Ogulin Jewish Cemetery

Ogulin is a town in northwestern Croatia, in the Karlovac County. Romans came to the region between 35-33 BC and ruled until the 4th century AD. Croats came to the area in the 7th century and built a few settlements. Ogulin was first mentioned in the 13th century. During the wars against the Ottoman army, a fortress was built. The Ogulin fortress played an important role during the years of struggles against the Ottomans during the 15th-16th centuries.

The economic development of Ogulin began in the 19th century after the opening of a railway station. It was famous as a center of wood industry and textile producing. In 1910, there were 5,362 inhabitants, most Croatian. Jews settled in the town during the 19th century. The Jewish population of Ogulin was small; there were 60 Jews there in 1921 and only 24 in 1931. The local Jews belonged to the Jewish community of Karlovac. The Jewish population was deported to concentration camps during the Second World War. After the war, the community was not restored to its former population numbers, only 25 Jews lived in Ogulin in 1968.

One of the most famous Jews born in Ogulin was Vladimir Goldner (1933-2017), a physician, academic and professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Zagreb. Goldner mentored ten master theses and doctoral dissertations and supervised ten completed research projects. He was a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology. The Jewish cemetery of the town was established in 1880 as a private cemetery. It exists nowadays with only a few graves remaining. The oldest tombstone dates back to 1889 and the latest to 2016.