Tobacco Factory

The “Marlboro” cigarettes produced in the factory under the Philip Morris license was one of the most prized cigarette brands in former Yugoslavia. There is the cult of the cigarette in Sarajevo. Although a large quantity of the stored tobacco was destroyed, the factory managed to produce small amounts of cigarettes throughout the siege. In spite of their inferior quality they were eagerly bought sometimes at 100DM ($70) per carton. Cigarettes were the most valued barter commodity. For a pack of cigarettes, you could get several cans from humanitarian aid. Due to the lack of paper, cigarettes were rolled into various textbooks, books and official documents. You couldn’t read on them warnings about health hazards, but you could learn, for instance, about the process of producing copper. The citizens were often telling the story about how Sarajevo would have surrendered had the cigarettes disappeared.