{"id":244438,"date":"2025-07-09T10:49:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T08:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/?p=244438"},"modified":"2025-11-04T13:04:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T12:04:54","slug":"how-to-describe-srebrenica-15-books-to-read-about-the-srebrenica-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/how-to-describe-srebrenica-15-books-to-read-about-the-srebrenica-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Describe Srebrenica: 15 Books to Read about the Srebrenica Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published: analiziraj.ba<\/a><\/p>\n

Any selection of books on a topic is necessarily subjective. In contrast to academic papers whose authors are obliged to make and critically assess a comprehensive overview of the literature, when it comes to selecting and recommending reading material for others, it is possible to leave out works without explanation. Therefore, as a rule, any such selection reflects the reading history, interests and tastes of the person making the recommendation, while someone else would add or remove titles and every new list would be different. Nevertheless, such selections are important and can serve as a guide to others, because we seek lists to guide us when we take an interest in a topic.<\/p>\n

With this caveat and stated intention and purpose, here are 15 titles, 15 books about the genocide against Bosniaks in the wider Srebrenica area whose anniversary is marked on 11 July.<\/p>\n

\u00a0To begin with: Zbjeg<\/h2>\n

Zbjeg<\/em>\u00a0[Refuge] <\/em>by Hasan Nuhanovi\u0107<\/strong><\/em> offers probably the most powerful testimony written to date about the Srebrenica genocide. Nuhanovi\u0107, today a curator at the Poto\u010dari Memorial Centre, was born in Zvornik. When the war started in 1992, his family was in Vlasenica from where they became refugees, fleeing for their lives. In the genocide, Hasan lost his father, mother and brother, who had survived all the fleeing until July 1995 when they were thrown out of the UN base in Poto\u010dari, where Hasan was working as a translator, and thus effectively sent to their deaths. <\/em>Zbjeg<\/em> covers the period from 1992 to 1994, while <\/em>Hasan Nuhanovi\u0107\u2019s<\/strong><\/em> second book <\/em>Pod zastavom UN-a: Me\u0111unarodna zajednica i zlo\u010din u Srebrenici<\/em> [Under the UN Flag: The International Community and the Srebrenica Genocide] covers the period from when Srebrenica was proclaimed a protected zone to is ultimate fall and the genocide. Both books were sold out soon after publication and for a long time they were hard to find in bookshops, but the publishing house Vrijeme recently reissued <\/em>Zbjeg<\/em>. The interview titled <\/em>\u201cFluid Mechanics\u201d<\/em><\/a> that <\/em>Boro Konti\u0107<\/strong><\/em> did with <\/em>Hasan Nuhanovi\u0107<\/strong><\/em> almost a decade ago is still very timely and worth reading.<\/em><\/p>\n

Razglednica iz groba<\/em> [Postcards from the Grave]<\/em> by <\/em>Emir Suljagi\u0107<\/strong><\/em>, the current director of the Poto\u010dari Memorial Centre, is a survivor\u2019s memoir published in the already distant year of 2005. Like in Hasan Nuhanovi\u0107\u2019s <\/em>Zbjeg<\/em>, in Emir Suljagi\u0107\u2019s <\/em>Postcards from the Grave<\/em> the Srebrenica tragedy is <\/em>expanded<\/em> in time and traced back from 1992. This is particularly important because stories about the Srebrenica genocide often focus solely on those few days of July 1995. But the July <\/em>abyss<\/em> has a months-long prehistory of struggling to survive, taking refuge, looking for food, and avoiding death that had been common in that part of Bosnia long before July 1995. <\/em><\/p>\n

