----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Attached is a paper I presented as part of the Section of
Art Libraries session at last summer's IFLA conference. I'm
posting it at the suggestion of a fellow ARLIS/NA member in
the hope of sparking discussion of what we as art librarians
in North America can do to help our colleagues in art and
museum libraries in Bosnia.
If you are interested in more information about the subject of
rebuilding libraries, museums and cultural heritage in Bosnia
there is now a home page on the World Wide Web that I helped put
together. The URL is http://www.applicom.com/manu/ingather.htm
Please be sure to click on "more information" (near the bottom
of the page) to get the full range of info posted on the page.
Thanks,
Andras Riedlmayer
Fine Arts Library
Harvard University
[log in to unmask]
-----------------------------------------------------------------
61st IFLA General Conference - Section of Art Libraries
Istanbul, Turkey, 22 August 1996
LIBRARIES ARE NOT FOR BURNING: INTERNATIONAL LIBRARIANSHIP AND THE
RECOVERY OF THE DESTROYED HERITAGE OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Andras Riedlmayer, Harvard University
--------
ABSTRACT
In the past three years, the cultural heritage of Bosnia
and Herzegovina has suffered major destruction. The result is
what a Council of Europe report has called Ra cultural catastrophe.S
Historic architecture (including more than 1200 mosques, 150 churches,
4 synagogues and over 1000 other monuments of culture), works of art,
as well as cultural institutions (including major museums, libraries,
archives and manuscript collections) have been systematically targeted
and destroyed. The losses include not only the works of art, but
also crucial documentation that might aid in their reconstruction. Our
Bosnian colleagues need the assistance of the international library
community to help them recover and restore some of what has been lost
and to rebuild the buildings and institutions that embody their
countryUs cultural heritage. The paper suggests some innovative ways
that librarians outside of Bosnia, through their home institutions
and professional organizations, can provide material and technical
assistance, training and documentation to help to undo the destruction
of memory.
----------
Three years ago this August, Bosnia's National and University
Library, a handsome Moorish-revival building erected in the 1890s on
the Sarajevo riverfront, was shelled and burned. Before the fire, the
library held 1.5 million volumes, including over 155,000 rare books and
manuscripts; the country's national archives; deposit copies of newspapers,
periodicals and books published in Bosnia; and the collections of the
University of Sarajevo.
Bombarded with incendiary grenades from Serbian nationalist
positions across the river, the library burned for three days; most
of its irreplaceable contents were reduced to ashes. Braving a hail of
sniper fire, librarians and citizen volunteers formed a human chain to
pass books out of the burning building. Interviewed by an ABC news
camera crew, one of them said: "We managed to save just a few very
precious books. Everything else burned down. And a lot of our heritage,
national heritage, lay down there in ashes." Among the human casualties
was Aida Buturovic, a librarian in the National Library's international
exchanges section, shot to death by a sniper.
Three months earlier Sarajevo's Oriental Institute, home to the
largest collection of Islamic and Jewish manuscript texts and Ottoman
documents in the Balkans, was shelled with incendiary grenades and burned.
Losses included 5,263 bound manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and
adzamijski (Bosnian Slavic written in Arabic script); 7,000 Ottoman
documents, primary source material for five centuries of Bosnia's history;
a collection of 19th-century cadastral registers; and 200,000 other
documents of the Ottoman era, including microfilm copies of originals
in private hands or obtained on exchange from foreign institutions. The
Institute's collection of printed books, the most comprehensive library
on its subject in the region, was also destroyed as was its catalog and
all work in progress.
In each case, the library alone was targeted; adjacent buildings
stand intact to this day. Serb nationalist leader Radovan Karadzic has
denied his forces were responsible for the attacks, claiming the National
Library had been set ablaze by the Muslims themselves "because they
didn't like its ... architecture." (New York Newsday, 30 November 1992)
The 200,000-volume library of Bosnia's National Museum (established
in 1888) was successfully evacuated under shelling and sniper fire during
the summer of 1992. Among the books rescued from the Museum was one of
Bosnia's greatest cultural treasures, the 14th-century Sarajevo Haggadah.
