemetery.
Beljanski, Milenko, “Somborski Jevreji.” (Zbornik 4: Studije, arhivska i memoarska građa o Jevrejima Jugoslavije, Jevrejski istorijski muzej - Beograd, 1979), pp. 1-56.
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. 201., https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/60848/ekerenji_1.pdf?sequence=1. June 2020 (accessed February 23, 2022)
"Memorials in Sombor," Locations (Vojvodina Holocaust Memorials Project), https://www.vhmproject.org/en-US/Locations/Memorials/20 ( (accessed June 21, 2023)
Prodanović, Dragoljub, “Jevrejsko groblje u Šikari kod Sombora i ponešto o sudbinama živih.” Zbornik 8: Studije, arhivska i memoarska građa, Jevrejski istorijski muzej (2003), pp. 371-400.
Stepanović, Milan. “Somborska sinagoga,”, https://www.ravnoplov.rs/somborska-sinagoga/ (accessed June 21, 2023)
Stipić, Davor, ''U borbi protiv zaborava: Jevrejska zajednica u Jugoslaviji i očuvanje sećanja na Holokaust 1945-1955,'' Godišnjak za društvenu istoriju 2 (2016), pp. 91-121.
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.
“Kratka jevrejska istorija Sombora,”, https://haver.rs/kratka-jevrejska-istorija-sombora/ (accessed June 21, 2023)
https://www.vhmproject.org/en-US/Locations/Memorials/20