The novel \u0160ta su meni ptice <\/em>[What Are Birds to Me] by Fajko Kadri\u0107<\/strong> was published in 2022 and has already gone through three reprints. Using the life story of Ekrem Red\u017ei\u0107<\/strong> from Vlasenica, Kadri\u0107 tells the story of thousands from Podrinje who flowed<\/em> into Srebrenica from 1992. Ekrem Red\u017ei\u0107 first sought refuge from Vlasenica in Cerska from where he made several trips as a courier to Tuzla and the free territories along complicated and treacherous forest paths, avoiding military positions. When Cerska fell in March 1993, like many others, Ekrem will seek refuge in Srebrenica and Fajko Kadri\u0107<\/strong> uses his story to explore what it meant to be a refugee in 1993 in Srebrenica of all places. If the books by Hasan Nuhanovi\u0107<\/strong> and Emir Suljagi\u0107<\/strong> are important because they follow the genocide through a broader timeframe, the novel by Fajko Kadri\u0107<\/strong> is equally important because it follows the genocide through a broader geographic area. Mostly due to court judgements, the genocide has become known in public discourse as the Srebrenica<\/em> genocide<\/em>, but it is important to understand its geographic breadth<\/em>. As Hasan Nuhanovi\u0107<\/strong> wrote already in June 2012 in an article titled Municipal Genocide<\/em> and published in Oslobo\u0111enje<\/em>, of the 8.372 men and boys killed in the genocide, two thirds had lived in Bratunac, Vlasenica, Zvornik, Han Pijesak, Rogatica and Vi\u0161egrad before the war. Moreover, mass executions of captured civilians were carried out after the fall of Srebrenica also in Bratunac, Zvornik, Vlasenica, and even in Trnovo which is 200 kilometres from Srebrenica.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Survivors\u2019 Testimonies<\/h2>\n

Among the books written by survivors, leaving an important record of death and survival, we should also mention the book by Ned\u017ead Avdi\u0107<\/strong> and Amela Avdi\u0107 Unki\u0107<\/strong> Ja, ha\u0161ki svjedok <\/em>[Witness at the Hague]. In July 1995, Ned\u017ead, who has retained his boyish smile and gentleness to this day, joined the column of men that tried to break out of the encirclement and reach Tuzla. At the very beginning, his father was killed by shelling and he himself was taken prisoner somewhere in the vicinity of Bratunac. He was taken out with a group of prisoners to be shot in the night between 14 and 15 July 1995 in a place called Petkovci near Zvornik, but he survived the firing squad and lived to testify about it at the Hague Tribunal, which he details in the book. His sister Amela contributes her memories and the book is also interlaced with the stories and memories of their mother, stories of being a refugee, fighting to continue living and to return. After completing university studies in Tuzla, Ned\u017ead returned to Srebrenica where he lives today with his family.<\/p>\n

Emir Bekti\u0107<\/strong>, one of those who <\/strong>crossed over<\/em><\/strong> onto the free territory, wrote his memories down in a book titled <\/strong>Kad osvane\u0161 sam <\/em><\/strong>[When the Morning Finds You Alone]<\/strong>. Emir was a 16-year-old boy when Srebrenica fell and he set off to break out of the encirclement with his father, whose remains he still has not found. He was captured twice, but managed to survive and reunite with his mother and sister in the free territory. Four years after the war, their mother died at the age of 41, and so at the close of the 20th century, he and his sister, barely of age, <\/strong>found themselves alone<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You are likely to run into Azir Osmanovi\u0107<\/strong> when you visit the Poto\u010dari Memorial Centre where he works as a curator. Today a historian and curator, Azir recorded his testimony of a 13-year-old who made it through<\/em> in a book titled Od Srebrenice do svjetla na kraju tunela <\/em>[From Srebrenica to the Light at the End of the Tunnel]. In his writing and public statements Azir often talks about the lasting effects of the genocide and how they are transferred onto new generations, about his brother who committed suicide after everything he survived, about how his father coped with all of it, about returning to live in Srebrenica… Also notable among books by survivors is Kadir Habibovi\u0107\u2019s<\/strong> \u017divot protiv smrti<\/em> \u2013 Srebrenica<\/em> [Life against Death \u2013 Srebrenica].<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, apart from Postcards from the Grave<\/em> and Under the UN Flag<\/em>, these testimonies have not been translated into English and this remains an important task for the future. It is therefore also important to mention the book Voices from Srebrenica: Survivor Narratives of the Bosnian Genocide<\/em> co-edited by Ann Petrila<\/strong> and Hasan Hasanovi\u0107<\/strong>, who also survived the genocide as a minor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Chronology of a Genocide<\/h2>\n

