Obj. ID: 50031 Monument at the Mass Grave of the Jewish Community of Vrbas in the Jewish cemetery in Vrbas, Serbia, 1986
Memorial Name
No official name
Who is Comemmorated?
The Jewish Community of Vrbas
The 176 Jewish Victims of the Holocaust
Those exhumed from the Jewish Cemetery of Vrbas and reinterred at this site
Description
This monument is an upright slab made of black marble. It features a Magen David on top and inscriptions in Serbo-Croatian and Hebrew. It stands on a platform made of cement. Remains from the disbanded Jewish cemetery are buried underneath it.
Inscriptions
Serbo-Croatian
Ovaj spomenik podseća na jevrejsku zajednicu u Titovom Vrbasu i na 176 vrbaških Jevreja koji su izgubili život kao žrtve fašizma od 1941 do 1945 godine.
Ovde su sahranjeni posmrtni ostaci preneti sa Jevrejskog groblja u Panonskoj ulici.
Translation: This monument commemorates the Jewish community in Tito's Vrbas and the 176 Vrbas Jews who lost their lives as victims of fascism from 1941 to 1945. The remains transferred from the Jewish cemetery in Panonska Street were buried here.
Hebrew
1986 5746
לזכר עולם ק"ק [קהילה קדושה] בטיטוב ורבס ו-176 יהודי ורבס שנספו בשנות 1941-1945 כקורבנות פשיזם.
פ"נ [פה נקברו] עצמות הנפטרים שהועברו מבית הקברות היהודי ברח' פנונסקה (מקודם סטרי ורבס).
ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.
Translation: 1986 // For the eternal memory of the holy community in Titov Vrbas and 176 Jews who perished in the years 1941-1945 as victims of fascism. / Here lie the bones of the deceased who were transferred from the Jewish cemetery on Panonska St. (formerly Stari Vrbas). / May their soul be bound up in the bond of life
Commissioned by
The Municipality of Vrbas
4 image(s)
Jews settled in Vrbas in 1772. In the 18th century, there was a small community of about 50 members that had a prayer home and school. The cemetery was founded in 1901, on Panonska Street. The synagogue was built in 1914 and demolished in 1948.
In 1986, the cemetery was relocated, and gravestones were transferred to a new location, 4 Oktobarska Street. The remains were exhumed and buried in a common grave in the City Cemetery. The common grave is also a memorial to the vanished Jewish community and the victims of the Holocaust and World War II.
The “liquidation” of cemeteries (not only Jewish) located on Panonska Street (formerly Grobljanska Street) started in the 1970s. The land was designated for the building of a new sports center. The relocation process of the Jewish cemetery began in 1985. On 2 July 1986, the remains were exhumed under the supervision of Chief Rabbi Tzadik Danon and buried in the common grave in the city’s main cemetery.
No commemoration ceremonies are held at this site.
Grgurović, Vesna, Gradski muzej Vrbas (Vodič Vrbas: Kulturni centar Vrbasa, Gradski muzej, 2017)
"Memorials in Vrbas," Locations (Vojvodina Holocaust Memorials Project), https://www.vhmproject.org/en-US/Locations/Memorials/24 (accessed June 21, 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.
Uvalin, Vladimir, Jevreji u Vrbasu (Vrbas: Javna biblioteka “Danilo Kiš”, 2021)