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Zemun
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Memorial to the Victims in the Jewish cemetery
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32 Cara Dušana Street
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1948
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The monument to the victims of fascism was erected in the Jewish Cemetery in 1948. Its erection was initiated by Dr Albert Vajs, the first postwar president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia and the Jewish Community Zemun. The monument has the shape of an obelisk decorated with Magen David. It bears the inscription in Serbian that says: 'Victims of Fascism 1941-1945' and the names of the 574 Jews of Zemun. The inscription in Hebrew reads:
'זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק' - Remember what Amalek did to you (from Parashat Tezaveh, Maftir Shabat Zahor D'varim 25, 17-19). In the Torah, Amalek is presented as a theological and eternal enemy (Exodus 17:13-16). Rabbi Soloveitchik (1903-1993) stated that during the 1930s and 1940s the role of Amalek was played by Nazi Germany led by Hitler. The inscription this teaches us to remember who our enemies are, and that evil for evil’s sake is unforgivable and it will never be forgotten. Most Zemun Jews perished in the concentration camps of Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška. Commemoration ceremonies by this monument have been annually held by the Jewish Community of Zemun on July 27, on the day the Jews were deported from Zemun to these camps in 1942.
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Zemun
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Memorial to the Victims of Fascist Terror in the Jewish Cemetery
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32 Cara Dušana Street
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1957
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The monument to all victims of the Fascist terror of 1941-1945 was unveiled in the valley of the Jewish cemetery, on July 4, 1957. The rection of the monument was initiated by the Federation of War Veterans of Zemun. The State Commission for the Determination of Crimes of Occupiers and their Assistants formed shortly after the liberation of Zemun, at the end of 1944, the Survey Commission for the Investigation of Crimes at the Staro Sajmište Camp. This commission executed the exhumation of the victims of this camp buried in the Jewish cemetery in Zemun and Bežanijska Kosa (Belanović's pitch). A total of 6,500 victims were found in 23 mass graves in the Jewish Cemetery. The Monument is placed where the largest mass grave was found. The monument is simple in shape and without any symbols. The inscription is in Serbo-Croatian says: 'To the Victims of Facist Terror 1941-1944'. The monument is a symbolic grave of 12,500 victims of the Staro Sajmište camp.
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Zemun
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Memorial at the site of the Staro Sajmiste Camp
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Staro Sajmište
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1995
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The Staro Sajmište fairgrounds are marked by a memorial plaque and the memorial complex to commemorate those detained or killed in the Sajmište camp, to the victims of the Jasenovac camp, victims of the Hungarian occupation forces, but also to all Yugoslav victims of World War II. The Staro Sajmište camp was called Jewish Camp Zemun (Judenlager Semlin) from December 8, 1941, until the beginning of May 1942. All remaining Jews from occupied Serbia, about 6,400 were interned in the camp. From the beginning of April to the 10th of May 1942, the Jewish detainees of the camp were killed in the gas van, and their bodies were buried in the village of Jajinci, near Belgrade. From May 1942 until the dissolution of the camp in the second half of July 1944, it was renamed Detention Camp Zemun (Anhaltelager Semlin). It served to hold one last group of Jews who were arrested upon the surrender of Italy in September 1943. During this time, it also held captured Yugoslav Partisans, Chetniks, sympathizers of the Greek and Albanian resistance movements, and Serb peasants from villages in other parts of the Independent State of Croatia. In that period, a total of 31,972 detainees were interned.
On October 20, 1974, the first plaque was unveiled at the site. In 1984, on July 7, it was replaced with a new plaque, with an identical text, installed next to the building housing the old Turkish pavilion in the fairgrounds complex. The inscription in Serbo-Croatian sazy: 'Upon the area of the Old Fairgrounds, the German Gestapo founded the Sajmište camp in 1941, with the help of domestic traitors, more than 40,000 people from all parts of our country were tortured and killed.'
The memorial complex was unveiled on April 22, 1995. The memorial was created by sculptor Miodrag Popović (1925-2005). The sculpture is arranged in two split sections and is reminiscent of a floral form. The split forms a circular shape that features a star.
At the stairs that lead up to the memorial is placed a large bronze plaque which bears the commemorative inscriptions in Serbo-Croatian and English with an identical content, stating that '…The victims were mostly Serbs, Jews and Roma. This memorial is dedicated to all of them. It is also dedicated to the victims of the notorious Ustasha concentration camp of Jasenovac, victims of Hungarian occupation who were washed ashore in Belgrade, as well as the heroic resistance to the Nazi terror and all Yugoslav citizens, victims of genocide.'
As mantioned, the central monument was unveiled on April 22, 1995-the anniversary of the breakout of Jasenovac camp inmates. This day that has been marked in Serbia since 1992 as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Genocide. Since then, commemorations are held at this memorial on this day.
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