Probably the most comprehensive chronological overview of the genocide is given by Matthias Fink<\/strong> in his book Srebrenica: Chronologie eines V\u00f6lkermords oder Was geschah mit Mirnes Osmanovi\u0107<\/em> [Srebrenica: Chronology of a Genocide or What Happened with Mirnes Osmanovi\u0107]. On more than 1000 pages, this German historian and reporter presents the broader context, including the break-up of Yugoslavia and the start of the wars, as well as a detailed day-by-day description of the genocide. This book is notable also because it is available in a major world language (German) and as an audio book, a format that is increasingly popular. Although not always easy to navigate<\/em> and not a book that is easily read from cover to cover, its exhaustive account is important when we keep returning to the topic of genocide, or one of its aspects or stages.<\/p>\n

A question that keeps recurring when it comes to genocide and Srebrenica is: How do you describe a genocide? Hariz Halilovi\u0107<\/strong>, a social anthropologist from RMIT University in Melbourne, titled his book of editorial columns, reviews and articles Writing after Srebrenica<\/em> and it is important not just because it tackles that question but also because of the unique position of its author who is originally from Srebrenica, but survived the horrors of Prijedor where he found himself at the start of the war in 1992. Halilovi\u0107 keeps circling back to Srebrenica, not just as a topic, but also as a place where he brings various groups, including students, and tries to at least partially answer the question of how to describe Srebrenica?<\/em><\/p>\n

Srebrenica after the war is also the topic of a brilliant anthropological study by Lara J. Nettelfield<\/strong> and Sarah E. Wagner<\/strong> titled Srebrenica in the Aftermath of Genocide<\/em>. The two co-authors spent several months, returning multiple times, in Srebrenica and its surroundings, speaking with the survivors and trying to capture how they live today. As the genocide meant mass killings of men, returning to Srebrenica and fighting for the right to remembrance was mostly left to women. The book Srebrenica in the Aftermath of Genocide<\/em> is based in part on speaking with these women and opens this broad topic within the account of the genocide. The names of some of the women and their struggle have become known beyond the boundaries of the region, but the book also includes accounts from numerous other women whose names are not well-known, but who were among the first to return to Srebrenica and remained on the frontline always and everywhere.<\/p>\n