The work of Jewish calligraphers and illuminators in Islamic Spain, this
manuscript was brought to Bosnia 500 years ago by Jews fleeing the Spanish
Inquisition. It entered the National MuseumUs collection over a century
ago. Successfully concealed from the Nazis by a courageous museum curator
during World War II, the Sarajevo Haggadah has now once again had to be
hidden in a secret location.
The National Museum, meanwhile, has been badly hit. Shells have
crashed through the roof and the skylights and all of its 300 windows
have been shot out, as have the walls of several galleries. Parts of the
Museum's collection that could not be moved to safe stores remain in the
building, exposed to further artillery attacks and to decay from exposure
to the elements. Dr. Rizo Sijaric, the Museum's director, was killed
by a grenade blast on 10 December 1993 while trying to arrange for
plastic sheeting from UN relief agencies to cover some of the holes
in the building.
In April 1992, Serbian forces began bombarding the historic city
of Mostar, the center of the country's southwestern region, Herzegovina.
The Archives of Herzegovina, housing manuscripts and records documenting
the region's past since the medieval period, was repeatedly hit and
suffered severe damage. Over 50,000 books were destroyed when the library
of Mostar's Roman Catholic archbishopric was struck by shells fired from
artillery positions on the heights overlooking the city. Further tens of
thousands of books and documents were exposed to fire and damp when
shells smashed through the roof and windows of the Museum of Herzegovina.
The University of Mostar Library was also hit and burned, along with a
score of other libraries and archives at various locations in the city.
Throughout Bosnia, libraries, archives, museums and cultural
institutions have been targeted for destruction, in an attempt to eliminate
the material evidence -- books, documents and works of art -- that could
remind future generations that people of different ethnic and religious
traditions once shared a common heritage in Bosnia. In the towns and
villages of occupied Bosnia, communal records (cadastral registers,
endowment documents, parish records) of more than 800 Bosnian Muslim and
Bosnian Croat (Catholic) communities have been torched by Serb nationalist
forces as part of "ethnic cleansing" campaigns.
While the destruction of a community's institutions and records
is, in the first instance, part of a strategy of intimidation aimed at
driving out members of the targeted group, it also serves a long-term goal.
These records were proof that non-Serbs once resided and owned property
in that place, that they had historical roots there. By burning the
documents, by razing mosques and Catholic churches and bulldozing the
graveyards, the nationalist forces who have now taken over these towns
and villages are trying to insure themselves against any future claims
by the people they have driven out and dispossessed.
Other Bosnians, however, remain determined to preserve their
country's historic ideal of a multicultural, tolerant society and the
institutions that enshrine its collective memory.
Surviving staff members of the National and University Library
-- Serbs and Croats as well as Muslims -- are still at work in Sarajevo.
An estimated 10% of the Library's collection was saved, as were tapes
containing computerized catalogue records for a small portion of the
items that perished in the fire. In temporary quarters, 42 librarians
(out of a pre-war staff of 108) are preparing inventories, undertaking what
conservation measures are possible under current conditions, keeping track
of titles published in Sarajevo since April 1992, and planning for the
post-war reconstruction of their institution. They are also trying to
serve the needs of 850 faculty members and the 4,500 students still
studying at the University of Sarajevo; 70 students have completed work
for doctoral degrees since the beginning of the siege.
The librarians and research staff of Sarajevo's Oriental Institute
have also decided to carry on, despite the nearly total loss of their
Institute's collections. In temporary quarters, they have been holding
seminars and symposia to share their research, reconstructed from notes
kept at home, and making plans for the Institute's future. They have
issued a call for moral and material support from their colleagues
throughout the world.
Response thus far by international agencies, institutions and
professional organizations has been only modestly encouraging. UNESCO
has given its endorsement to the rebuilding of the National Library, has
sponsored a number of meetings to discuss the project, and has set up
a liaison office in Sarajevo. However, few books and little aid has
actually reached Sarajevo thus far.
