The BIRN BiH and the Srebrenica Memorial Center opened a new memory room, in a place of a transformed ancient battery factory, which now serves as an exhibition center. The room and video archive of 100 video testimonies along with collected items from the victims family members, became part of a permanent exhibition. The place of suffering is transformed in place of memorialization, which will contribute to the local community healing and combat genocide denial.
Local
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Srebrenica
Mainly rural
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-02-28
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina - BIRN BiH and Srebrenica Memorial Center Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Denis Last name of representative: Džidić Gender: Male Nationality: Bosnia and Herzegovina Function: Executive director Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Splitska 6 Town: Sarajevo Postal code: 71000 Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina Direct Tel:+387 33 237-269 E-mail:denis@birnnetwork.org Website:https://zivotiizapoljasmrti.detektor.ba/en
Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIRN BiH) project “Lives Behind the Fields of Death” has been carefully and strategically developed with an overall goes to contribute longterm in a sustainable way to stopping and preventing genocide denial through the culture of remembrance while humanising every victim and survivor of Srebrenica genocide by telling their personal life story. It has been conducted in cooperation with the Srebrenica Memorial Center (SMC). The BIRN BiH and the SMC linked hundred personal testimonies of genocide survivors with hundred of individual items from the genocide victims and survivors. All hundred personal stories and items are available to the public for free as part of a permanent exhibition and the Srebrenica Memorial Center. The memorial room “Lives Behind the Fields of Death” is designed for visitors to pass by each and every of the items and hear video-testimonies connected to that specific item and the human it belonged to - fathers, brothers, musicians, doctors, pupils… Those not able to visit the memorial room in person can visit online memorial room with the same in-situ experience, where objects, video-testimonies and virtual tour is available around the world. All content is available in Bosnian and English. The primary target group are genocide victims, their families, people (in)directly affected by the crime, and returnees to Srebrenica and its surrounding. This project permanently gave back the voice to victims and survivors. They are no longer ‘just’ numbers but humans with their own story which otherwise would never be told. The significance is essentially reflected in the preservation of testimonies for posterity, as many have not lived to tell their stories. Two people interviewed during the project, Djulsa Velic and Senahid Mehmedovic, passed away while other testimonies were still being filmed. Once all the testimonies had been filmed, another interviewee, Hajra Catic, also passed away.
memorialisation
transformation
remembrance
tribute
peace
One of the key objectives is to contribute to social change by countering the denial of genocide and discrimination against post-war returned to Srebrenica who lost their loved ones in the genocide. Throughout its years-long work on transitional justice BIRN BiH has been recognised throughout the region for its reporting on war crimes and transitional justice and has been invited to share expertise and lectures. Therefore, BIRN BiH was welcomed with its project by the Srebrenica Memorial Center to open the memorial room and use Memorial as an equal partner in collecting personal items majorly found in mass graves and testimonies to be displayed as a permanent exhibition in the Srebrenica Memorial premises. The memorial room stays open free of charge to each and every of the visitors from all over the world. Only in 2022, visited by 96,650 people from all over the world visited the Memorial Center in person. The virtual memorial room permanently offers visits to those who cannot travel but with to hear victims and survivors telling their personal stories. In over a year, the virtual memorial room has had 11.000 visitors.
The Lives Behind the Fields of Death is recognised by wide international, regional and national public as a unique project which without a doubt represents a relevant, comprehensive, and verified source of information available to everyone - from children in schools to legal experts and researchers around the world.
BIRN BiH hired, after receiving various proposals, an experienced architect whose firm dedicated their time and knowledge in creating a unique, memorable, quiet and human space which will tell the story on its own from the first step the visitor makes inside the memorial room. The concept of the space was shared and approved by the Srebrenica Memorial Center and the survivors of the genocide beforehand.
The space itself is envisaged with a simple calming design interwoven with a play of shadows of people - real people who lived and were murdered in the Genocide, and whose items are set in boxes which [almost] float in the room bearing the personal items of the victims/survivors. Boxes are embraced by the curtains representing the victims’ shadows, offering the visitor to focus on the items of the victims/survivors only; and later on in the high-quality multimedia room where the video-testimonies are displayed can hear the human stories of the genocide survivors and meet the victims behind the personal items displayed in the memorial room.
The feedback BIRN BiH and Srebrenica Memorial Center keep receiving from the visitors is touching, awarding, and often times emotionally overwhelming especially in the case when we hear from survivors and returnees, as well as the young people across the country, region and beyond visiting the space and learning from it.
The space has become a recognizable and a ‘must visit’ for students and young people, international high-level delegations, researchers, as well as passengers.
As one of the key objectives of the project is to also inform citizens, we managed to do that both through the physical space as well as the virtual one. In both of these manners we educate individuals about the genocide and its consequences, and in that sense combat the political revisionist narratives and denial of this crime in the public space. In that sense, although it tackles an important topic for genocide survivors and families of those killed in the July 1995 crime primarily, it is a project designed for the benefit of the entire public. The website, as well as the entry into the physical space, is free of charge so is accessible to all. For those unable to visit the actual Memorial room, we’ve created a tour of the space also free and available to everyone online. The videos are subtitled into English, apart from the local language, enabling even more international accessibility. Our design followed the principles of new societal models in such a way that it created an engaging experience where not only artefacts were displayed, but the room in the Memorial site has shadow silhouettes of the figures of genocide victims created from photographs survivors gave BIRN BIH and the Memorial. Visitors are able to have full authentic involvement as the venue of the Memorial room is within the Srebrenica compound where underlying crimes of the genocide took place. They also have full user control as they can choose how to move within the space and how many videos to see. Finally the site is accountable to the survivors of the genocide who parted with their loved ones or personal artefacts, who were the first to enter the venue upon its opening in February 2022. Finally, the Memorial room and website are inclusive in a sense that oral history interviews were done with persons of all ages, both sexes and different backgrounds who survived or lost someone in the genocide.
