The monument was unveiled on 22 December 1973 on Trg 5. jun, close to the site of the tragedy. The decision to erect it was taken to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the 5 June tragedy, and the artistic work was entrusted to the Smederevo academic sculptor Selimir Jovanović Sele (1926–2010), who had himself witnessed the explosion. The funds for its construction were provided by Smederevo’s work organisations and the then Municipal Assembly.
The monument stands between the railway station and the Museum in Smederevo, close to Smederevo Fortress. It is made of white Venčac marble and bronze and is eight and a half metres high.
Selimir Jovanović conceived the monument as a burial mound, a symbol of a mass grave, seeking to represent the tragedy that befell the city in a powerful visual language, without superfluous words. The basic composition consists of a stepped pyramid with an obelisk, as a symbol of birth, and a sarcophagus, as a symbol of death, on which the date “5 June 1941” is engraved.
The monument’s particular artistic value lies in its four bronze reliefs of equal size, which through a series of scenes tell the story of the tragedy, suffering and reconstruction of Smederevo.
The western side shows people at the very moment of the explosion, caught by the force of the sudden blast. The southern relief depicts the rescue of the wounded, keening women and human figures expressing pain, while the sun symbolically heralds the return of hope and the victory of life. The eastern side shows the burial and mourning of the victims, and the northern relief presents scenes of clearing the ruins and rebuilding the city, so that the story ends with the symbolism of renewal and the continuation of life.
In this way, Selimir Jovanović brought together tragedy, pain, remembrance, death, hope and renewal in a single monumental ensemble. The monument is not only a memorial to the victims but also a visual story of a city that continued to live after almost complete destruction.
Today the Monument “5 June 1941” is one of the most important places of collective memory in Smederevo. Together with the Memorial Ossuary with Bell Tower in the Old Cemetery, it preserves the memory of the victims of the 5 June tragedy and is a lasting reminder of an event that profoundly marked the history of the city.