A silver cigarette case with a specific combination of markings on the inside indicates that it was manufactured by the Wilmot Manufacturing Co. in Birmingham, UK. Properly marked and inspected, it came on the market in 1919. But its fundamental value lies in the engraving, which was created only in 1941 in Egypt, and in its owner, Ivan Rudolf. As an ardent anti-fascist and a great nationalist, Ivan Rudolf travelled to the Middle East and Africa under the illegal name Ciril Hajek in order to escape arrest. Rudolf’s military involvement in the fight against the Nazi-fascist enemy, which dismembered the Slovenian territory, is expressed on the cigarette case by an engraved verse from Gregoričič’s famous poem Soči: “Rage over the bran’s feet and foreigners, lands – hungry, drown.” Under the verse, an engraved map visualizes the fundamental goal of Ivan’s actions, Rudolf: the fall of the unjust Rapala border and the return of Slovenian territory to Yugoslavia.
Date: 1919, 1941
Material: Silver
Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.2 x 1.7 cm.
Inventory number: OZ200-IR
On view at the permanent exhibition Slovenes in the XX. century
