Vojnový Album: Dr. Jenő Lesskó–Belehrad 1915–1916. Ratni Album: Dr. Jenő Lesskó–Beograd 1915–1916

Abstract

In recent years, there have been many publications regarding various aspects of the Great War. Although the centenary celebrations to commemorate the beginning and end of World War I (WWI) are over, the events and persons related to this world conflict still represent actual topics for researchers throughout Europe and worldwide.One such topic, which can be described as a story about “small” or ordinary people during a “great” and extraordinary time, concerns the military service of physician Eugen (Jenő Andor Róbert) Lesskó (Leskó), who served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during WWI. Like an enormous number of other direct or indirect participants of that war on both confrontational sides, Jenő Lesskó was likely to remain unknown to a wider audience. However, thanks to the discovery of his photographs and the brief remarks written on the front or back of these from the turn of 1915/1916, now housed in the East Slovakian Museum in the city of Košice, Slovakia, we can now read some of his thoughts and look at photographs of WWI. These photos capture the situation in the occupied Serbian metropolis of Belgrade. Two historians, Martin Jarinkovič and Viktor Szabó, who work in Košice institutions (Martin Jarinkovič in the East Slovakian Museum, Viktor Szabó in the State Research Library), have analyzed Lesskó’s brief remarks and photographs. After research of the relevant documents in the Military History Archives in Budapest and in the War Archives of the Austrian State Archives in Vienna, they have published a brief, but certainly not insignificant, work of 112 pages. The monograph, inter alia very important to a wider readership, written in the Slovak language with texts translated into Serbian and English, was published by the East Slovakian Museum in Košice at the end of 2019.The text is divided into four parts. In the first chapter, entitled “Serbia and Belgrade in the Years 1915–1916,” Martin Jarinkovič, one of the authors, with the aid of relevant secondary literature, presents an overview of the military situation in Serbia at the beginning of WWI with an emphasis on the Austro-Hungarian occupation in October 1915. As the preserved materials from the Military History Archives in Budapest show, the military general government in Serbia was established on January 1, 1916. It had the principal function, apart from maintaining security, of keeping roads and railways open to uninterrupted transport for military and economic purposes, of organizing the internment of the Serbian population, and of overseeing the economic exploitation of the country. Precisely in that period of the establishment and reinforcement of the Austro-Hungarian occupational administration in central, western, and southwestern Serbia (other parts of the Kingdom of Serbia [i.e., the eastern and southeastern parts, including a large part of Kosovo and present-day North Macedonia] were occupied by Bulgaria), Army physician and Košice native Jenő Lesskó happened to be in Belgrade.In the second short chapter (“The Album of Jenő Lesskó”), Martin Jarinkovič describes some technical details regarding the photo album, which contains a total of 24 photographs capturing the situation in occupied Belgrade at the turn of 1915/1916. The idea that led the authors of this monograph to decide that Jenő Lesskó was the photographer of the aforementioned photographs was confirmed by the fact that a photo of him appears first of all in the album, with his name written below it. He also appears again in the following photograph. As Martin Jarinkovič stresses, each photograph in this album is accompanied by a descriptive caption written in the same careful handwriting. The descriptions were written in Hungarian, except for one photograph, the caption of which was written in German on the front and the back of the photo. In the descriptions of the Belgrade buildings and locations, Jenő Lesskó mostly uses Serbian names as well.The third chapter by Viktor Szabó is essentially a biography of Jenő Lesskó. As already mentioned, Jenő Lesskó was born in Košice in 1890. In 1913, he graduated from the University of Sciences in Budapest as a Doctor of Medicine. At the beginning of WWI, he served as an Army doctor in the Austro-Hungarian Army, first on the Russian front, and after that on the Serbian and later the Italian front. In 1917–1918 he was employed in the Dermatology and Venerology Departments of the 7th Garrison Hospital in Graz. As mentioned by Viktor Szabó, the developments of his military career during WWI are possible to follow, according to official gazettes issued regularly by the individual Hungarian Royal Ministries. Although the monograph is based on the military service of Jenő Lesskó in WWI, particularly during his stay in Serbia (November 1915–May 1916), Viktor Szabó also briefly describes the later career of Lesskó in interwar Hungary, when he became one of the leading Hungarian doctors in the field of dermatology. On February 6, 1945, during fighting in the streets of Budapest, Jenő Lesskó was fatally shot. Viktor Szabó emphasizes that, despite archival research, it