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  • A Photographic Memoir: The Jewish Street in Belgrade

Between 1928 and around 1932, Jeremija Stanojević, colonel in the Royal Yugoslav Army and professor in the Military Academy of Belgrade, undertook a very ambitious project. He wanted to create a photographic documentary of all the streets in Belgrade’s old city in order to record the old and new, both the destruction and new construction. An entire set of these negatives was destroyed in April 1941 during the German bombing of Belgrade, when the Military Academy suffered a direct hit to the section of the complex in which these negatives were kept. Fortuitously, however, more than 2,000 negatives stored in the Stanojević family home were saved, thus preserving images of many streets in the old city. Unfortunately, photographs of the direct center of the city were not found among them. Amidst this group of photographs, a number of images survived pertaining directly to the subject to which this volume of Serbian Studies is dedicated—the Jewish experience in Serbia. Currently, in the collection of the Museum of the City of Belgrade, these photographs show the Jewish Street in Dorćol, the ancient section of Belgrade.1 The Jewish street had its start at Cara Dušana Street and descended towards the Danube river. It was intersected by a number of streets, including Visoki Stevan, Solunska, Mike Alasa (Mihajlo Petrović-Alas), and Dunavska Streets. [End Page 259]


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Figure 1.

Ground plan of Belgrade showing Dorćol and the Jewish Street. (After D. Đurić-Zamolo, “Beograd 1930,” The Plan of Belgrade)

[End Page 260]


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Figure 2.

Jewish Street, even numbered side, from Cara Dušan Street towards Visoki Stevan Street, illustrating old single-story buildings and contemporary three-story apartment houses. (Cat. no. 727, p. 88, inv. no. 6376).

[End Page 261]


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Figure 3.

Jewish Street, even numbers, continuation of the block between streets of Visoki Stevan toward Solunska Street. Old, low buildings can be seen in the foreground. Some of them show the so-called Balkan style or Ottoman influences. In the distance is a Post-WWI multistory structure. (Cat. no. 728), p. 88, inv. no. 6374.

[End Page 262]


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Figure 4.

Jewish Street, even numbers from Solunska St. toward Visoki Stevan. The photograph shows single-story and two-story buildings. It is important to point out one of the buildings which has a projected upper story. It documents the Ottoman style, this Historical 18th-century house was demolished in 1965. (Cat. no. 730), Pg. 88, inv. no. 6377.

[End Page 263]


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Figure 5.

Jewish Street, odd numbers, back alley. In the background of the illustration, Post-WWI construction of multiple-storied apartment houses are visible. The middle ground is occupied by the old synagogue building, Probably dating from the 18th century. It was destroyed during WWII. It is a longitudinal structure with rounded short sides most probably facing the direction of Jerusalem and where in the interior the holy space of the Bema was located. That part of the synagogue was illuminated by the Oculus. The long sides were arcaded. (Cat. No. 734), p. 89, inv. no. 13423.

[End Page 264]

Footnotes

1. Divna Djurić-Zamolo, “Beograd 1930 na fotografijama Jeremije Stanojevića,” Katalog VI: Serija zbirke i legati muzeja grada Beograda (Belgrade: Muzej grada Beograda, 1975), 88–89, figs. 727, 728, 730, and 734.

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