Josif Najman: Belgrade Architect Between the Two Wars

Josif Najman (5 May 1894–1 January 1951) was a Serbian architect of Jewish descent belonging to a generation of prolific designers in the period between the two World Wars in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1929).¹ His professional career was relatively brief, beginning in 1925 when he decided to enter the domestic architectural scene, and lasting until early in 1951 when he suddenly passed away. By that time, he had completed over forty state-sponsored and private projects. He also led many projects which were especially significant industrial complexes, thus initiating a new chapter in Serbian architecture. Establishing a specific and recognizable signature style, he has earned his right to be placed among the leading figures of the interbellum period of Serbian architectural history (see Figure 1).

He attended the Architectural Faculty in Belgrade, graduating in 1923. Subsequently, Najman refined his professional skills in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts. He acquired meaningful working experience in the French capital while working for a few years in the Bureau of Architecture and Design for the National Bank of France, which proved to be of major importance upon his return to Belgrade.

In Belgrade, he was engaged in the construction of a factory complex for the minting of money which, to date, was not only one of his most important works but one of the most significant examples of Serbian architecture between the World Wars. When Najman returned to Belgrade in 1927, he established a private architectural practice. In a very short time he attained considerable professional recognition due to numerous projects, such as the construction of industrial facilities and complexes, as well as his entrepreneurial endeavors and effective supervision. His primary projects were based on both traditional academic and modern styles, as he was not bound to ideas of the preeminent domestic tastes and standards, but rather on the achievements of French New Age and current architecture. In the course of two decades he created more than ten industrial, business, and residential-commercial buildings.

His fruitful career was cut short by the start of World War II. According to the testimony of Najman’s wife Julija (born Julija Klopfer),² Najman left in April 1941 to fight in the war in order to make his personal contribution toward achieving the liberation of Yugoslavia. His family departed Serbia to settle in a country that was friendly and with which they were familiar—France.³ His participation in the liberation of Yugoslavia was quickly terminated when he was captured by the enemy forces. Fortunately, he succeeded in escaping from a POW camp, and thereafter began to search for his family, eventually finding them in 1942 in Lyons, France.⁴ However, shortly after the family reunion, the region was occupied by Fascist forces, and the Najmans were once more forced to flee from their home. After an illegal crossing over the Swiss border, the Najmans were interned in the Sinjal concentration camp near Lausanne. There they spent ten months, and after their release the family remained in Switzerland, enjoying their freedom while waiting for the war to end.⁵ Thus, during the four-year war period Josif Najman spent the first part as freedom-fighter and a prisoner of war, and the second as a refugee in France and Switzerland.

After the end of the war and the liberation, the family returned to Serbia in the spring of 1945. However, instead of continuing his private architectural practice, Najman was employed at an architectural institution established by the new government.⁶ Before the war, he had attained a respectable professional and social reputation and the positive regard of his contemporaries on the architectural scene. Above all, his closest ties were with Marko Nikezić, the organizing secretary of the District Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (OK KPJ) in Belgrade. He was also very close to Ninko Petrović, the first post-war mayor of Belgrade (1946–51).⁷ These two individuals contributed to Najman’s engagement in the newly created social and political circles.

The end of the war...