“The generations meet today at the crossroads between truth and silence”

ARIJANA SARAČEVIĆ HELAĆ - journalist [Bosnia and Herzegovina]

GENERATION OF LIVED HISTORY

The war does not end with the cessation of the conflict. Survivors continue to carry it deep inside them. The way post-war society relates to war affects individuals and shapes transgenerational memory.

• How has the generation that lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region during the wars in the former Yugoslavia – and especially during the genocide in Srebrenica – experienced and shaped this history in the past 30 years: through personal memories, reflections, but also through narratives in the media, films, books, textbooks and rituals of remembrance?

"As a war reporter who witnessed the most difficult moments of the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, including the genocide in Srebrenica, I believe that the generation that survived the wars from 1991 to 1999 still bears deep emotional, psychological and collective scars. History did not end with the signing of peace agreements. It continued to be transmitted: through silence, trauma, but also through active resistance to forgetting.

In the last 30 years, this generation has carried history on its shoulders, in stories that have not always had room for public discussion. The media often played a dual role: on the one hand, they documented the truth, and on the other, politics instrumentalized narratives for their own ends. Books, films and rituals of memory have become key tools for preserving memory, and they have become battlefields where truth was fought for.

The war did not end when the bullets fell silent. It's not over today either. It remained in people, in their views, silence, dreams. And in me. As a reporter who followed the events from the very beginning, I witnessed pain, destruction, fear, but most of all human vulnerability. My colleague, Nino Ćatić, died reporting from Srebrenica. His voice is forever silent, and that is a wound that does not heal. As a person and a journalist, I was devastated. Broken with pain.

I reported from the first and many other funerals in Potočari. Everything hurts there. There, silence strikes harder than any sound. In that silence, my documentaries about the Srebrenica genocide were made as an attempt to endure, not to forget, to tell the truth.

In these 30 years, the generation that survived those years, myself included, carried that history through media, books, testimonies, and every attempt to keep the truth from being buried along with the victims. But the fight was not equal. Political narratives often covered the truth with silence, relativisation, or outright denial. That is why transgenerational memory has become a terrain of resistance, a way to convey the truth, not to remain closed in archives or documents that no one reads.

Those of us who survived, not in the trenches, but with a camera, microphone and notebook, feel a responsibility to talk. Because we know what it means not to talk about something. That is why I speak and remain silent today with equal respect. Because there, in that land of pain, I can still hear the silence grabbing at my throat."

A GENERATION BORN IN HISTORY (THOSE BORN IN 1995)

Thirty years later, we are once again witnessing the shaping of history amidst political manipulations of narratives. That is why transgenerational memory is required to carry a culture of remembrance and responsibility to the truth – in the name of future generations who must learn how peace is built and preserved.

• How does a generation born in the year of the Srebrenica genocide today understand this history? And how did growing up in this heritage shape their sense of identity, memory, and responsibility?

"The generation born in 1995, the year of the genocide, grew up in silence, fragments and attempts to understand what happened, and what it means for their identity. For many, history did not come in the form of lessons in schools, but through family stories, gaps, unanswered questions, and a sense of responsibility they did not choose.

Their maturity today is reflected in the fact that, although they have not witnessed war, they become witnesses of memory. Many of them have turned to activism, memory culture and research, because they understand that their generation is the first one that can establish a bridge between the experience of survival and the transmitted knowledge. They grew up in a legacy of grief, but also of resistance, and this combination shapes them as guardians of truth, provided that society gives them space to speak out.

This is the silence I felt in Potočari, Srebrenica, where even today, 30 years later, that place speaks louder than words. They grew up with images of columns, mass graves, white riflescopes, and with our attempts to give these images context, meaning, truth.

As a journalist who has witnessed many funerals, mothers who have lowered children into the grave, and fathers who have prayed that we do not forget them, I feel a deep responsibility to leave as pure a truth as possible to that generation. Because without it, they will not be able to understand themselves."

TRANSGENERATIONAL MEMORY DYNAMICS (1995-2025)

Society in Bosnia and Herzegovina is still marked by war traumas. Prevailing ethno-national policies keep citizens in fear, under constant threat of a new war – for their own interests. Politics has instrumentalized trauma.

• How – and whether – generations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the regions that lived through the wars in the former Yugoslavia, especially the events of 1995, and the generation born that same year have shaped mutual understanding of the past? To what extent are their views aligned today – and how do they differ?

