History Teaching, Vol. 33 No. 1, 2022.
Original scientific paper
RESCUING CULTURAL HERITAGE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND IN THE POST-WAR PERIOD IN THE OSIJEK AREA
Ante Grubišić
orcid.org/0000-0001-7951-6883
; Museum of Slavonia
Abstract
Political and social pressures on the eve of the war, war reality, regime changes and post-war instability led to the confiscation, destruction and disappearance of a part of cultural heritage in the area of the city of Osijek and its surroundings. The reconstruction of the circumstances and events from that time based on the preserved objects and documentation in the Museum of Slavonia shows that those who were under the attack of the current authorities (Freemasons, Jews, Serbs and later Germans) had the most confidence in the Osijek city museum as a place where their property will be protected and preserved in the best way for the future. The museum went to great lengths to prevent, sometimes even at the last moment, the destruction, theft and removal of objects outside of Osijek, or to return those already taken after the war, as in the case of the archaeological cultural heritage from Robert Rudolf Schmidt's excavations in Vučedol and Sarvaš. The preserved archival material of the Committee for Collection and Preservation of Cultural Monuments and Antiquities from the period after the war shows how extensive and long-lasting the work was on listing and protecting the inventory of abandoned Slavonian castles and what problems they encountered in doing so. The most notable and striking thing is the change in the regulation of heritage protection, the status from eligible to ineligible, as well as the persistence, agility and honesty of the great fighter for the rights of the trade in all regimes, the conservator Josip Bösendorfer, who led the museum in those times.
Keywords
cultural heritage; The Second World War; Osijek; Museum of Slavonia; Josip Bösendorfer
Hrčak ID:
294375
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2022.
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