Monument to the Revolution Dedicated to the freedom-loving spirit of Kozara people

Monument to the Revolution (Serbo-Croatian: Spomenik Revoluciji) is a World War II memorial sculpture by Dušan Džamonja.

Located at Mrakovica, one of the highest peaks of Kozara mountain, it is dedicated to the 2.500 Yugoslav partisan fighters and 68.500 mostly Serb civilians killed or deported in Ustaše concentration camps during German-Ustaše-Hungarian Kozara Offensive, from June to July 1942.

In the memory of deceased soldiers a memorial complex (which consists of the Monument, a Memorial Wall and a Museum) was built in the central part of the Kozara National Park- Mrakovica in 1972.

With its height of 33 m the monument, symbolically, represents the size of liberty and freedom-loving spirit of Kozara people. The monument is surrounded by concrete columns which represent physical pressure that enemy put on Kozara.

9 921 names of soldiers killed in battles in this area during World War II were engraved, “in death for the eternity”, in the bronze memorial wall.

This picture is part of the Monumental series shoot in the Balkan region between 2011 and 2012.

(Source: National Park Kozara and Wikipedia)

La storia della città di Prijedor ci racconta di una popolazione martoriata dalla ferocia nazionalista, prima con le persecuzioni della seconda guerra mondiale e poi con quelle della guerra degli anni ’90. Il rapporto che la città conserva con questo passato ricorda la frase del filosofo Paul Ricouer quando afferma che «l’eccesso di memoria come l’eccesso di oblio sono ugualmente nefasti».

Da Quale memoria e quale storia nella città di Prijedor?
Un articolo di Simone Malavolti per Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso

Peter Franc

Designer

London to Sydney overland, began April 2015. Photographer, Visual Designer, Burner.