Bereczki Ibolya - Nagyné Batári Zsuzsanna - Sári Zsolt: Ház és Ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 26. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2014)
BERECZKI IBOLYA: Háború előtt - háború után. A Nagy Háború lenyomatai a Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum kiállításaiban
Ibolya Bereczki BEFORE THE WAR - AFTER THE WAR Imprint of the Great War in the exhibitions of the Hungarian Open Air Museum Szentendre History research in Hungary highlighted so far the politic-historic, economic and military-historic references of the war. Little attention was given to the everyday history of the people, how the inhabitants of villages and market towns were affected by war-related trauma. Memories written down at the turn of the l970-80s, diaries kept in family archives are the most important sources for research, because these sources help us to evoke the daily life during the “Great War”, its impact on life at the front and in the hinterland. The Hungarian Open Air Museum Szentendre founded in 1967 as central skansen of Hungary presents in relocated dwelling houses with authentic ethnographic artefacts and interiors and with the help of temporary and permanent exhibitions the way of life in the villages and market towns in the 19th-20th century. Objects related to the history of the First World War are arranged in the museum interiors. In 2013 the collection of the Hungarian Open Air Museum included totally about 100 objects from the period of the First World War or artifacts evoking this period, as well as an important number of written documents. Our collections have been considerably extended in 2014 with objects, as well as with written and picture documents. The majority of the objects from earlier collections are displayed in the permanent exhibitions of the skansen, others are presented in the temporary exhibition “Gift from the front” opened in 2014 and set up by Zsuzsanna Nagyné Batári. What distinction can be made between these objects and those in the collections of the Hungarian National Museum, of the Military Museum or even of the Ethnographic Museum? The difference is that they are available in great numbers and they are displayed in our exhibition buildings as part of house interiors. They belong to a coherent system which presents the peasant world of life in its totality at the beginning of the 20th century and arranges individual objects in this frame. At the same time, while an artifact is presented in the Open Air Museum, the life history belonging to it can be revealed as well thanks to the co-operation of the museum attendants and guides. The centenary of the „Great War“ allows us to put our existing, exhibited objects in the limelight and to organize them in new contexts, to enrich our collections and to present our material in exhibitions and publications. 320
