Vesna LUKIC1 | Thomas KADOR2
(1University of Bristol | 2University College London, UK)
Abstract:
Šabac is a small town in Serbia on the river Sava where a group of about 1200 Jewish refugees from central Europe (mostly Vienna), known as the ‘Kladovo transport’, stayed from September 1940. When World War II reached Yugoslavia in April 1941 this group was arrested and from then on received the same treatment as the local Jewish population, resulting in their deaths in 1941/42.
Our video traces the locations around the town relevant for the story of the ‘Kladovo transport’; including the synagogue, the library, the cinema, the old mill (where many of them were accommodated) and the site of the camp where they were detained until they were taken to the sites of their execution (Zasavica and Belgrade respectively). The film is accompanied by a voice-over composed from letters written by some of the members of the group during their stay in Šabac.
This video is of archaeological interest, as most of the locations featured have remained largely unchanged since the 1940s and therefore enable a direct engagement with the experiences of the Jewish refugees in these new and unfamiliar surroundings. In contrast to ‘traditional’ approaches to urban archaeology cinematic discourse allows a more evocative and physically immersive experience of these locations and the events they bear testimony of. In this sense we use the camera as an archaeological research tool. Rather than merely documenting the findings of archaeological research the camera facilitates different ways of exploring the material remains through the haptic experience of watching a film. Thus cinematic elements such as the frame or its duration relate directly to the meaning of the places featured. By watching this video viewers will thus be both engaged by and informed of the archaeology of one of the most significant but also difficult periods of European history.
Keywords: Holocaust, Jewish Exiles, World War II, Serbia, Video Archaeology