One of the most important themes and issues of scientific research is a problem of systematically suppressed social and collective memory of the Holocaust and Jews in Slovenia after WWII. Synagogue Maribor is deliberately encouraging scientific research of these topics in order to prevent public, political and scientific silence about the Holocaust and its consequences in Slovenia.
The collection of scientific papers Jews in Slovenia: History and the Holocaust, Vo. II, issued and published by the Center of Jewish Cultural Heritage Synagogue Maribor, is a scientific result of the project “Shoah – Let Us Remember”, held to commemorate the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the foreword to this publication the reviewer Dr. Irena Šumi wrote: “This yearly symposium regularly brings to light a wealth of new data, insights and syntheses. Although the Slovenian Jewish and Holocaust studies which have successfully consolidated during the past decade and a half do not enjoy any systematic support and financing from the part of the Slovenian state, they are nevertheless one of the most propulsive fields of scientific inquiry, with a proliferation of seminal publications.”
Although Holocaust is the common theme of all published authors, the issues of the articles differ from each other. Marjan Toš presents the lives of two Slovenian Righteous Among the Nations – Uroš Žun and Andrej Tumpej; Boris Hajdinjak follows the life and fate of Maribor Jew Sepi Obradović, after he and his family have left Maribor; Klemen Brvar depicts the life of Ali Kardoš – a Jew among the Slovenian communists; Renato Podbersič presents the fate of Jewish soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army on the Isonzo Front; and Anna Maria Gruenfelder researches the destiny of the foreign Jewish emigrants in the Independent State of Croatia. Vera Klopčič and Franc Kuzmič thematically expanded the collection of scientific papers with two articles about an issue that hadn’t been researched yet, that is Roma genocide in Slovenia.
The presentation of the collection of scientific papers, which will be attended by the authors of the articles, and editors Nuša Lešnik and Marjan Toš, will take place at Glazer hall in the University of Maribor Library.
Organizers of the event are the Synagogue Maribor and University of Maribor Library. The collection of scientific papers was prepared within the project Shoah – Let us Remember 2012/2013 and was financially supported by IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance).
