The authorities of the

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

established many

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 ...

memorials A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, Tragedy (event), tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objec ...

during the country's existence. Several memorial sites were established between 1945 and 1960, though widespread building started after the founding of the

Non-Aligned Movement The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 121 countries that Non-belligerent, are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. It was founded with the view to advancing interests of developing countries in the context of Cold W ...

. Yugoslav president

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito ( ; , ), was a Yugoslavia, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who served in various positions of national leadership from 1943 unti ...

commissioned several memorial sites and monuments in the 1960s and 1970s dedicated to World War II battles, and

Nazi concentration camp From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...

sites. They were designed by notable sculptors, including

Dušan Džamonja Dušan Džamonja (, ; 31 January 1928 – 14 January 2009) was a Yugoslav sculptor of Serbian ancestry. Education and career Džamonja was born in 1928 in Strumica, Macedonia, former Vardar Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1945, Džamonja be ...

Vojin Bakić Vojin Bakić ( sr-cyrl, Војин Бакић; 5 June 1915 – 18 December 1992) was a prominent Yugoslav sculptor. Educated at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts and by Ivan Meštrović and Frano Kršin ...

, Miodrag Živković, Jordan and Iskra Grabul, and architects, including Bogdan Bogdanović,

Svetlana Kana Radević Svetlana Kana Radević (Cyrillic: Светлана Кана Радевић; 21 November 1937 8 November 2000) was a Yugoslav and Montenegrin architect, credited as the first female Montenegrin architect. Her work has been recognized by two na ...

and Gradimir Medaković. After Tito's death, a small number were built, and the monuments were popular visitor attractions in the 1980s as patriotic sites, and since the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

and the

dissolution of Yugoslavia After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, the constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart in the early 1990s. Unresolved issues from the breakup caused a series of inter-ethnic Yugoslav ...

, the sites are mostly abandoned. In Slovenia, World War II Veteran Organisation and its branches yearly hold many commemorative events in regard with the subject of the monuments and people remember the fallen on the

Day of the Dead The Day of the Dead () is a holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2, though other days, such as October 31 or November 6, may be included depending on the locality. The multi-day holiday involves family and friends gathering to pa ...

. On August 28, 2018, author Donald Niebyl published a book titled ''Spomenik Monument Database'', the first-ever English-language guidebook on the WWII monuments of Yugoslavia, after conducting several years of intensive research. For the list of World War II monuments in each republic of the Former Yugoslavia, see: *

List of World War II monuments and memorials in Bosnia and Herzegovina List of World War II monuments and memorials in Bosnia and Herzegovina includes Yugoslav monuments and memorials build on the territory of the present day Bosnia and Herzegovina. History The Yugoslav authorities established several memorial si ...

List of World War II monuments and memorials in Croatia List of Yugoslav World War II monuments and memorials in Croatia represent monuments and memorials built on the territory of the present day Croatia in Yugoslavia between 1945 and 1991. It does not include busts or other statues of individuals (#Se ...

List of World War II monuments and memorials in Montenegro List of World War II monuments and memorials in the Montenegro represent Yugoslav monuments and memorials built on the territory of the present day Montenegro. See also *People's Heroes of Yugoslavia monuments *List of Yugoslav World War II mo ...

* List of World War II monuments and memorials in Macedonia *

List of World War II monuments and memorials in Serbia This is a list of monuments and memorials dedicated to the National Liberation Movement (Yugoslavia), National Liberation Movement, its fighters and its victims in the World War II in Yugoslavia, built on the territory of the present day Serbia, ...

List of World War II monuments and memorials in Slovenia List of World War II monuments and memorials in Slovenia represent Yugoslav monuments and memorials built on the territory of the present day Slovenia. History The Yugoslav authorities established several memorial sites between 1945 and 1960, th ...

External links

Spomenik Database - An exploration of Yugoslav-era WWII monuments

25 Abandoned Yugoslavia Monuments that look like they're from the Future
{{Authority control Culture of Yugoslavia Propaganda in Yugoslavia

See also

Further reading

External links