The casket was brought home by Ivan Marušič, who arrived in the Italian colony of Libya ninety years ago, in 1935, as a soldier of the Italian armed forces.
He was born on April 23, 1913 in Kojsko in the Goriška brda region, under Austria-Hungary, and served in the army under the Kingdom of Italy. He did his military service in 1934 in the 3rd Bersaglieri Regiment (3o Reggimento Bersaglieri). He was sent to Libya in 1935 with the 1st Colonial Artillery Regiment (1o Reggimento Artiglieria Coloniale) at a time when the Italian armed forces were being reinforced for the attack on Ethiopia (Abyssinia). He belonged to the Royal Corps of Colonial Troops of Tripolitania (Regio Corpo Truppe Coloniali della Tripolitania). In 1937, he disembarked in Syracuse, Sicily, and after a leave of absence, returned to Libya the same year, sailing to Tripoli. A year later, he returned home and was then again drafted. Because he did not respond to the last draft during World War II, he was declared a deserter in February 1943. He joined the Partisan movement.
The olive-wood casket was preserved from the period he spent in Libya. It features a motif of the Tower of David in Jerusalem and a shepherd with a two-humped camel and a goat. Above the motif is an inscription in Hebrew: Land of Israel, Jerusalem. Below it is the inscription Tower of David, in English and Hebrew.
The casket was donated to the National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia by Marušič’s nephew, Vojko Tavčar, from the village of Dane near Sežana.
