Object Alone

Obj. ID: 17268  Holocaust Memorial at the site of the Jewish cemetery in Murska Sobota, Slovenia, 1985, 2015

© Project "Digitization of Jewish Heritage in Slovenia", Photographer: Premk, Janez, 2020.

Who is Commemorated?

Victims of the Holocaust

Description

The memorial consists of eight tombstones from the Jewish cemetery of Murska Sobota, demolished in the 1980s. Seven tombstones are standing in a circle, while the eighth one, the black marble gravestone of Edmund Fürst, the head of the community (d. 1929), stands in a distance from them and serves as an entrance sign. The original epitaph faces the circle, while a new inscription about the memorial park is made on its back side.

Inscriptions

The original inscription made in 1985 in Slovene reads:

Židovsko pokopališče
Spominski Park
spomin žrtvam fašizma in nacizma

Translation: Jewish cemetery / Memorial Park / in memory of the victims of fascism and nazism.

The new inscription, made in 2015, in Slovene and Hebrew reads: 

Židovsko pokopališče
Murska Sobota
V neizbrisen spomin na vse,
Ki tukaj počivajo
In na vse,
Ki bi tukaj počivali,
Pa so izgubili življenje
V Holokaustu

Translation: Jewish cemetery / Murska Sobota / In everlasting memory of all / who rest here / and to all, / who would rest here, / but they lost their lives / in the Holocaust

כי טוב יום בחצריך מאלף בחרתי הסתופף
בבית אלהי מדור באהלי רשע
תהלים 84-11

Translation: Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked." Psalms 84:11 [84:10 in the Christian Bible].

Commissioned by:

Murska Sobota municipality

15 image(s)

sub-set tree:

Name/Title
Holocaust Memorial at the site of the Jewish cemetery in Murska Sobota | Unknown
Object Detail
Date
1985 (memorial park), 2015 (new inscription)
Active dates
Reconstruction dates
Artist/ Maker
Unknown
(Unknown)
Historical Origin
Unknown
Community
Location
Slovenia | Murska Sobota
| Mala Nova/Panonska St.
Site
Unknown
School/Style
Unknown|
Period
Period Detail
Collection
Unknown |
Category
Material/Technique
Material Stucture
Material Decoration
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Material Cloth
Material Lining
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Documented by CJA
Surveyed by CJA
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Historical significance: Event/Period
Historical significance: Collective Memory/Folklore
Historical significance: Person
Architectural Significance: Style
Architectural Significance: Artistic Decoration
Urban significance
Significance Rating
0
Custom
Contents
Codicology
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Location of Women's Section
Direction Prayer
Direction Toward Jerusalem
Signature
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Summary and Remarks
History/Provenance

The Jewish cemetery in Murska Sobota existed from the first half of the 19th century. By the end of World War II there were ca. 65 tombstones, but in the late 1980s, only 38 stones remained. The cemetery chapel was demolished in 1963.

In 1985, the municipality arranged a memorial park, which occupies part of the former cemetery. Eight tombstones were chosen to remain, while the others were sold. The black marble tombstone of Edmund Fürst, the head of the community, serves as an entrance sign.

The still-living Holocaust survivor in Murska Sobota, Erika Fürst, was upset about the disgraceful designation of the cemetery as a Memorial park. Upon her multiple requests, the Municipality of Murska Sobota finally decided to change the inscription on the entrance sign and to make further changes in the park presentation. The renaming of the cemetery took place on 27 January 2015, on the Holocaust Memorial Day. The Mayor Aleksander Jevšek spoke at the opening ceremony. (Communication from Janez Premk on 24 December 2021.)

Main Surveys & Excavations
Bibliography

Gruber, Ruth Ellen, and Samuel D. Gruber. Jewish Cemeteries, Synagogues and Monuments in Slovenia (Washington, DC: U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, 2005)., 20., https://www.academia.edu/4434090/Jewish_Cemeteries_Synagogues_and_Monuments_in_Slovenia (accessed December 23, 2021)

Premk, Janez and Mihaela Hudelia. Jewish Heritage: A Guidebook to Slovenia (Ljubljana: JAS, 2014), 81.
Short Name
Full Name
Volume
Page
Type
Documenter
Ivan Čerešnješ, Janez Premk | 2002, 2020
Researcher
Vladimir Levin | 2020
Architectural Drawings
|
Computer Reconsdivuction
|
Section Head
|
Language Editor
|
Donor
Project Digitization of Jewish Heritage in Slovenia | 2018-2020

Ministry of Science
ARRS