The Helsinki Citizens' Assembly, a human rights group based in
Prague, has called on its affiliates to assist Bosnia's National Library
and has established collection sites for donated materials in Europe
(contact: Tony Bloomfield, HCA-UK, 11 Goodwin Street, London N4 3HQ;
tel.: 44-71-272-9092; fax: 44-71-272-3044). A similar effort is underway
in France, led by the Association pour la renaissance de la Bibliotheque
nationale a Sarajevo, which is collecting both funds and book donations
(contact: A.R.B.N.S., 94, boulevard Auguste Blanqui, 75014 Paris,
France; tel: 33-14-337-5218; fax: 33-14-331-6233). The Turkish National
Library has undertaken to locate Bosnia-related materials in its own
collections -- with the goal of making copies available when Bosnia's
National Library is rebuilt -- and has issued a call to national and
academic libraries elsewhere urging them to join the effort (contact:
Altinay Sernikli, T.C. Milli Kutuphane Baskanligi, 06490 Ankara, Turkey).
In June 1994, Iran's ambassador to Bosnia promised financial support for
the reconstruction of the Oriental Institute; the Royal Library in The
Hague has also pledged assistance. Publishers in the Czech Republic and
Germany have offered to help produce reprint editions of the classics of
Bosnian literature. A small group of British academics have established
Bosnia-Herzegovina Heritage Rescue U.K., a private foundation, to assist
with immediate conservation needs in Bosnia (contact: Dr. Marian Wenzel,
9 Canterbury Mansions, Lymington Road, London NW6 2EW U.K.; tel.:
44-71-433-1142). In the U.S., tax-deductible financial contributions to
support the reconstruction of Bosnia's National Library can be sent to
the Sarajevo Fund (P.O. Box 1640 Cathedral Station, New York NY 10025).
The above represents but part of a growing number of efforts --
most of them small in scale -- to remedy what a Council of Europe report
has characterized as a Rmajor cultural catastrophe.S What has largely
been lacking, except in symbolic terms, has been an organized response
on the part of the professional library community.
The American Library Association's official response, at its
1993 mid-winter meeting in Denver, was to issue a cautiously-worded
statement decrying the loss of access to information by the peoples of
the former Yugoslavia. This statement (CD#37) was passed over the vocal
objections of some members, who wanted the ALA to avoid involvement
in "political" issues. The full text of the statement was sent to the
official addressees (incl. the White House and the U.N.), but it was
decided not to give it wider publicity. The International Federation
of Library Associations (IFLA) adopted a similar resolution, pointing
no fingers and naming no names, at its meeting in Barcelona that year.
The debates in Denver and Barcelona reflect an unfortunate
confusion. The burning of libraries and archives cannot be construed
as a mere expression of one side's views in a political dispute. It is
also not merely one of the regrettable calamities of war. It is a crime
against humanity and a violation of international laws and conventions.
The latter include the 1931 Athens Charter, the 1954 Hague Convention
on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict,
the 1964 Venice Charter, and the 1977 Protocols I and II Additonal
to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, all of which were ratified by the
government of the former Yugoslavia and remain legally binding upon
its successor states.
The prosecution of crimes against culture remains one of the
urgent tasks facing the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia and deserves our support. But we can also play an active part,
in our professional capacity as librarians and representatives of our
home institutions, to assist in the task of rebuilding the libraries
and cultural heritage of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In addition to the examples
given above, there are also other creative ways to use our collective
expertise and resources. Although the scale of destruction is
unprecedented, not all has been lost in Bosnia and some of what has
been destroyed may be recoverable.
Sarajevo's Gazi Husrev Beg Library, one of BosniaUs preeminent
manuscript libraries (est. 1537), was shelled in May 1992, but most
of its collection has been saved. That collection, along with other
caches of rescued but endangered materials (including most the holdings
of the Archives of Herzegovina in Mostar), requires the attention of
conservation professionals. Even before the fighting is over, we can
offer training internships as well as technical and material assistance
to our Bosnian colleagues, who face the task of caring for, preserving
and restoring these precious items.
Of the manuscripts and documents destroyed in the fire that
consumed the Oriental Institute, many had been filmed before the war
as part of research and exchange projects. Copies of those microfilms,
now dispersed in foreign libraries and research institutes, can be
collected -- with the help of foreign librarians and scholars -- to form
the core of a rebuilt Institute. With some colleagues, we have launched
a project to gather information on microforms and other facsimiles of
rare and unique Bosnian materials currently held in collections outside
of Bosnia. Colleagues who know the present whereabouts of such material
are urged to contact the author.
