Konkurs za podizanje Spomenika jevrejskim borcima i žrtvama fašizma na Sefardskom groblju u Beogradu, 1951-1952. godine

Abstract

In their wish to preserve the memory to the compatriots who lost their lives in the Holocaust, the Jewish community in Yugoslavia started erecting monuments to Jewish civil victims and fallen soldiers as early as the first few post-WWII years. The Monument to the Fallen Jewish Soldiers and Victims of Fascism put up in the Sephardi cemetery in Belgrade in 1952, potent with artistic and political significance, stood out from the rest of the monuments of the period. It was dedicated to all the Jews from the Socialist Republic of Serbia who lost their lives in the World War II. The purpose of this article is to analyse the competition for the design of the monument by examining the documents from the Archives of the Jewish Historical Museum in Belgrade, thus making a contribution to the research of the culture of Holocaust remembrance in the Yugoslav Socialism, but also to show artistic, social and ideological aspirations of the time when, after the Cominform schism, Yugoslavia was at political crossroads. By exploring the symbolism and aesthetic values of this work, the research presented in this paper attempts to enhance the understanding of architect Bogdan Bogdanović's early creative efforts.