Memorial plaque placed on Cultural Center Rex building

Memorial plaque placed on Cultural Center Rex building

BELGRADE -- The B92 Fund and the Jewish Community of Belgrade on Thursday unveiled a commemorative plaque on the building of the Cultural Center Rex.

It is located in 16 Jevrejska (Jewish) Street, that is also the seat of the Fund.

The memorial plaque was revealed on the occasion of National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Genocide, the Holocaust and other victims of fascism in the Second World War.

The ceremony, in addition to representatives and members of the Jewish community and the B92 Fund, also brought together representatives of organizations and institutions that are members of the European Network of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, the B92 Fund among them, who in their countries carry out a variety of activities on public remembrance and memorialization.

The building in Jevrejska Street was built in 1923 by architect Samuel Sumbula for humanitarian societies Oneg Shabbat and Gemilut Hasadim. The building housed a ward for the care of the ill and elderly and youth clubs, while the great hall served for all kinds of religious and social gatherings.

When in early 1942, the gas truck "dushegupka" was sent from Berlin to occupied Belgrade, from the building, which was converted to an annex of the Jewish community's hospital, patients and medical staff were transferred to a hospital that was located in the present-day building of the Faculty of Special Education in Visokog Stevana St. Between March 19 and 22, 1942, all patients as well as staff and doctors who were arrested and together with their families detained in the hospital, a total of 700-800 people, were suffocated in the gas truck as they were taken from Belgrade to Jajinci....