Media

During the siege, the continuation of normal life in the city, continuation of creativity, for all citizens of Sarajevo was as important as bread or medicine or water.

This segment in FAMA research period 1992-1996 contains the question "Could you describe a creation of yours?" and interviewees' answers. Sarajevans (in this case: interviewees) created and accepted this model in order to survive: "We were all innovators of our own methods of survival" – as put by one of the respondents.

Sources: FAMA Collection 1992-1996: Oral History, Survival Questionnaire, Sarajevo Life Magazine, archival video and photo collection.

OSLOBOĐENJE - THE DAILY PAPER

FAMA Collection - Visual Archives 1992-1996

Dika Kapić, journalist and translator: ‘What did it mean to work in the basement of Oslobodjenje? It meant sitting in the semi darkness with an oil lamp, 10 or so of journalists gathered around a cold heater waiting for the night to come, for the generator to be turned on – as fuel was saved for printing the newspaper, even if only a two-sheet one; journalists knew that in the morning citizens would be waiting for it in the streets: one could grow as hungry for news as for food’.

LISTENING TO THE RADIO

© FAMA Collection - Visual Archives 1992-1996 (Jelena Oksenfeld)

"People were close to each other, and especially so when darkness would fall, and they knew they survived the day. They listened to the radio that worked on an accumulator. They listened to other people's voices and the music. Some of them made a radio powered by a dynamo. However, they could only listen to it if one of us was turning the bicycle pedals."