History Teaching, Vol. 33 No. 1, 2022.
Professional paper
THE FATE OF CULTURAL PROPERTY DURING THE WAR - THE EXAMPLE OF PULA IN 1944 AND 1945
Valentina Miletović-Anić
; School of Applied Art and Design, Pula; Monte Zaro Primary School, Pula
Abstract
Cultural property, as well as the broader concept of cultural heritage in international law, as terms, appeared in 1954, when the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict was adopted in The Hague. Ever since there have been human conflicts, there have been efforts by people to protect, besides their own lives, movable or immovable assets of great importance. The more devastating the wars became, the more intense the international community's efforts to create legal frameworks for the protection of cultural property grew. A major step in this direction was achieved after the Franco-Prussian War with the adoption of the Hague Conventions on the Laws and Customs of War on Land in 1899 and in 1907, which were in force during the First and the Second World War. Despite the efforts of museum owners and other cultural workers in European countries to protect cultural properties with various activities on the eve of the Second World War, the consequences of the war were devastating.
This can also be seen in the fate of the city of Pula, which after the First World War fell under the Kingdom of Italy after the Treaty of Rapallo. After the capitulation of Italy in September 1943, it fell under the control of Nazi Germany and became the target of Allied bombing.
The bombing lasted from January 1944 to March 1945. Almost three hundred people died, around eight hundred were wounded, 235 buildings were demolished to the ground, and 2,170 buildings were more or less damaged. After the post-war restorations, 67% of the city of that time disappeared, so the appearance of the city changed almost completely.
One of the consequences of the Second World War was, among other things, the establishment of the UN and the UNESCO, and the need to protect cultural property with a special international agreement both in wartime and peacetime conditions. The result was the adoption of the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict in The Hague in 1954. Raising awareness of the need to protect the world's cultural and natural heritage resulted in the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in Paris in 1972, which marked a new chapter in the international cooperation on the preservation of natural and cultural heritage.
The Workshop presented in this paper aims to raise awareness of the need to protect the world's cultural and natural heritage. The workshop lasted for two lessons. The students were divided into five groups. In the first lesson, which was based on the prepared materials, they investigated the emergence of international legal frameworks for the protection of cultural property and the special meaning of the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, adopted in The Hague in 1954. The students investigated the course and the consequences of the Allied bombing of Pula in 1944 and 1945. In the following lesson, they presented their work with the help of mind maps, posters and a timeline and compared the appearance of the city before and after the bombing. All learning outcomes were achieved through the activities during the workshop.
Keywords
cultural property; cultural heritage; public international law
Hrčak ID:
294383
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2022.
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