“Professor Nandor Glid is one of the most prominent Yugoslav sculptors of the post-World War Two period recognized the world over owing to the accolades he received for his monumental memorials dedicated to Holocaust victims mounted in Mauthausen, Dachau, Yad Vashem, Belgrade, and Thessaloniki, and for his monuments dedicated to fallen antifascist fighters mounted throughout the former Yugoslavia”

“Acting upon a recommendation of the International Committee of Mauthausen, the Association of Veterans of the National Liberation War of Serbia, together with the Yugoslav section of the Association, on 18th July 1957 announced a contest for a monument to be mounted in that death camp. In less than a year, on 11th May 1958, the monument was ceremonially unveiled: Nandor Glid’s bronze relief, size 7.65 x 2.18 yards, was placed on the front end of three blocks of white marble from Venčac, reminiscent of a sarcophagus, upon which shadows of the branching-out sculpture were reflected, as if in dialogue with space. The inscription To Yugoslav Victims in Mauthausen 1941–1945. The Grateful Peoples of Yugoslavia is a warning. The very idea of inviting young, progressive, almost revolutionary sculptors to participate in the contest pointed to the readiness of the organizers to step out of the circle of stereotyped monuments that were erected immediately after the Second World War and the National Liberation War as a direct message of the power of the authorities and to commemorate the victory of soldiers, peasants, and workers.”

“The fact that I became a sculptor was determined by a succession of factors, first of all, the difficult living conditions of my family...on account of bad marks, I left school in the third form, and since there was a numerus clausus applying to Jews before World War Two, my father almost accidentally sent me to learn the stone mason’s craft. That is where I established an interest in shaping things, even though I always wanted to become a doctor.”