Securitizing the past : a discussion on the connections between heritage and security

Are there connections between security policies, peacebuilding, and heritage politics? The first aim of this paper is to discuss how heritage policies sometimes are used to add to and reinforce security policies and practices. This issue is largely unknown and remains to be researched. Secondly, it would also be of importance to try to better understand how security policies may be influenced by notions of heritage and certain interventions on heritage sites. It is argued that it has become necessary to move beyond the study of wars to better understand how heritage affects security and vice versa not only in conflicts but also in peacetime and in “afterwar” periods. The paper builds on a critical reading of previous research mainly on heritage studies and partly on security studies, and on a case study of Swedish-led heritage interventions in the Balkans following the Yugoslavian wars. The case study discusses how issues of security and safety may become relevant in heritage politics in the Balkans following the Yugoslavian wars. It serves to demonstrate how heritage interventions can be seen as either providing security in a community or constituting a threat to its survival. Există legături intre politicile de securitate, consolidarea păcii și politicile de patrimoniu? Scopul acestei lucrări este de a discuta despre modul în care politicile patrimoniului cultural sunt utilizate pentru a elabora și a consolida politicile și practicile de securitate, care, în mare parte, rămân necunoscute. În al doilea rând, este, de asemenea important să încercăm să înțelegem mai bine modul în care politicile de securitate pot fi influențate de noțiunile de moștenire culturală și de anumite intervenții asupra siturilor de patrimoniu.  Autorul argumentează faptul, că a devenit necesar să trecem dincolo de stu- diul războaielor, pentru a înțelege mai bine modul în care patrimoniul cul- tural afectează securitatea și viceversa, nu numai în timpul conflictelor, dar și în perioade de pace, și, mai ales, în perioada „după război”. Lucrarea se ba- zează pe o analiză critică a cercetărilor anterioare, în special asupra studiilor privind patrimoniul cultural și, parțial, asupra studiilor de securitate. Stu- diul de caz dezbate modul în care aspectele legate de securitate și siguranță pot deveni relevante în politica patrimoniului cultural din Balcani. Studiul servește pentru a demonstra modul în care intervențiile patrimoniului pot fi văzute ca furnizor de securitate într-o comunitate, fie ca o amenințare pen- tru supraviețuirea ei. Cuvinte-cheie: Securizare, patrimoniu cultural, reconciliere, reconstrucție post-război, insecuritatea balcanică, conservare, Urbicide.

Värdering och skydd av kulturegendom i Sverige under andra världskriget, med en särskild utblick mot Gotland

Cultural property protection in Sweden during the Second World War, with focus on the island Gotland As cultural property became increasingly important to national identities in the early 20th century, European states strove to protect monuments and collections from damage and destruction. The most cataclysmic situation that cultural property could be subjected to was utter destruction. The First World War proved to be such a disaster not only to human life but also to property of importance to national identity and culture. The Second World War, however, was even more disastrous when it came to destruction in areas close to the sometimes fast-moving fronts.       This essay is based on new investigations of documents found in a number of archives in Sweden: the archive of the National Heritage Board, the Military Archives in Stockholm, Nationalmuseum and the county archive in Visby. It deals with a topic that has previously been completely ignored – namely how Swedish national treasures were to be protected in the event of war. The essay analyses how the National Heritage Board cooperated with the Military Headquarters in order to survey, evaluate and protect a substantial part of Swedish heritage before the outbreak of the Second World War and during the war years. Their measures were based on experiences from the First World War but also from observations of how other states had been organising their cultural property protection in the 1930s, most notably France. French cultural authorities were well prepared when Germany invaded in May 1940.      Aerial bombardment severly damaged major cities as well as historic towns in the Second World War. Before the outbreak of war cultural and military authorities in different countries prepared by taking protective measures such as the moving of collections, the building of sandbag walls around architectural details, and removal of stained glass windows from churches. Also Swedish authorities foresaw the risk of Sweden becoming involved in the war, even though the country was to be formally neutral in an upcoming conflict. Protective measures were organised by making plans for how evacuation of the most valuable collections in museums, archives and libraries Stockholm should be carried out in the event of war. In rural areas people were to a large degree left to themselves to prepare for war by following instructions from the authorities.       Some of the attention of the National Heritage Board was directed towards the island Gotland in the Baltic Sea. Gotland was very rich in archaeological findings and medieval heritage. The island was running the risk of becoming invaded, alternatively bombed, if war broke out in the Baltic region. Due to the development of aerial warfare there needed to be more extensive plans for evacuation in the 1930s than earlier. Bombers could potentially strike almost anywhere but cities, industrial plants, main roads, bridges, railroads and harbours were especially at risk. Measures continued to be re-organised during the war depending on its development.       On Gotland there are 92 standing churches of medieval origin. Many of these were considered as potential targets of warships or bombers because of their visibility and proximity to the coast. Churches were documented in photographs, some protective measures were taken, and stained glass windows were taken down, stored and later conserved. Such measures were the responsibility of the parish and the diocese, but they were conducted under the watchful eyes of professor Johnny Roosval, an art historian specialised on the architecture and art of Gotland churches. Roosval, who also was an officer in the Reserve, worked closely with the Military Headquarters to inform local authorities about the need to protect cultural property.      After 1945 a completely new civilian defense was organised in Sweden with cultural property protection as an integrated part. The new organisation was based on close observations of how the victorious countries in the war, most notable Great Britain, had treated cultural property in battle and territorial occupation.   This research was supported by Wilhelmina von Hallwyls Gotlandsfond. </p

