Novi Sad’s Raid Memorial: The Family in the Foreground
At night, Petrovaradin Fortress leaves little to chance when it comes to being noticed. Its illuminated walls stretch across the opposite bank of the Danube, their reflections spreading over the water. On the Novi Sad side, four bronze figures stand together on a low plinth. The fortress supplies most of the light, but the family in front of it gives this riverside view a different subject.
This is the Monument to the Victims of the Raid. Its central sculpture is called Porodica—The Family—and even before reading the inscriptions, the relationship between the figures is clear: two adults, a child between them, and a baby held against one adult’s chest.
A family in bronze
The bodies are long and narrow, the faces reduced to a few marks in the bronze. An arm reaches across to the other adult’s shoulder; lower down, more arms connect the figures around the child. There is little individual detail to identify any of them. What is easy to recognise is the way they belong together.
Created by Jovan Soldatović and erected here in 1971, the bronze group is about four metres tall. That is a substantial height, though its slender figures leave much of the sky visible between them. The sculpture gives a family’s ordinary closeness the scale of a public monument.
The family has some history with the view behind it. Soldatović worked in a studio on Petrovaradin Fortress, and The Family was first exhibited there, more than a decade before it reached the quay.
It had not been made for this memorial. It even appeared on a Yugoslav stamp for the International Year for Human Rights before it had a permanent address.
The victims of the raid
The event it commemorates took place in January 1942, during the Hungarian occupation of Novi Sad. From January 21 to 23, Hungarian forces murdered more than a thousand of the city’s residents, predominantly Jews and Serbs. Men, women and children were among those killed. Victims were shot beside the Danube, and bodies were thrown into the frozen river.
The water behind the family is therefore more than a scenic backdrop. This stretch of the Danube ties the sculpture to the city’s history, even as it reflects the lights of the fortress on the opposite bank.
Around the sculpture, bronze plaques bring that history closer still. Added in 1992, they include the names of the people who were killed. A panel bearing the Star of David sits beside closely spaced columns of Cyrillic lettering. The name Ajzler appears five times in a row; Aleksić, six. Two men called Jovan Aleksić are told apart by a middle initial. Two plaques get through the alphabet only from Adam to Bačinac. Three of the plaques were left blank.
The list takes up space that a single casualty figure cannot.
Above the rows of names, the family of four stands close together. The gesture is familiar; the plaques below make its loss specific. Across the Danube, the fortress is still brightly lit, its walls reflected in the water.
It remains an impressive view, but after looking at the names, it is easier to leave the fortress in the background.
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Location
Novi Sad Raid Memorial / The Family / Споменик жртвама рације
On the Quay of the Raid Victims beside the Danube, with Petrovaradin Fortress across the river
Kej žrtava racije, Novi Sad, Serbia
Practical Information
- Area
- Kej žrtava racije, Novi Sad, Serbia
- Visitor note
- Outdoor memorial on the Quay of the Raid Victims; no opening hours apply.
- Official information
- City of Novi Sad — Monument to the Victims of the Raid
Information last checked: September 20, 2026 (Monument identity, location and historical background checked. No opening hours or admission information applies to this outdoor memorial.)
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