has not been possible to establish the specific circumstances of Lesskó’s death.The final and, at the same time, longest part of the monograph is the chapter entitled “The War Album.” As previously mentioned, the War Album of Jenő Lesskó comprises a total of 24 photographs. Some of these show the wartime destruction in Belgrade (before the occupation of the Serbian metropolis, the Austro-Hungarian Army besieged and bombarded the city in October 1915). These include the photograph of destroyed buildings in King Petar’s Street in downtown Belgrade, and the building of the Army General Staff and barracks building at Kalemegdan Fortress. A similar situation is illustrated by the photograph that shows Jenő Lesskó in front of a hospital emergency department. The building behind him had been damaged by artillery fire. The consequences of the siege and bombing of Belgrade are also depicted in the photographs showing the confiscated Serbian cannons, as well as in the photo of Serbian soldiers held as prisoners of war in a POW camp, probably on the outskirts of Belgrade. The latter photo shows the inhuman conditions of the camp inmates, commented on by Jenő Lesskó with the laconic caption: “Cattle and Stalls.” Some other photographs depict a few well-known buildings still to be seen in present-day Belgrade: The Old and New Court—the Serbian Royal residences, the building of the National Bank, the statue of Prince Mihailo Obrenović in the vicinity of the National Museum and the National Theater, and some buildings at Kalemegdan Fortress. In the presentation of the wartime atmosphere, besides the already mentioned images of wartime destruction, probably the most important are those photos connected with the Orthodox celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany organized on January 19, 1916, by the Austro-Hungarian occupation authorities. This was a very important social and religious event that took place in the streets of central Belgrade and on the banks of the Sava River.All photographs are accompanied by descriptive captions of that time by Jenő Lesskó and by contemporary comments by Martin Jarinkovič, one of the authors of the monograph. Such comments offer readers a better picture of all the previously mentioned events and a description of the photographed subjects. Regarding the celebrations of the Feast of the Epiphany, Martin Jarinkovič stresses the social and religious importance of such an event for the Serbian people, but also its propagandistic character in those times. The Austro-Hungarian occupation authorities tried to involve as large a number of citizens as possible as participants during the aforementioned celebrations. As Martin Jarinkovič rightly assumes, it was most likely that this celebration was meant to be a kind of symbolic blessing for the occupation authorities, because on this holy day, some representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church took part in the celebrations. In that way, the fate of the Serbian nation was submitted into the hands of the Austro-Hungarian military governor general. It is important to emphasize that a very propagandistic report about this event was published in the collaborationist newspaper, Beogradske Novine (Belgrade Newspaper), on January 20, 1916, but without any photos of the celebrations. For that reason, the total of five photographs taken by Jenő Lesskó of the aforementioned event on January 19, 1916, in Belgrade are probably unique today.The publication is technically also very good. The authors attempt to present the War Album according to the original version of the photographs, as well as the cover with floral decorations. The list of the wartime service of Jenő Lesskó during WWI is also well presented. However, there is no bibliography at the end of the publication of the literature and sources used. This information can be found by readers in the footnotes.The formerly unknown and unpublished War Album of Jenő Lesskó offers readers an original wartime record and illustrates the atmosphere in one occupied city in WWI, especially during the previously mentioned celebrations of the Feast of the Epiphany, as well as some images of a few Belgrade buildings, some of which even exist today (e.g., the monument of Karađorđe Petrović, leader of the first Serbian anti-Turkish uprising in 1804–1813 in the park of Kalemegdan Fortress, demolished in 1916 by the Austro-Hungarian occupation authorities; the barracks building in the same complex of Kalemegdan Fortress). Some buildings are depicted as having a different appearance in the past than they do today (e.g., Jenő Lesskó’s photo of the new Serbian Assembly, the construction of which had begun in 1907, but was interrupted by the Balkans Wars and WWI).At the same time, such a publication reveals the almost forgotten experiences of one person, an ordinary man during an extraordinary time. As Martin Jarinkovič stresses in the text, the War Album of Jenő Lesskó was created as a result of Lesskó’s enthusiasm for photography. However, today it simultaneously links two apparently distant points on the map of Europe: Košice and Belgrade. More than 100 years after the events depicted in the photographs, this still seems to be true.