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The irony of a file at Harvard University during World War II on the preservation of Illyrian heritage in Albania

2025-12-01 21:54:01Histori SHKRUAR NGA AURON TARE
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The following map comes from the American World War II archive. It is part of the file of the “Robert Commission”, a commission created with researchers and specialists in cultural heritage and the arts, gathered from several American universities.

The irony of a file at Harvard University during World War II on the

The purpose of this commission was to compile detailed lists of cultural assets in Europe, so that the American army and aviation could avoid hitting or destroying them. In a global conflict with catastrophic consequences for the continent, this commission sought to protect European heritage and art from irreparable loss.

The irony of a file at Harvard University during World War II on the

Within the archive of this commission, which is now kept at Harvard University, there is also a file dedicated to Albania. American specialists compiled an extensive list of all areas of special cultural interest in Albanian territory, also creating a map with points that were to be avoided from bombing or infantry actions in the event of a landing.

Of great interest is the first page of this file, which clearly emphasizes the great importance of the ILLYRIAN heritage and further Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and so on.

In the documents of the Second World War, the Americans attached primary importance to the preservation of the Illyrian heritage and its protection from any possible military danger, a priority that unfortunately is no longer ignored by the "new international school" of Albanian archaeology as it is seen as a reminiscence of the communist-nationalist period.

Beyond this, the irony of this dossier is great. Imagine a specialized team working during wartime at Harvard to compile a list of Albanian cultural assets to be protected, at a time when years after the 1990s, the Albanians themselves would ignore them, leave them to the mercy of fate, or damage and destroy these historical values ??more than any possible bombing by American aviation.

If Harvard researchers had known that their list for protecting Albanian heritage would be thrown in the trash by Albanians themselves after the '90s, they probably wouldn't have bothered with that work at all.

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