SAVING SARAJEVO HAGGADAH

Sarajevo Haggadah is one of the most significant and the best known cultural-historical treasures of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the Reconquista and persecution of Muslims and Jews from Spain in the 15th century, many Sephardic Jews settled in the Ottoman Empire. Among other things, they brought a beautifully ornamented manuscript of the Haggadah from the 14th century. The Haggadah is a collection of religious regulations and traditions that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. It has been recorded that the Cohen family sold this copy of the Haggadah to the National Museum in 1894.

In the turbulent period before the Second World War and the rise of fascism in Europe, a curator of the National Museum in Sarajevo Derviš Korkut was again on the right side. Not only did he do a risky task of saving the Sarajevo Haggadah but he was also an active fighter against antisemitism, saved human lives and cultural treasure. In Yugoslavia of the time, antisemitism grew rapidly, particularly among Serbian and Croatian nationalists, though among Bosniaks as well. Then, in 1940, Korkut published the text “Anti-semitizam je stran Muslimanima u Bosni (Antisemitism is Alien to Muslims in Bosnia)”, where he claimed that “here, if someone is antisemitically oriented, it is certainly due to business competition.” He also added: “Here, earlier and recently, there have been an increasing number of attempts, by non-Muslim circles, to engage Muslims as avantgarde against Jews. All these attempts failed since Muslim masses cannot accept two morals: one for themselves and the other one for the others.” 

In 1941, a friend of Korkut’s dr. Vito Kajon left him a box with Jewish manuscripts, which Korkut took and intentionally entered in the museum library’s records as “Archives of the Kapetanović family – Turkish manuscripts”. A few days after Kajon left these manuscripts to Korkut for safekeeping, Kajon and his family were taken to the concentration camp in Jasenovac. 

In early 1942, Nazi general Fortner visited the National Museum and requested to be given Sarajevo Haggadah. Being aware of the significance of the manuscript for the Bosnian history Derviš Korkut, as a curator and head librarian in the Museum, took the Haggadah and brought it home and then, with the help of his imam friends, had it hidden in a village mosque on the Bjelašnica or the Vlašić. In this way, the Haggadah was preserved and saved from the Nazi. 

Soon afterwards, Korkut was contacted by a friend and asked to do something about a Jewish girl whose parents had already been taken to a concentration camp. He brought the girl, named Mira Papo, home and told his wife Sevret that they had to protect her. They gave Mira a veil to wear it and told people that the girl was their relative from Kosovo, who helped them around the house. Korkut soon organized Mira’s transfer to the territory controlled by Italians, where she joined partisans. 

Besides, Korkut also actively joined activities of the Council of National Salvation where he, tried to coordinate aid for Bosniak victims of the genocide in Eastern Bosnia, and to work on documenting crimes. 

In late 1944, Korkut received the order no. 63325/44 personally signed by Anto Pavelić, where his transfer to the Zagreb Library was ordered. On the same day when he received the order, Korkut took the vacation. This order was followed by another one, from the chief of Sarajevo police, to get ready for Zagreb as soon as possible. Ustasha authorities had already decided to take Korkut and his family to the Jasenovac concentration camp, and Korkut and his family therefore hid at a friend’s of his place, where they waited for Sarajevo to be liberated by the partisans. 

In June 1947 communist authorities arrested Korkut with the charge that he had collaborated with the occupiers. He was tried in the case known as “Dobrača and others”, together with Kasim Dobrača, Mahmut Traljić, Jusuf Tanović and others, for the subversion of constitutional order and collaboration with occupiers. In 1947, Korkut was sentenced to eight years of deprivation of liberty with compulsory labor. He was released in 1953 and soon began to work as a curator of the Museum of the City of Sarajevo, where he was employed until his death in 1969. 

What is visible from news reports in the Oslobođenje daily is that it was an organized media harangue aimed at discrediting the several main defendants. After the establishment of communist Yugoslavia, same as in his whole life, Korkut endeavored to protect those who were persecuted. He had meetings with foreign consuls and documented crimes over Bosniaks in the Second World War. 

Derviš Korkut was born in Travnik in 1888. He completed the Grand Gymnasium in 1909 and then went to Istanbul, where he completed the Faculty of Theology (Ilahiyyat šubesi) at the University of Istanbul in August 1914. During the First World War he briefly worked in a school in Derventa, and in 1917 he became a military imam in the Austro-Hungarian army. After November elections in 1920 and establishment of the authority, Korkut got a job in the Ministry of Religions in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes as a 3rd class head of the Muslim Department. He remained there until 1923 when he had to resign under pressure. After several years without a permanent job, he was employed by the National Museum in Sarajevo in 1927. In 1929 he was appointed the Mufti of Travnik; however, his service there was short since as early as in 1930 the Mufti was closed. Korkut then moved to Cetinje in Montenegro, where he worked as a curator in a museum, and in 1937 he returned to the National Museum in Sarajevo. 

On 14 December 1994, Jewish Remembrance Center Yad Vashem in Israel honored Derviš and Servet Korkut as the Righteous among the Nations – which is a recognition to people who took great risks to save their Jewish neighbors from Nazi and other criminals. 

Derviš M. Korkut is an example of a man, a Bosniak intellectual who opposed any regime, stood on the side of the oppressed and persevered in his clear attitude even at the price of losing the job or life. 

References:

Derviš Korkut, “Naši Jevreji i jevrejsko pitanje kod nas”, in: Zbornik mišljenja naših javnih radnika, Beograd, 1940.