Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
selves in Muslim veils. You'll also see Nazi-mandated armbands identifying Jews, photos
of resistance fighters, and an exhibit on the reprehensible Jasenovac concentration camp on
today'sBosnian-Croatian border—whereJews,Serbs,Roma(Gypsies),antifascist Muslims
and Croats, communists, and other enemies of the Ustaše-controlled state were savagely
executed. Jasenovac lacked the “high-tech” gas chambers of other Nazi camps, so they re-
sorted to more medieval methods, murdering their victims by knife, sword, or even a ham-
mer to the skull. And yet, even through that dark history, Sarajevo has remained a place
where cultures coexist side-by-side: Position yourself so that you can look through the Star
of David window to see a minaret.
The Sarajevo Haggadah
An ancient Jewish text telling the story of the Exodus—used as a sort of “order of
service” for the Passover Seder—the Haggadah is considered the third most import-
ant book of the Jewish faith (after the Torah and Talmud). The Sarajevo Haggadah
is filled with colorful illustrations as well as wine stains—indicating that it has been
used at many Passover dinner tables. While the topic's exact origins are unclear, it
likely dates from around 1350 and was brought here from Spain by Sephardic trans-
plantsinthe16thcentury.AppropriatelyforabookabouttheExodus,ithashadquite
an unlikely journey through a landscape of hardship since then. Bosnians—who, re-
gardless of their ethnicity, consider the Sarajevo Haggadah a part of their national
culturalheritage—proudlyexplainthatthebookhasbeenprotectedtimeaftertimeby
peopleofawidevarietyoffaiths(notjustJews).DuringtheWWIIoccupation,when
an SS officer came here to claim the Haggadah, the Muslim curator of the museum
lied about its whereabouts, and carried it on horseback into the mountains to hide it
away under the doorstop of a village mosque. Soon after the siege began in 1992, the
room in the National Museum that held the Haggadah was almost entirely destroyed
by mortar shells—but the topic itself survived, secured in a steel box. The building
wasexposedtosniperfire,soundercoverofdarkness,BosnianArmytroopssnuckto
themuseum,rescuedthebook,andstoreditinthevaultoftheBosnianCentralBank.
Today, the National Museum still owns the topic. But, in yet another chapter of its
outlandish history—funding cuts forced the museum to close to the public in 2012.
While they try to find a way to reopen their doors, the National Museum periodically
sendstheHaggadahontravelingexhibitstoothercities.Ifyou'dliketoseeit,askthe
TI whether it's viewable anywhere in Sarajevo.