"The generation that lived through the war and the generation born in its shadow meet today at the crossroads between truth and silence. Those of us who looked the war in the eye, who recorded its every step, often thought that we would not have the strength to carry it all forward. But today I see, there are those who want to listen.

In my experience on the field, in front of and behind the camera, I have often met those who do not want to remember anymore, because it brings them back to pain. On the other hand, the young people I meet want to know. They want to understand what happened and how it can never happen again. And this is where the connection between generations is born, perhaps not always through words, but through presence, through the will to look the truth in the eye.

But this dynamic is not simple. We still live in a society where politics uses the past for its own benefit. Where trauma is not treated, but instrumentalized. Where the victims are counted, instead of mourning them together. This creates walls between generations and identities.

However, I believe that the dialogue exists, in the silence of Potočari, in the attitude of young people who come to commemorations, in archives such as the FAMA Collection. This is where our memories and their search for meaning intertwine. This is where we learn that trauma is not the end, but the beginning of the struggle for responsibility. If we teach them the truth, they teach us hope. And that's the bridge we need to nurture."

REGIONAL FUTURE: TRANSGENERATIONAL MEMORY, HERITAGE OR TRAUMA (2025-2055)

Thirty years after the war, ethnic identity still dominates the civic. In post-war society, the structure of ethnically divided space often makes civic initiatives impossible, as they are automatically attributed an ethnic sign.

• How could political, social, educational and cultural development in Bosnia and Herzegovina – and more broadly in the region – affect how transgenerational memory will be preserved, reinterpreted or denied in the next 30 years?

"Even today, 30 years after the war, I feel how much the place in which we live is still trapped by divisions. As a journalist who has witnessed both disintegration, resistance, and survival, I deeply believe that the political structures in the region continue to sabotage the possibility of shared memory. Every civic initiative, every attempt to speak the truth without ethnic labels, is immediately classified, suspected, attacked.

And it's not a happenstance. Division serves the interests of those who live on fear. And fear is the strongest currency here.

But in spite of everything, I believe that transgenerational memory can become a legacy if we save it from manipulation. I have been working on this for decades: to write down the facts, to make the experiences available, to make knowledge a foundation, not a propaganda tool. That young people do not inherit hatred, but the truth.

In the next 30 years, education will be key. If we do not change what we learn in schools about how we talk about war, about peace, about victims, everything will remain the same. That is why we need to invest in a culture of memory that does not fit into ethnic narratives, but into human ones. So that knowledge is no longer afraid of politics. So that textbooks do not bypass Srebrenica.

The future will not come alone, we must create it. And that's why I continue to talk, to record, to write. Because I know that without the truth there is no peace. And without memory, truth disappears."

GLOBAL FUTURE: TRANSGENERATIONAL MEMORY, INDIFFERENCE OR REVISIONISM (1995-2025-2055)

In the modern world, geopolitics is rapidly conditioning historical narratives and transgenerational memory – openly trading influence in conflicts and party choices through daily-political revisionism.

• How could global political disruptions, conflicting international historical narratives, and changing norms on justice and human rights shape the ways in which knowledge of wartime events from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the region will be transmitted, challenged, or withheld across generations over the next 30 years?

"I witnessed the truth, and later watched as that truth was denied, withheld, and forgotten, and today I watch with particular concern as global indifference opens the door to dangerous revisionism. Truth is no longer a matter of evidence, but of interest. Geopolitics is increasingly choosing silence over responsibility.

I saw it in Srebrenica. And after all, the world was not always ready to listen. Some looked at us from afar, as a "regional problem," not realizing that crimes against humanity concern every human being. Today, when historical narratives are sold as a diplomatic currency, it becomes clear that if we do not preserve our own truth, no one else will.

In this context, the role of archives, documentaries, public testimony – becomes a question of the survival of truth. Such initiatives are not just a memory, they are a resistance to forgetting. At a time when truth must be defended more than ever, transgenerational memory needs to become a global value. Not only through commemorations, but through education systems, international media, and digital archives that cannot remain silent.

In the next 30 years, the world will face a choice: will they place the crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the footnotes of history, or in the foundation of lessons that can prevent new tragedies?

I will, as long as I can, speak. Not because of the past, but because of a future that should not be based on a lie."



The opinions and insights expressed in this text reflect solely the views of the author. We publish these contributions to encourage reflection and open space for diverse perspectives on the topic of transgenerational memory in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the wider region.