Bubanj Memorial Park, Memorial complex in Bubanj, Serbia.
Bubanj Memorial Park is a park complex centred on three concrete obelisks of different sizes, symbolising the clenched fists of a man, a woman and a child. A white marble relief 23 metres long and 2.5 metres high carries five carved scenes, from firing squads to final victory. A memorial path about half a kilometre long runs through the grounds, and a glass-and-metal chapel added in 2004 stands within the park.
Between 1942 and 1944, German forces carried out mass executions at this location, claiming the lives of thousands of Serbian, Jewish, and Roma civilians. The memorial park was established later to honor the victims and prevent their memory from being forgotten.
The three concrete obelisks represent clenched fists of a man, a woman and a child, differing in size to mark that entire families were shot. The marble frieze, 23 by 2.5 metres, carries verses by the Niš poet Ivan Vučković: "From the blood of communists and patriots grew fists of revolt and warning."
The site can be accessed from Vojvode Putnika road and provides parking areas and informational panels throughout the grounds. Visitors should allow time to walk the entire complex and read the names and stories on the memorial walls.
The three concrete obelisks are not identical: each fist is a different size, standing for a man's, a woman's and a child's hand, because whole families were shot at Bubanj. The monument was unveiled on 14 October 1963, the day Niš was liberated, and replaced a stone pyramid erected in 1950.
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