Library Catalog
On the Shelf at CCBC Libraries
The Bosnia List by
A young survivor of the Bosnian War returns to his homeland to confront the people who betrayed his family At age eleven, Kenan Trebincevic was a happy, karate-loving kid living with his family in the quiet Eastern European town of Brcko. Then, in the spring of 1992, war broke out and his friends, neighbors and teammates all turned on him. Pero - Kenan's beloved karate coach - showed up at his door with an AK-47 - screaming: "You have one hour to leave or be killed!" Kenan's only crime: he was Muslim. This poignant, searing memoir chronicles Kenan's miraculous escape from the brutal ethnic cleansing campaign that swept the former Yugoslavia. After two decades in the United States, Kenan honors his father's wish to visit their homeland, making a list of what he wants to do there. Kenan decides to confront the former next door neighbor who stole from his mother, see the concentration camp where his Dad and brother were imprisoned and stand on the grave of his first betrayer to make sure he's really dead. Back in the land of his birth, Kenan finds something more powerful--and shocking--than revenge.
Call Number: DR1313.8 .T74 2014
Balkan Genocides by
During the twentieth century, the Balkan Peninsula was affected by three major waves of genocides and ethnic cleansings, some of which are still being denied today. In Balkan Genocides Paul Mojzes provides a balanced and detailed account of these events, placing them in their proper historical context and debunking the common misrepresentations and misunderstandings of the genocides themselves. A native of Yugoslavia, Mojzes offers new insights into the Balkan genocides, including a look at the unique role of ethnoreligiosity in these horrific events and a characterization of the first and second Balkan wars as mutual genocides. Mojzes also looks to the region's future, discussing the ongoing trials at the International Criminal Tribunal in Yugoslavia and the prospects for dealing with the lingering issues between Balkan nations and different religions. Balkan Genocides attempts to end the vicious cycle of revenge which has fueled such horrors in the past century by analyzing the terrible events and how they came to pass.
Call Number: DR48 .M65 2011
Online Articles
- Here's the awful story of the worst European massacre since World War II
Business Insider, July 11, 2019 - Why Did Ratko Mladic Commit Genocide Against Bosnia’s Muslims?
New Yorker, November 27, 2017 - Denying Genocide in the Face of Science
Atlantic, July 17, 2015
Streaming Video
- Bosnia Hotel The United Nations peace keeping force in Bosnia included soldiers from nations and cultures that did not know where Bosnia was, or what the conflict was about. Among them was a force from Kenya which included several Samburu warriors. Bosnia Hotel films these warriors after their return to their ancestral land. It shows their present life as cattle herders on the African plain. They tell of their experience in the "white man's war."In many ways, their confusion about what was going on between the Serbs, Bosnians and Croats was not very different from many in the Western world who had full access to news reports. Why were neighbors killing one another, and why were women and children being killed? By "turning the tables", the indigenous people get to speak of their impression of the white man's civilization... a place where people blow one another up with explosives without "even seeing their faces." If all the people were white, they ask why did they have such differences that could only be resolved in devastation. The film juxtaposes Samburu practices that are looked upon askance by "civilized" people -- animal sacrifice, the ritual drinking of blood from the freshly slaughtered animal, and circumcision of adolescent males-- with the warrior's observations of the white man's world in which, though there was much progress, neighbor killed neighbor and many large houses were shattered. The warriors earned money and now have material aspirations, but they still maintain their traditions. Theirs is a society with strong communal ties and deep faith. In the end, one warrior says of Bosnia, "it's a country much different than ours, but no better or worse." One wonders.
from Baylor University Institute of Oral History
Websites
- Bosnian Genocide
from History.com - Bosnia-Herzegovina profile - Timeline
from BBC News
Online From CCBC Libraries
Genocide in Bosnia by
Few events in history have received as much real-time exposure as the atrocities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Few dilemmas have perplexed peacekeepers and negotiators as has the victimization of Muslims in the former Yugoslavia. With the memories of the Jewish holocaust so freshly etched in people's memories, could such genocide have happened again? What catalysts vault nationalism across the threshold into inhumanity? In this compelling and thorough study, Norman Cigar sets out to prove that genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina is not simply the unintentional result of civil war nor the unfortunate by-product of rabid nationalism. Genocide is, he contends, the planned and direct consequence of conscious policy decisions taken by the Serbian establishment in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its policies were carried out in a deliberate and systematic manner as part of a broader strategy intended to achieve a defined political objective--the creation of an expanded, ethnically pure Greater Serbia. Using testimony from congressional hearings, policy statements, interviews, and reports from the western and local media, the author describes a sinister policy of victimization that escalated from vilification to threats, then expulsion, torture, and killing. Cigar also takes the international community to task for its reluctance to act decisively and effectively. "The longer the world did nothing concrete about Bosnia-Herzegovina, the more unlikely it became that the situation would be reversed, as the country was torn apart or its population scattered or killed." Genocide in Bosnia provides a detailed account of the historical events, actions, and practices that led to and legitimated genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It focuses attention not only on the horror of "ethnic cleansing" and the calculated strategy that allowed it to happen but also offers some interesting solutions to the problem. Cigar's book is important reading for anyone interested in the inherent violence of overzealous nationalism--from Rwanda to Afghanistan and anywhere else.
Publication Date: 2000
The Bridge Betrayed by
The recent atrocities in Bosnia-Herzegovina have stunned people throughout the world. With Holocaust memories still painfully vivid, a question haunts us: how is this savagery possible? Michael A. Sells answers by demonstrating that the Bosnian conflict is not simply a civil war or a feud of age-old adversaries. It is, he says, a systematic campaign of genocide and a Christian holy war spurred by religious mythologies. This passionate yet reasoned book examines how religious stereotyping--in popular and official discourse--has fueled Serbian and Croatian ethnic hatreds. Sells, who is himself Serbian American, traces the cultural logic of genocide to the manipulation by Serb nationalists of the symbolism of Christ's death, in which Muslims are "Christ-killers" and Judases who must be mercilessly destroyed. He shows how "Christoslavic" religious nationalism became a central part of Croat and Serbian politics, pointing out that intellectuals and clergy were key instruments in assimilating extreme religious and political ideas. Sells also elucidates the ways that Western policy makers have rewarded the perpetrators of the genocide and punished the victims. He concludes with a discussion of how the multireligious nature of Bosnian society has been a bridge between Christendom and Islam, symbolized by the now-destroyed bridge at Mostar. Drawing on historical documents, unpublished United Nations reports, articles from Serbian and Bosnian media, personal contacts in the region, and Internet postings, Sells reveals the central role played by religious mythology in the Bosnian tragedy. In addition, he makes clear how much is at stake for the entire world in the struggle to preserve Bosnia's existence as a multireligious society.
Publication Date: 1998
Databases
- ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Articles on any subject. This is a good place to start.
- World History This link opens in a new window
Articles, essays, and primary sources on the history of the world. - Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
Viewpoint essays, topic essays, and news and magazine articles on controversial issues. Browse for topics or search.
- SIRS Issues Researcher This link opens in a new window
Viewpoint essays, topic essays, and news and magazine articles on controversial issues. Browse for topics or search.
Websites
- Bosnia and Herzegovonia
from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum