Memorial Park Bubanj ( sr, Мемориjални парк Бубањ, Спомен парк Бубањ, ''Memorijalni park Bubanj, Spomen park Bubanj'') is a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

memorial complex built to commemorate the shooting and execution of more than 10,000Laurence Mitchell, ''Bradt Travel Guide Serbia'', Bradt Travel Guides, 2007 - p. 307Nebojs̆a Tomas̆ević, Karin Radovanović, ''Treasures of Yugoslavia: an encyclopedic touring guide'', Yugoslaviapublic, 1982 - p. 382 Rajko Bobot, Kosta Rakić, Una Tomašević, ''Socialist Republic of Serbia'', Jugoslovenska Revija, 1985 - p. 102Laurence Mitchell, ''Serbia, 3rd'', Bradt Travel Guides, 2010 - p. 329 citizens of

Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, while ...

and people from Serbia and other parts of the country, but according to some data, over 12,000 people, and it is located in Palilula municipality of

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

Location

Situated on the hill southwest of the Bubanj of Niš, which cut the main road

Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...

, is situated 2 km from the other Serbian

Cultural Property of Great Importance Immovable Cultural Heritage of Great Importance ( sr, Непокретна културна добра од великог значаја / ''Nepokretna kulturna dobra od velikog značaja'') are those objects of Immovable Cultural Heritage of Serbia ...

Crveni Krst concentration camp The Crveni Krst concentration camp (lit. Red Cross concentration camp; german: KZ Crveni Krst; sr, Логор Црвени крст, Logor Crveni krst), also known as the Niš concentration camp (german: Lager Nich), located in Crveni Krst, Niš, ...

Memorial complex

The complex is arranged as a park, with a memorial trail about half a mile long running through it. The centrepiece of the site is a marble relief measuring 23 by 2.5 metres, with five compositions that symbolize the "killing machine": execution and firing squads, civil revolts, surrender of the German invaders and final victory over the oppressors. Another dominant feature of the park is three concrete obelisks that symbolize raised hands with clenched fists.Cultural Monuments in Serbia, Bubanj
Each of the three fists are different sizes, depicting men's, women's and children's hands that defy the enemy, symbolic of the fact entire families were killed at Bubanj. Nearby there is a summer stage.

History

World War II

German execution squads established sites in Bubanj forest to which Serbs, Gypsies and Jews were brought by trucks. Mass exterminations were carried out from February 1942 to September 1944,
((en)) including about 10,000 inmates and detainees killed by the Special Police and local penal authorities. The entire area is intersected by trenches in which the shooting victims were buried. Before the withdrawal of the Germans as the Red Army advanced into Yugoslavia in 1944, captured Italians were ordered to dig up the trenches and burn the corpses of the victims in order to destroy all traces of the atrocities committed there.

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

In 1950, the execution site was originally marked by a memorial

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

. A new monument, "Three fists", was commissioned by Yugoslav sculptor

Ivan Sabolić Ivan Sabolić (24 August 1921 – 25 June 1986) was a Yugoslavian sculptor, professor and dean of the Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb, head master of the workshop in 1975. Sabolić was born in Peteranec. Self-taught, he made his first works in clay ...

and was unveiled on 14 October 1963. Bubanj Memorial Park was declared a Historic Landmark of Exceptional Importance in 1979, and it is protected by the

Republic of Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hung ...

Recent history

In 2004, a chapel built of glass and metal was added to the complex. It was designed by the architect

Alexander Buđevac Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

. The entire memorial hill was redeveloped in 2009.Počelo uređivanje Bubnja

Gallery

File:Bubanj-Ulaz 1.jpg, Entrance on Bubanj hill File:Bubanj-Staza 2.jpg, Path to the monument File:Bubanj-Pesnice i Reljef.jpg, Overview of the memorial front view File:Bubanj-Reljef-Detalj 2.jpg, Death row File:Bubanj-Pesnice sa amfiteatra 2.jpg, Summer stage File:Bubanj-Budjevac.jpg, Bubanj Glass chapel

References

External links

Cultural Monuments in Serbia

((en))

* ttp://www.spomenikdatabase.org/nis Spomenik Database - Bubanj Memorial at Nišhistorical and informational resource (English) {{Cultural Heritage of Exceptional Importance Historic Landmarks of Exceptional Importance World War II monuments and memorials in Serbia Niš Pyramids in Europe Memorial parks