The siege of Sarajevo lasted 1,425 days. "Being under siege" meant accepting the fact that the former way of living has disappeared and that the abnormal is becoming normal. Over time, the citizens of Sarajevo discovered methods of survival through innovations and creations, repurposing objects that were available to them, surviving despite permanent terror and destruction.

I love Sarajevo

“During the war the Children's Choir ‘Palčići' regularly practiced and had performances. Through a rain of artillery fire, we rushed to practice by various means of transportation, for example by hitchhiking or by bike, because the children came from all over town. The shells couldn’t stop us from getting together to sing and dance. Through song and dance we beat the shells and win the war. We were in touch with all of the people who were here in Sarajevo, and they helped us in every way possible. That’s where the idea for the song ‘I Love Sarajevo’ came from.” - Anela Hardaga, Children’s Choir “Palčići”

Destruction

Childhood under siege made the children understand very early what it means to grow up and survive without food, water, electricity - without everything that their peers in other parts of the world did not have to worry about. Children were not safe anywhere in the city and were victims of shelling and snipers while playing in the street, in their houses, on the way to school, while sledding. Even newly born Sarajevans were not spared. Namely, shortly after the beginning of the destruction of the city, on May 26, 1992, the maternity hospital on Jezero was shelled. At the time of the attack, there were 130 women and 70 new-borns in the hospital. Five babies died.

Maternity hospital attacked

“Somehow I noticed that the shell explosions were getting closer and closer to the maternity ward, and at one point I simply picked up the receiver instinctively and called up all the nurses and said ‘everyone in the basement.’ Then later I thought, the shelling hasn’t started yet. You know what it means to move a hundred babies into a basement, mothers, women in labour, new-borns, pregnant women. It’s one huge operation, which I had prepared for already beforehand. ‘Well,’ I thought, ‘so what if it doesn’t get bombarded. We’ll just say it was a drill.’ But it wasn’t a drill. First, they started with mortar shells. We were already in the basement, and we had only battery-operated lamps. I don’t have the words to describe that horror, because after that they started shelling the maternity ward. With cannon shells. They weren’t mortar shells anymore. It was a large nine-story building made of reinforced concrete. It shook terribly. We were all in the basement. General silence. In a way, everyone prayed to their God, with their own way of praying. Nobody said a word. The crying of new-borns could be heard. This terrifying atmosphere continued for a long while. I was going around to all of those people trapped in those few basement rooms. All in all, I think there were about 300 of us. It was horrible, children were crying, women were crying, patients were crying. They would all ask just one thing, through their sobs: ‘Are we going to get out of this alive, or will we be buried here?’ And I remember well that I always answered in these few sentences: ‘You know, the weapons they have are not powerful enough to destroy such a large fortified concrete building as this. It would be different if they had an atomic bomb, but they don’t.’ I think I was partially comforting myself, and partially comforting those women.” - Srećko Šimić, Gynaecological Clinic

Mapping of the Siege of Sarajevo

Maternity hospital - The Sarajevo maternity hospital is situated on the Koševo hill and it offers a view of the Bare city cemetery. It was on the front line and it was constantly shelled, so that newborn Sarajevo babies were the youngest victims of aggression. After one such massacre in 1992 the maternity hospital was moved to the Koševo clinic, but the babies remained victims of shelling. In spite of that the local radio station informed the citizens every morning how many girls and boys were born.

Adaptation

Survival was the basic need of every individual during the siege of the city. The citizens of Sarajevo learnt new skills, acquired new knowledge - inventiveness and creativity became indispensable in everyday life. Adults try to organize children's lives in a way that at least partially resembles normal everyday life. Classes are organized in classrooms, basements, apartments. Children's concerts, theatre plays for children, masquerade balls are organized.

Classes held in apartments, business premises, local communities

“I have to say that room in which the lessons were held was on office that had been devastated, no windows of course, some foils instead. In winter the temperature was minus 15 degrees Celsius, in summer an average of 18 tops. Then, the classes were, we went to school regularly, every day we went to school. Naturally, not when there was heavy shelling, but we always made up for that at a later time. The lessons lasted for about 30 minutes each, I mean, one class was 30 minutes long. But it was quite enough to get knowledge that today we can say that it is very solid. During a lesson, I think it was Bosnian language. We were sitting and listening to the teacher who was very interesting. Suddenly there was a bang. We all hit the ground and waited what now, what next. The teacher was very composed and calm as if nothing had happened, she said: ‘Children, stay where you are. Wait for another two minutes because there will probably be another one’.” - Selma Hodžić, Student

Masquerade ball provides momentary distraction

“I was impressed the most by a masked ball, then we decided that children should dress as animals or as whatever they admired or were interested in. And believe me, the dressing up was so skillfully done that not even their parents or the neighbors could recognize them. They dressed up as kings and princes, as butterflies. And on the whole, as characters who signified freedom. Who signified what they wanted in their hearts? So that while playacting they could forget what was going on outside, all the horror of shelling and everything we went through. The characters that the children thought signified freedom and which they dressed up as were butterflies, lions, kings and princes. Because for them a lion was strength and they thought that with a lion’s mask they could eat up those outside, who didn’t let them go out, who scared their parents, who killed them. Those who dressed up as kings waved around their scepters so vehemently, probably to wipe out what was happening outside and to solve by a single stroke the situation and restore it to what it had been before the horror began.” - Faiza Kapetanović, Teacher

One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. By the time the mind is able to comprehend what has happened, the wounds of the heart are already too deep.

- Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Santa Arrives

“My daughter who had diabetes was not here in Sarajevo, because I sent her away with two cousins who also left with their parents. Some toys were left behind that were dear to them. Well, I decided to commit some kind of crime against the memories of my family. I gathered those toys and put on my costume. My Santa Claus costume. And I went to the children’s ward at the hospital, where I had agreed to meet a nurse named Fatima, who is a wonderful person. Not only was she a nurse there, but she was the head nurse at that clinic. She was almost more of a mother to those children than simply a nurse. Friends of mine who had a candy shop before the war gave me some candy. And I stuffed all of those things into two plastic garbage bags. And I went to the hospital and made a little New Year’s party for those children.” - Mladen Jeličić Troka, Actor

How did you entertain your children?

We had a sort of school in the shelter, and I entertained the children by playing the teacher, while they were my students.

year of birth: 1952
profession: Pensioner
gender: Female
city district: Breka

Recycling

The citizens of Sarajevo realized that they had to create an alternative way of life in order to survive. One of the important aspects of this new way of life was the repurposing of objects in order to replace everything that was not available during the siege. Inventions and recycled objects became survival tools. Adults and children find creative solutions to pass the time which suddenly they had a lot of but it was not possible to move freely. New games were invented, new toys were created from what was at hand.

Nine elements of the game of „Quasimodo“

“My wife had some origami books. It’s a Japanese paper game. So, we made some and taught the children. The idea was to give them something to do, to organize their time. I knew that those squares of paper with geometric folding could make cranes, birds, cats and so on. Then I began to work out some geometrically regular relationships of the shapes of the paper, I mean, geometrically folded and we got to 15, 14 and in the end I got to 9 elements. Because as I simplified the game I came to these 9 elements and called the game ‘Quasimodo’, in fact because of an ordinary appearance and because of the strong internal forces which the game has to offer. I realized that those 9 elements when they were folded in different ways could produce all letters and all numbers, dogs, cats, houses, some geometrical forms and so on.” - Nedžad Begović, Film director

The new normal

The siege of Sarajevo showed that a person can survive a disaster and remain a human being. Sarajevo chose culture as its weapon of defence against terror. Citizens walked the streets under the impact of grenades and snipers to perform their daily tasks of survival, went to theatre performances and exhibitions as a way of resistance and defence of the human civilization. A new normal has set in. One civilization disappeared, and a completely new one was simultaneously established in its wake.

A house party

You had to calm the children down, entertain them somehow, never leave them to sit alone and do nothing. You always had to be with them, telling them stories, teaching them to paint, playing with them, singing to them.

What are your lost illusions?

I thought that I would always live in peace.

Describe your day at work.

Drawing, reading, playing piano.

What words don’t you use anymore?

Picnic, weekend, vacation.

What are you afraid of?

Of shelling.

Do you like life, and what is life all about?

I do, above all.

- Dado Dragulj, a boy born in 1984

Perception

The need to establish some kind of balance in the midst of chaos arose spontaneously. In order to maintain mental health, every citizen of the besieged Sarajevo tried to keep himself in balance by bringing his old way of life to the now changed conditions.

Then...

Nine elements of the game of „Quasimodo“

“My Daddy made some cards for us to learn the letters and numbers more easily. It’s game. You can play it with other children. You deal five cards then everyone throws a number. So, we learned the letter more easily. And for numbers if it was a 1 then you could take one ball and so we learned the numbers. That’s how we played and some of my relations came and we played it with other children. We played it a lot to pass the time or when we were bored. When we got to school it was much easier for us.” - Sabrina Begović, Student

Now...

“Thirty years later I am a mother myself. I have three children on whose toys we stumble on. They have an abundance of toys. It wasn't until I became a parent that I realized what it must have meant for my parents to raise children in war. Not only to preserve our lives, but also to preserve the semblance of normality, to preserve children's playfulness, gaiety, and imagination. These were exactly the toys that Dad used to make. Not only to fill the time, but to grow with it, to learn and to focus our eyes on some more beautiful things. Those toys were more than toys. Those games were more than a game. They meant to preserve sanity. To keep one's sanity and find some passage between fears and still have a childhood.” - Sabrina Begović-Ćorić, Film director and producer