1. 6. – 31. 7. 2023

Fragment of the Katyusha rocket casing

In 1986, the Bratislava City Museum purchased a new collection item – a highly corroded iron object from a private collector that had been significantly damaged in an explosion. Its previous owner stated that the item was identified as a remnant of an exploded higher caliber artillery cartridge from WWII. However, the form of the object itself does not correspond to a form of an artillery cartridge and that is why it was later on considered a fragment of an aerial bomb that was dropped on the city during air raids in 1944–1945. Finally, this identification of the object was not confirmed – further analysis based on the guiding pin placed on the outer side at the bottom helped to identify the item as a fragment of the rocket‘s casing from a Soviet rocket launcher BM-13 Katyusha. These rocket launchers represented one of the major parts of the Soviet artillery that were involved in fights for Bratislava at the beginning of April 1945 and thus the item became a unique testimony of the liberation of the city from German troops at the end of WWII.

The exhibited item has been carefully selected to serve the purpose of exemplifying the methodology employed for identifying collection artifacts that are to be included in the museum's collection. Simultaneously, it serves as a commemorative token of the fairly recent wartime atrocities witnessed by Bratislavans, which our society strives to prevent from ever recurring.

Curator: Mgr. Vladimír Krajčovič