Memorial Park Bubanj (, ''Memorijalni park Bubanj, Spomen park Bubanj'') is a

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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 of European cities in different languages (M–P)#N, names in other languages), less often spelled in English as Nish, is the list of cities in Serbia, third largest city in Serbia and the administrative cente ...

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 , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

Location

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

–

Skopje Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...

, is situated 2 km from the other Serbian

Cultural Property of Great Importance Immovable Cultural Heritage of Great Importance ( / ''Nepokretna kulturna dobra od velikog značaja'') are those objects of Immovable cultural heritage that enjoy the second-highest level of state protection in the Republic of Serbia, behind the Im ...

Crveni Krst concentration camp Crveni Krst (; ; ), also known as the Niš concentration camp (), was a concentration camp operated by the German Gestapo located in the Crveni Krst municipality of Niš, in German-occupied Serbia. It was used to hold captured Serbs, Jews, Roma ...

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, Romani 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 () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

. A new monument, "Three fists", was commissioned by Yugoslav sculptor Ivan Sabolić 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 , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

Recent history

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