By: Dr Andreja Valič Zver
Symbols hold immense significance in civilisation and culture. They belong to the archetypal markers that define who we were, who we are, and who we will be. Shoes, of course, are not among the most important of these, yet today’s discussion will revolve around shoes as a symbol. On one hand, as a symbol of totalitarian violence; on the other, as a symbol of human pettiness.
How did the little shoes from Huda Jama find their way to the House of European History?
In March 2009, the shocking news broke about Huda Jama, where over 3,000 people had been sealed alive in mine shafts in 1945. The world was shaken by images of heaps of whitened bones and contorted skulls. Together with colleagues from the Study Centre for National Reconciliation, we worked quickly to inform the public about this horrifying discovery. At every international event we attended, Huda Jama and the broader context of systematic human rights violations in Slovenia during and after WWII were at the forefront. We highlighted the inappropriate attitude of Slovenian authorities toward the unlawfully executed. Alongside the leadership of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience and the Czech Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, we even visited the crime scene at Huda Jama.
Around the same time, the European Parliament, under Hans-Gert Pöttering, decided to establish the House of European History. A former secondary school near the Parliament building in Brussels was converted over several years into a museum intended to showcase the shared foundations of European civilisation to countless visitors from around the world.
Soon after its opening in 2017, we visited the House of European History with the Platform of European Memory and Conscience and were disappointed to find the post-1945 period inadequately and poorly represented. We found it completely inappropriate, for example, that Karl Marx was presented as a kind of “saviour,” while the horrors suffered by Europeans under communist regimes were barely acknowledged. Polish historians especially noted the glaring omission of the postwar experience behind the Iron Curtain – including events on Slovenian territory. There was not a single mention of the mass killings during and after the war.
We raised the issue with Pöttering and one of the museum’s directors, coincidentally, a Slovenian. Two problems were especially troubling: the omission of Tito’s regime’s crimes and the unacceptable suggestion that Slovenia’s “secession” caused the bloody Balkan wars. After intervention by MEP Milan Zver, both misrepresentations were corrected. And here, the shoes enter the story as a symbol. After contacting Dr Mitja Ferenc, a pair of children’s shoes from Huda Jama was sent to Brussels. Today, visitors to the House of European History encounter this twisted pair of shoes, accompanied by an explanatory panel, a powerful testimony to the tragic totalitarian past of Slovenia and Europe. A reminder, so that it never happens again!
And about the “red stilettos”!
Finally, a few words about the shoes of a certain lady currently occupying a high-ranking position in Slovenian politics. Following her speech at the celebration of the “Day of Uprising Against the Occupier” (sic), the Gorenjska Regional Museum obediently displayed her worn and sweaty red high heels on its “Tree of the Famous.” Because this lady is known primarily for her unconventional behaviour, highly unusual for someone in her position, the Slovenian public is rightfully asking what exactly earned her such a place in a museum exhibit. Bizarre acts, by their nature, belong in a very different kind of institution. One wonders what true champions of women’s rights like Elza Premšak, Angela Vode, Jelka Dolinar, and others, who suffered torture, long prison sentences, even death for their convictions, would say about this theatrical gesture.
It brings to mind the novel Vanity Fair by English author William Thackeray. That, and nothing else, seems a fitting comment on the Gorenjska case. Meanwhile, the displayed shoes from Huda Jama deserve our deepest respect for human dignity and empathy for the victims of totalitarian regimes.