In addition to the burning of libraries, the most grievous loss
has been the systematic destruction of historic architecture and works
of art in Bosnia. More than 1,200 mosques, over 150 Roman Catholic
churches, 15 Orthodox churches, 4 synagogues, and more than 1,000 other
monuments of culture have been destroyed or severely damaged since 1992.
Bosnians are anxious to rebuild at least a representative portion
of these monuments of their countryUs multiethnic heritage. This will
require not only financial support and technical expertise, but also
documentation, much of which now survives only outside of Bosnia.
Libraries and photo archives abroad hold the key to any possibility of
recovering and reconstructing what has been destroyed. Art librarians
and their associations represented in IFLA could contribute by
organizing surveys of holdings of such materials and sharing the results
with our Bosnian colleagues.
We have at hand some of the means to undo the destruction
of memory.*
-------
* Those who know the whereabouts of microfilms and photo archives that
document the cultural heritage of Bosnia are asked to contact the author
(c/o Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138; e-mail:
[log in to unmask]). For further information on how to help
Bosnian libraries, please consult the Bosnian Manuscript ProjectUs home
page on the World Wide Web: http://www.applicom.com/manu/ingather.htm
-------
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arhiv Hercegovine. Katalog arapskih, turskih i persijskih rukopisa =
Catalogue of the Arabic, Turkish and Persian Manuscripts. Ed. Hivzija
Hasandedic. Mostar: Arhiv Hercegovine, 1977. 330 pp.
The Art Treasures of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ed. Mirza Filipovic;
text: Duro Basler et al.; photographs: Sulejman Balic et al.
Sarajevo: Svjetlost, 1987. 176 p. : col. ill.
A reminder of what Bosnians of all religious backgrounds -- and
the rest of us -- have been deprived of in little more than
three years of organized destruction. Illustrations include:
illuminated pages of manuscripts from Bosnia's Christian, Islamic
and Jewish traditions, historical documents, civil and religious
architecture, and other works of art. This book was also published
in German and Serbo-Croatian editions.
Bollag, Burton. "Bosnia's Desperate Campuses," Chronicle of Higher
Education , vol. 41 no. 16 (14 December 1994), pp. A40-42.
_______. "Rebuilding Bosnia's Library: Local Scholars Seek Help of
Colleagues Worldwide," Chronicle of Higher Education , vol. 41
no. 18 (13 January 1995), pp. A35-37.
"Bosnia-Herzegovina: History, Culture, Heritage." (Special issue)
Newsletter / Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture,
no. 31 (April 1993). 46 + 14 p. : ill.
Lists nearly 500 monuments of Bosnian culture (mosques, churches,
libraries) destroyed in the first months of the war. Available from:
Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture, P.O. Box 24,
80693 Besiktas-Istanbul, Turkey.
Council of Europe. Parliamentary Assembly. Information Report on
the Destruction by War of the Cultural Heritage in Croatia and
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Strasbourg, 1993P
Reports 1-5 (2 February 1993P12 April 1994) were adopted as
Assembly Documents nos. 6756, 6869, 6904, 6989, and 7070.
Based on research and site inspections of institutions (libraries,
archives, museums) and architectural monuments, carried out by
rapporteurs commissioned by the European Parliament. Reports are
available from: The Secretary, Committee on Culture and Education,
Conseil d'Europe, B.P. 431, Strasbourg Cedex F-67006, France.
Cultural Institutions and Monuments in Sarajevo. Ed. Aida Cengic and
Ferida Durakovic. Budapest: Open Society Institute, Open Society
City Project of Sarajevo, 1995. 118 p. : ill.
An illustrated directory listing some of the libraries, museums,
performing arts centers and architectural monuments in Sarajevo
damaged or destroyed in the war, indicating specific reconstruction
needs and contact addresses; compiled Dec. 1994-March 1995.
Copies can be obtained from the Open Society Institute in Budapest
(fax 36-1-327-3101).
Detling, Karen J. "Eternal Silence: The Destruction of Cultural Property
in Yugoslavia," Maryland Journal of International Law and Trade,
vol. 17 no. 1 (Spring 1993), pp. 41-75.
Examines the legal implications, incl. the applicability of the
1954 Hague Convention and other treaties to Yugoslavia and its
successor states.