The topic of the international community\u2019s role and the catastrophic failure of the United Nations (UN) is perhaps most widely represented in literature, various special reports and articles. The already mentioned book by Hasan Nuhanovi\u0107<\/strong> Under the UN Flag<\/em> provides an invaluable insight by someone who saw all the steps, decisions and omissions of the international community\u2019s hefty bureaucracy first-hand in Srebrenica itself. A purely bureaucratic decision to guarantee the safety only of UN staff meant in Hasan\u2019s case that he would survive, but his father, mother and brother would be thrown out of the UN base and killed. If books by Hasan Nuhanovi\u0107 and the other survivors provide a view from below<\/em>, then Diego Arria\u2019s<\/strong> book Slow-Motion Genocide in Bosnia<\/em> offers a view from above<\/em>, from the perspective of high-level politics, diplomacy and hypocrisy. Arria was the Venezuelan representative to the UN and in those crucial years Venezuela was on the UN Security Council, giving him access to the highest circles of decision-making in this world government<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Filipovi\u0107<\/strong> reworked his doctoral dissertation into a book titled <\/strong>Under the Blue Helmets: Motives of States for Contribution to the UNPROFOR Mission 1992-1995<\/em><\/strong> that deals with the broader topic of UN peacekeeping missions and the motivation of states to send their soldiers into war ravaged Yugoslavia. Filipovi\u0107\u2019s research shows that the designation of safe areas, including Srebrenica and \u017depa, was an <\/strong>ad hoc<\/em><\/strong> solution that the UN bureaucracy itself was unable to define with certainty. This example also shows how events take on their own dynamics: even though top UN leadership did not reach agreement on the \u201csafe zones\u201d idea, the decision nevertheless had to be implemented. In practice, this meant that the biggest countries refused to send troops to Srebrenica, which was remote from larger logistical centres and was entirely surrounded and overcrowded… Ultimately, the task was taken up by the Canadians, who were motivated to further their image as a world power in peacekeeping missions, only to be replaced by the Dutch whose role has become notorious. The example of the Dutch shows something else as well: the Dutch government had advocated for a stronger approach by the international community (including bombing) up until it was <\/strong>their lads<\/em><\/strong> in the field. At key moments, it was the Dutch government that opposed airstrikes out of fear for the lives of its soldiers. It was clear then, but not only there and then, that all lives are equally important, except that some are more important than others, to paraphrase Orwell.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, the documentary novel Beara<\/em> by Ivica \u0110iki\u0107<\/strong> offers powerful testimony about the genocide from the perspective of the perpetrator. At the time of the genocide, Ljubi\u0161a Beara<\/strong> was the Chief of Security of the VRS Main Staff. A former captain of a JNA warship, he was the military and political leadership\u2019s operative for the genocide. That job included, as \u0110iki\u0107 shows, complex logistical preparations, finding temporary detention sites for the prisoners and their mass liquidation (detention sites were most often set up in schools, cultural centres and other large halls). \u0110iki\u0107\u2019s novel shows how top military and political leaders were aware of the kind of crime that was being prepared, evident especially in requests such as the one from Miroslav Deronji\u0107<\/strong>, Chief of the Bratunac Crisis Staff, that mass executions not be carried out in his municipality<\/em>, but elsewhere. The novel has been translated into Italian, Swedish, Norwegian and Czech.<\/p>\n

Survivors\u2019 Testimonies:<\/h2>\n

Hasan Nuhanovi\u0107:\u00a0Zbjeg<\/em><\/p>\n

Hasan Nuhanovi\u0107:\u00a0Under the UN Flag*<\/em><\/p>\n

Emir Suljagi\u0107:\u00a0Postcards from the Grave<\/em>\u00a0*<\/p>\n

Fajko Kadri\u0107:\u00a0\u0160ta su meni ptice<\/em><\/p>\n

Ned\u017ead Avdi\u0107 and Amela Avdi\u0107 Unki\u0107:\u00a0Ja, ha\u0161ki svjedok<\/em><\/p>\n

Emir Bekti\u0107:\u00a0Kad osvane\u0161 sam<\/em><\/p>\n

Azir Osmanovi\u0107:\u00a0Od Srebrenice do svjetla na kraju tunela<\/em><\/p>\n

Hasan Hasanovi\u0107 and Ann Petrila:\u00a0Voices from Srebrenica<\/em>\u00a0*<\/p>\n

Kadir Habovi\u0107:\u00a0\u017divot protiv smrti \u2013 Srebrenica<\/em><\/p>\n

Anthropological and Historical Studies:<\/h2>\n

Hariz Halilovi\u0107:\u00a0Kako opisati Srebrenicu<\/em><\/p>\n

Matthias Fink:\u00a0Srebrenica: Chronologie eines V\u00f6lkermords oder Was geschah mit Mirnes Osmanovi\u0107<\/em>\u00a0**<\/p>\n

Lara J. Nettelfield and Sarah E. Wagner:\u00a0Srebrenica in the Aftermath of Genocide<\/em>*<\/p>\n

The Role of the International Community:<\/h2>\n

Diego Arria:\u00a0A Slow-Motion Genocide in Bosnia*<\/em><\/p>\n

Vladimir Filipovi\u0107:\u00a0Ispod plavih \u0161ljemova: Motivi dr\u017eava za sudjelovanjem u misiji UNPROFOR 1992-1995.<\/em><\/p>\n

Documentary Novels:<\/h2>\n

Ivica \u0110iki\u0107:\u00a0Beara**<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0*Available in English<\/em><\/p>\n

** Available in other foreign languages<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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