The WWII accordion in the Gemer-Malohont Museum dates back to WWII. (source: GMM)
A Royal Standart accordion with an unusual history is on display at the Gemersko-Malohontské Múzeum in Rimavská Sobota, southern Slovakia. Based on inscriptions on its back, the instrument probably belonged to several unknown soldiers who followed the Eastern Front as it moved from Russia across Ukraine and to Slovakia.
Its final owner decided to exchange the instrument for a bicycle, and so it ended up in the family of a miller in Vrbovce nad Rimavou, part of the village of Veľké Teriakovce near Rimavská Sobota.
According to ethnographer Ľudmila Pulišová, 20 place names were engraved on its back.
The back of the accordion. (source: GMM)
"The first is Rostov, dated 1943. This is the city of Rostov-on-Don, which was occupied by the German army until its liberation in February 1943. After its liberation by the Red Army, the German soldier, with his musical instrument, retreated to southern Ukraine," she said, adding that other locations included Mariupol, Berdyansk, Kherson, Nikolayev, Kerch, Yalta, Sevastopol and Odessa.
"From there, [the soldier] probably continued into what is now Slovakia."
However, several names are no longer legible. As most were written in Latin script and in a variety of fonts, this may suggest the accordion changed hands several times.
When the Red Army advanced in early 1945, the last owner spotted a bicycle leaning against the wall of a mill in Vrbovce. He decided to take it and offered the local miller, Ján Martinčok, the accordion in return. Although hesitant at first, the miller eventually agreed to the exchange.
The instrument was donated to the museum in 2021 by the miller's daughter, Soňa Kmeťová.
