Occupied Culture

The book “Occupied Culture” by Vladimir Krivošejev, PhD, museum advisor of the National Museum Valjevo and Rade Ristanović, PhD, senior scientific associate of the Institute for Contemporary History in Belgrade, departs thematically from established historiographical books that analyse military operations, suffering and resistance. Its authors look at the Second World War in occupied Serbia from a completely different angle. The horizon of this publication is represented by culture in its extremely important segment – the protection of cultural assets and the work of museums. From a heuristic point of view, this monograph rests on the solid foundations of primary historical sources, mostly of German and collaborationist provenance. The starting point of the research is the verification of stereotypes created in post-war Yugoslavia that only after the Second World War in a country whose entire social life is dictated by the Communist Party, a museum network is developed outside Belgrade as the capital, that then the first laws on the protection of cultural property are passed and the first institute is opened for the protection of cultural monuments, as well as to form professional and scientific staff ready to actively work on the protection of cultural monuments. The author’s research denied these stereotypes. True, they are more acceptable when it comes to the pre-war period, but not for the occupation period 1941-1944. During the years of occupation, the Government of Quislin designed a national network of Serbian museums, on three levels. In addition, in the spring of 1942, the Decree on the Preservation of Antiquities was adopted, which represents a fundamental modern legal act. On the basis of that Regulation, the Central Institute for the Protection of Antiquities was established. In addition, since the fall of 1941, the Belgrade City Institute for the Preservation of Antiquities has been working. During the occupation, there were also special courses – seminars for museum students, through which, either as lecturers or as course participants, the most famous names of post-war Serbian heritology developed professionally and scientifically. In the official biographies of most of them, the activity during the war years is completely hidden. In addition to documenting these facts, along with a detailed historiographical narrative, the authors paid additional attention to a number of other aspects of the work of heritage institutions in Serbia during the occupation.