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Obj. ID: 44762
Jewish Funerary Art
  Holocaust Memorial Complex in the Jewish cemetery in Subotica, Serbia, 1948

© Center for Jewish Art, Photographer: Ungar, Olga, 2023

Memorial Name

No official name

Who is Comemmorated?

Victims of the Holocaust from Subotica

Description

This memorial is part of a complex consisting of this monument, ten individual graves, and one common grave of the Bor mine forced labor camp victims. It is made of artificial stone, marble from the island of Brač, and black granite. 

The monument is a stele with obelisk-like proportions standing on a high platform. Its base is surrounded by four cubes forming the shape of a Greek cross. The memorial features the Magen David, Ner Tamid, and Torah Scroll Jewish motifs. There are commemorative inscriptions on all four sides of the memorial. Between the cubes lying on the platform are four stone balls that are engraved with the years 1941 and 1945. On the front side are dedications in Serbo-Croatian (on the lower part) and Hebrew (on the upper section of the monument) between which is a Magen David. On the rear side is an inscription in Serbo-Croatian.

Inscriptions

Front

Hebrew

מי שמבקש עלבונה של
ספר תורה הוא יבקש
עלבון הנפשות של
ארבעת אלפים בערך
המובלות בעריצות
פאשיסטית מעיר סובוטיצה
ומקודשות כעולם כליל
על מזבח דתם ולאומיותם

Translation: He who will have regard for the plight of the Torah will also have regard for the plight of some 4000 souls deported in fascist tyranny from the city of Subotica, martyrs who fell as a burnt offering on the altar of their religion and faith.

Serbo-Croatian

Večita slava i hvala
4000 subotičkih Jevreja
koji su odvučeni
po fašističkoj nemani u
njenom besnilu i paklenoj
grozoti a radi istrebljenja
- položili svoje drage
živote na oltaru svoje
vere i narodnosti te opšte
napredne misli.

Translation: Eternal glory and gratitude to 4,000 Jews from Subotica who were dragged by the fascist beast in its fury and hellish horror and for the purpose of extermination - laid their dear lives on the altar of their faith and nationality and generally progressive thinking.

 

On the rear side (Serbo-Croatian)

Čoveče! Kad god ti oko
za ovaj spomenik zapne
nek se u tebi plamen
gneva razbukne,
napuni se jezom prema
svakome čoveku-nakazi
koji se kao fašista
čovek-om usudi nazivat.

Translation: Man! Whenever your eye falls on this monument, the flame of anger should blaze in you, fill yourself with anger toward every man-monster, who dared as a fascist to call himself a man.

Mauthausen
Strasshof
Bácsalmás
Budapest
Stutthof 

Context: Places where Subotica Jews were killed

Left Face (from Front)

Sátoraljaújhely
Istočni front,
Bor-Cservenka,
Gunskirchen,
Hidegség

Context: Places where Subotica Jews were killed

Right Face (from Front)

Theresienstadt
Bergen-Belsen
Buchenwald
Auschwitz
Dachau

 Context: Places where Subotica Jews were killed

 

On the stone balls, facing all four directions

1941-     -1945

On the bases of all four sides

Serbo-Croatian

za uspomenu žrtvama svirepog fašizma
za živote vaše sloboda naša

Hebrew

לזכרון קרבנות הפאשיזם האכזרי;
חלף חייכם חרות שלנו

Translation: For the memory of the victims of cruel fascism / For your lives our freedom.

Commissioned by

The Jewish Community of Subotica

Summary and Remarks
Remarks

34 image(s)

sub-set tree:

Name/Title
Holocaust memorial in the Jewish cemetery in Subotica | Unknown
Object Detail
Monument Setting
Date
1948
Synagogue active dates
Reconstruction dates
Historical Origin
Unknown
Community type
Congregation
Unknown
Location
Serbia | Vojvodina | Subotica
| 2, Majevička St.
Site
Unknown
School/Style
Unknown|
Period
Unknown
Period Detail
Collection
Unknown |
Documentation / Research project
Unknown
Iconographical Subject
Material / Technique
Worked Stone
Marble
Granite (black)
Material Stucture
Material Decoration
Material Bonding
Material Inscription
Material Additions
Material Cloth
Material Lining
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Documented by CJA
Surveyed by CJA
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Architectural Significance type
Historical significance: Event/Period
Historical significance: Collective Memory/Folklore
Historical significance: Person
Architectural Significance: Style
Architectural Significance: Artistic Decoration
Urban significance
Significance Rating
0
Ornamentation
Custom
Contents
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Blank Leaves
Direction/Location
Façade (main)
Endivances
Location of Torah Ark
Location of Apse
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Location of Reader's Desk
Location of Platform
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Arrangement of Seats
Location of Women's Section
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Direction Toward Jerusalem
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Colophon
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Suggested Reconsdivuction
History/Provenance

Jews began settling in Subotica in the second half of the 18th century. At that time, the Hevra Kadisha was established. The cemetery was founded in 1795. The first synagogue was built in 1817, on Šumska Street, and it was rebuilt in 1850. The community was divided into two streams. The majority of members joined the Neolog stream, while the minority established an Orthodox community. The grandiose Neolog synagogue on 6 Jakab and Komor Square was built in 1902.

In 1915, the Orthodox community bought the Hevra Kadisha building on 15 Frankopanska Street, which was expanded and used as a synagogue. Both buildings exist today. There is no memorial plaque on the building of the orthodox synagogue.

Until the Second World War, the Jewish community of Subotica was the fourth largest in Yugoslavia. In the 1930s it numbered about 6,500 members. The number of Holocaust survivors is 1048. The Jewish Community of Subotica is active today.

The monument to the victims at the Jewish cemetery in Subotica was unveiled on September 5, 1948. 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.

Commemoration ceremonies are held every year marking the anniversary of the deportation of the Subotica Jews on 16 June 1944

Main Surveys & Excavations
Sources

Duranci, Bela and Vera Gabrić Počuča, Javni spomenici opštine Subotica, (Subotica: Međuopštinski zavod za zaštitu spomenika kulture, 2001)

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 Subotica,” Locations (Vojvodina Holocaust Memorials Project), https://www.vhmproject.org/en-US/Locations/Memorials/22 (accessed June 28, 2023)

"Obeležena 73. godišnjica deportacije subotičkih Jevreja," Subotica.info, https://www.subotica.info/2017/06/16/obelezena-73-godisnjica-deportacije-subotickih-jevreja (accessed June 28, 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.

“Jevrejsko groblje Subotica” Jevrejska opština Subotica, http://groblje.josu.rs/pretrazi-groblje/ (accessed June 28, 2023)
Type
Documenter
|
Author of description
Olga Ungar | 2023
Architectural Drawings
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Computer Reconstruction
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Section Head
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Language Editor
Adam Frisch | 2023
Donor
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Negative/Photo. No.
The following information on this monument will be completed:
Unknown |