About this war, a story seen in the museum

Britney 2022-01-18 08:01:03

Photo taken at the Museum of Crimes against Humanity and Genocide in Sarajevo

Here is one of the stories:

/A shirt that smells like my son/

My son Senad was born in 1971. He was arrested along with his father Esad during the 1992 war, and then sent to a concentration camp. They were detained for three months. At my begging, the guards allowed me to see them once. I brought clean clothes because they couldn't take a bath in the camp. I brought Senad his favorite blue sportswear. He immediately changed his clothes and I brought his old clothes back. That was the last time I saw him.

On August 21, the enemy police came to the concentration camp, looking for candidates to exchange prisoners of war. Esad immediately nominated our son and felt that this was the only chance to be free. Before the transport vehicle left, his father sewed 100 German mark banknotes to the inner lining of Senad's shoes. He told his son: Let’s go, and when you get to a safe place, take out the money and buy some food for yourself and your companions. Senad's friend Nihad also got on the car.

All three vehicles were filled with people and drove out of the camp. Esad said he saw Senad and Nihad waving at him in the car. He cried because he had to be separated from his son; at the same time, he was happy that his son was about to be free.

However, this is their last side.

In the deep mountains halfway, the delivery vehicle stopped. The escort soldiers drove everyone out of the car, had them line up to kneel on the edge of the cliff, and then began shooting. In just a few minutes they killed Senad and 199 others, and their bodies fell into a valley 300 meters deep. The soldiers then went to the canyon and threw bombs on the corpses to make sure that no one would know their crimes. They filled all the bodies into a huge pit.

I have never washed the old clothes that Senad handed over to me in the concentration camp that day. The smell left on my clothes is the only trace he left on me. I smell this dress every day, hoping that at least one day his body will be exhumed.

Twenty-six years have passed, and I am still waiting for the day when the bones in blue sportswear are found. Every time he heard the news that a huge tomb was found, his father would go there to try to find the shoe he had sewed 100 marks...

I will be 80 years old soon. I donated this old Senad dress to the museum because I was afraid that I would not be able to wait for the day when he was buried with my own hands.

View more about Quo Vadis, Aida? reviews

Extended Reading
  • Trudie 2022-03-19 09:01:08

    This film once again touches the death of history. From the perspective of a general interpreter of a UN employee, with rescue of the family as the main line of the plot, the shell of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was peeled off, exposing the texture of cruel trampling and tearing lives. Ada struggled to rescue her relatives and raced against the clock to keep the rhythm and emotions in tension and anxiety. After the contradiction escalates, it still creates expectations for survival, but the empty mirror in the massacre is the real climax. The loss of control after the war machine is activated is inevitable. In the face of the anger of the hostile parties and the nation, the so-called peacekeeping force that maintains justice is just doing nothing and tilting interests. The years are gone, and the painful emotional regurgitation is turning back in the innocent bones.

  • Tamara 2022-03-20 09:02:36

    To deconstruct the conflict in this war from the perspective of a UN employee, the fate of the displaced people behind the war is also tragic compared to the bloody confrontation on the battlefield. Being a mother, knowing a little bit of the cruel situation, and watching her family embark on a desperate path, how heart-piercing the pain is. In the last shot, the children outside the theater are still playing football, and the sound of gunshots from the theater is endless. The huge contrast between the stillness and the movement of the whole picture makes people choking silently.

Quo Vadis, Aida? quotes

  • Aida Selmanagic: General Mladic is looking for a civilian representative from among you in order to negotiate with him. Are there any volunteers?

  • Aida Selmanagic: We are on the list!