Dossier: Urbicide, Sarajevo = Sarajevo, une ville blessee. Ed. by
Borislav Curic [et al.]. Sarajevo: Drustvo arhitekata Sarajevo;
reprt. Bordeaux: Arc en reve centre dUarchitecture, 1994.
[100] p. : ill.
Catalog of an exhibition of photographs documenting the
destruction of Sarajevo's historic buildings and cultural
institutions targeted by Serb forces. The exhibition was first held
in Sarajevo in the fall of 1993; it has since been shown in Europe
and the U.S. Text and captions in English, French and German.
Fisk, Robert. "Waging War on History: In Former Yugoslavia, Whole
Cultures Are Being Obliterated." The Independent (London),
20 June 1994, p. 18.
First of a series of reports on cultural genocide, its ideologues,
and efforts to document the destruction and to bring perpetrators
to justice; reprinted in the San Francisco Chronicle, 3 July 1994.
Gazi Husrevbegova biblioteka u Sarajevu. Katalog arapskih, turskih i
persijskih rukopisa = Catalogue of the Arabic, Turkish and Persian
Manuscripts. Ed. by Kasim Dobraca and Zejnil Fajic. Sarajevo:
Starjesinstvo Islamske vjerske zajednice, 1963-[1991]. 3 vols.
Lovrenovic, Ivan. "The Hatred of Memory." New York Times, 28 May 1994,
p. A15.
A noted Bosnian scholar descibes the destruction of public and
private libraries and art collections in Sarajevo, including his own.
Malcolm, Noel. Bosnia: A Short History. London: Macmillan ; New York:
New York University Press, 1994. xxiv, 340 pp.
The best history of Bosnia in English; a synthesis of Bosnian and
foreign scholarship based on primary source materials now largely
destroyed.
Mostar '92: Urbicid. Ed. by Ivanka Ribarevic-Nikolic and Zeljko Juric.
Mostar: HVO Opcine Mostar, Drustvo arhitekata Mostar, 1992.
167 p. : ill.
Catalog of an exhibition of photographs documenting the destruction
of Mostar's historic buildings and cultural institutions by Serbian
shelling in 1992; incl. English text and captions.
Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu. Katalog perzijskih rukopisa
Orijentalnog instituta u Sarajevu. Ed. Salih Trako. Sarajevo:
Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu, 1986. 268 p. : ill.
Catalog of the InstituteUs collection of Persian MSS, now
completely destroyed; ill. with facsimiles of illuminated MSS.
Schwartz, Amy. "Is It Wrong to Weep for Buildings?" Washington Post,
10 May 1994.
Report on a symposium on the destruction of cultural heritage
in Bosnia, held on 2 May 1994 at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace. A full transcript of this symposium was
submitted to the U.N. Commission of Experts Investigating War
Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia. The transcript is available
on the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) gopher,
found on most gopher servers under "International Organizations;"
choose "Related Treaties" then "Hague" -- on the World Wide Web enter
gopher://cormier.icomos.org:70/11/.icomos/treaties/hague
Sijaric, Rizo. "Update on the Zemaljski Muzej, Sarajevo." Museum
Management and Curatorship, 12 (1993), pp. 195-199.
An appeal for help by the director of Bosnia's National Museum;
an appendix details ongoing efforts to preserve rescued library
materials and museum objects in Sarajevo and to keep cultural life
going under siege.
Vodic kroz naucne i strucne biblioteke u Bosni i Hercegovini. Ed. by
Ljubinka Basovic. Sarajevo: Narodna biblioteka SR Bosne i Hercegovine,
1977. 86, [12] p.
A guide to Bosnia's academic and research libraries and their holdings.
Wenzel, Marian. "Obituary: Dr. Rizo Sijaric, Director of the Zemaljski
Muzej, Sarajevo: Killed in Sarajevo, 10 December 1993." Museum
Management and Curatorship, 13 (1994), pp. 79-80.
Zdralovic, Muhamed. "Bosnia-Herzegovina." In: World Survey of Islamic
Manuscripts, Vol. I. Ed. by G.J. Roper. London: Al-Furqan Islamic
Heritage Foundation, 1992, pp. 87-110.
A guide and bibliography describing 28 public and private manuscript
collections in Bosnia-Herzegovina, compiled in 1991. The majority
of the collections described in this survey are now ashes.
--------------------------
|