Skyddet av statliga samlingar i svenska museer, arkiv och bibliotek i händelse av krig, ca 1914–2018

The protection of state-owned museums, archives and libraries in Sweden in case of war, c. 1914–2018  This essay investigates how parts of the collections of public museums, archives and libraries were to be evacuated in case of an armed conflict in Sweden in the 20th and early 21st centuries. It is based on previously classified archival documents, public inquiries and policies. The author has studied the protection and uses of cultural heritage in war-time Scandinavia. This research is further developed in the present essay by presenting a timeline up to year 2018.      An important reason for this research is the worsening of the international security in the Baltic Sea region since the Russian occupation of the Crimean peninsula. The Swedish Contingency Agency (Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap) and the National Heritage Board (Riksantikvarieämbetet) have commissioned the author to study the development of policies in Sweden and to analyse the current situation both domestically and internationally. Much of the previous experience from preparing Swedish society for war have been forgotten over the years as the civil defense was disassembled.      The results of the project are only partially accounted for here, leaving out most of the international context and focusing the domestic historical development. A study of the archives of state agencies that historically have had the responsibility to coordinate evacuation planning have not been possible to include in the present paper. The project continues and will result in publications promising to give a more complete picture.      The first preparations for protecting collections in case of war were made in the autumn of 1914, but the measures taken then were limited to some central government archives in Stockholm together with some of the elite collections in the capitol. As war became more imminent in Spring 1939, preparations were made anew. This time action was more urgent since there was the fear of air war with possibly devastating consequences for civil society. Large volumes of archives, museum and book collections were evacuated from Stockholm to mansions and castles at a presumably safe distance from the capitol, which was expected to be bombed if Sweden was attacked. After the war a completely new organisation for civil defense was developed. The issue of evacuation of cultural property was investigated for some time, and in the early 1960s policies were put in place to better coordinate and prioritise the needs for evacuation in war-time.       The level of preparedness seems to have peaked a decade later, when the policies had begun to become implemented. Plans were however hampered by the fact that there were never sufficient safe spaces to move even the most valuable parts of the collections to, and although a new and bomb-proof building was erected for the National Archives (Riksarkivet), the equivalent was not built for central museums or for the Royal Library (Kungl. Biblioteket) during the Cold War (1945–91). There were plans to reinforce existing bomb-proof shelters in Stockholm and to build a few more for collections, but these plans dit never fit into the budget of so called “total defense”, which included civil defense. Instead, as much as possible of the collections were to stay in Stockholm, whereas objects that could be moved without risking their condition were to be evacuated mostly to old masonry buildings such as mansions or churches in the countryside.      In the 1980s and the 1990s the total defense began to be dissassembled in Sweden, a process that resulted in its complete dissolution in the beginning of the new millennium. There was no longer any military threat to Sweden. By this time most of the Cold War preparedness of the heritage sector seems to have passed into oblivion, since there were other and more pressing issues to deal with. More recently, the international development in Europe has led to a decision to once again rebuild a total defense in Sweden. MSB was given the task of coordinating the plans for evacuation of central heritage institutions in Stockholm in 2018, but evacuation plans are missing and the work to increase the level of preparedness of these institutions has merely begun. The relatively high level of preparedness that existed in the early 1970s had taken more than a decade to develop. The study shows that it takes time to for institutions to build preparedness, and that it has to be properly planned and coordinated in order to carry out measures swiftly and efficiently when it becomes necessary. Finally, it is suggested that MSB should establish and lead a committee with representatives from the major state institutions managing collections in order to implement the law on evacuation

La conversione di una base militare in Svezia : Visborg, Gotland

Översättning från engelska till italienska av Davide Ponzini.Svensk titel i översättning: Återanvändningen av ett kasernområde i Sverige: Visborg, Gotland</p

Miljonprogram gav skyddsrum åt miljoner

Sverige har aldrig varit så väl förberett för massiva luftanfall av flygplan av andravärldskrigstyp som det är idag. En ny avhandling visar att mellankrigstiden kom att sätta sin prägel på produktionen av skyddsrum ända fram till millennieskiftet. Från 1940 till 2002, då staten upphörde med sitt stöd, byggdes fler än 70 000 skyddsrum i Sve­rige. De allra flesta finns kvar i dag och ska kunna rymma uppemot sju miljoner männi­skor. Tillsammans bildar de ett omfattande nätverk som täcker varje större stad i landet. I dag används dessa skyddsrum normalt som förråd eller samlingslokaler, och de flesta av oss tänker inte ens på ­deras ursprungliga syfte. Hur kom de till och varför?  Svenska Dagbladet 27 maj 2021Behandlar Peter Bennesveds avhandling i idé- och lärdomshistoria, Sheltered Society: Civilian Air raid shelters in Sweden — from idea to materiality, 1918-1940 and beyond (2020)</p