The citizens and general public, both Bosnian and international visiting the Memorial, are getting a chance to find out more about what happened in Srebrenica, focusing more on the victims than on the numbers and people who were prosecuted for this crime. Over 90,000 people visited Memorial Center since the exhibition was opened, including organized school visits and high level international politicians.
The project results will also serve for the future generations, scientists, historians, activists, who will use the media archive and exhibition artifacts as a source of information for textbooks, scientific papers, analyses, debates, advocacy etc.
In an ideal world, this place one day could serve as a place of reconciliation between different ethnicities in BiH, where all three nations in the country can pay tribute and respect to the killed civilians, recognizing the crime and making vows something similar never to happen again.
The most important stakeholder in this project were family members who agreed to be filmed for the project as well as to donate artefacts for the exhibition. Without them this project would be impossible to implement and conduct. Having one hundred people ready to sit in front of the camera and share their stories, go through the trauma all over again and to give up on the items, which in more than one case were the only thing left behind their lost ones, present immanence courage and high level of sense of belonging and need to do such an effort for the higher benefit of the community. Srebrenica Memorial Center and their beneficiaries were important key in the chain, allowing reconstruction of their premises. Till this exhibition, visitors of the Memorial could only examine the cemetery, multimedia room and documentation center and PAX exhibition which are mainly dedicated to the crimes that happened around Srebrenica and their prosecution in front of international and domestic courts. This part of the Memorial complex is solely devoted to the victims and telling their stories, reminding public that behind numbers are always people, someone’s fathers, brothers, and sons.
The project combined different set of disciplines and methodologies.
Video material recorded for the project used a special methodology developed specifically for this oral history project – different set of questions was developed and special interviewing technique was conducted, highly respecting victims’ feelings and privacy. Some recording were lasting hours, giving enough space and time to victims to actually lead the interview.
In order to organize the exhibition, one of the premises existing within Srebrenica Memorial complex. The Memorial selected one room that needed adaptation and architect was hired to create renovation plan as well as a design studio to make a sketch of a future memorial room.
In order to secure high level of security and preservation of the artefacts find in mass graves which belongs to victims, and now to their family members, expert in artefacts are hired to assist in organization of the exhibition and take care of their proper conservation.
To suite the exhibition needs the space is equipped with pedestals and glass boxes for the artefacts, as well as with screens which show short videos.
The project itself contributes to the fight against revisionism, against the denial of genocide and war crimes, as well as against the manipulation of numbers. The multimedia platform and Memory room serve as educational material for future generations about what happened in Srebrenica, and it has a great contribution in the process of memorialization and preserving the memory of the victims. Transformation of the previous detention space and place from where thousands of people were sent to death present a unique monument to each of the victims and send message that they will never be forgotten.
Direct beneficiaries of the project are victims of genocide, their families and people affected both directly and indirectly by the crime, as well as the returnees to Srebrenica and community at large. Through this project, BIRN BiH and Memorial Center give the victims a much needed voice and space in the public sphere to share their stories. Also, having in mind that Srebrenica is a small town in Republika Srpska (entity in BiH whose official denies genocide) it is of outmost importance of the local Bosniak population, but also in the whole country, to have places like this which will help them to secure memory on the lost ones and help the fight the denials.
The most innovative character of this project is its sustainability and securing permanent character of the exhibition. Many artistic projects dealing with transitional justice topic are one time show, having several showings on different locations but this is the first time that one project combining architecture/design and journalism have its permanent exhibition space.
Also, having recorded videos and testimonies not just on online platform (special dedicated pages or websites) but presenting them in a real time space i.e. in the form of exhibition is also unique approach in BiH.
Continuation of the exhibition enriched Srebrenica Memorial complex with a memory room dedicated solemnly to the victims and their family members, away from any political influences, focuses on the crime itself and manipulations.
Transformation of the place of suffering of thousands of families into the place of memorialization will help those family members, especially in the surrounding where majority of population deny what happened in Srebrenica, to find comfort, respect and regain sense of belonging with other fellow-sufferers.
BIRN BiH staff and associates used their knowledge and experience gained almost over the past 20 years of work on transitional justice and war-crime issues to enable victims' voices to be heard through a series of stories and short videos. BIRN BiH applied high standards of journalism in order to convey the victims’ stories in the most authentic manner, protecting their integrity, while exercising due care and attention when dealing with war crimes survivors. BIRN BiH interviewed family members of 100 victims of Srebrenica genocide in order to collect their personal stories, visiting and talking with family members of those ones buried in Potocari Memorial, but also with families who are still looking for their missing ones. Special developed oral history methodology was used for this project.
The exhibition space is organized in a manner to honor people who lost their lives during genocide, respecting pain and suffer of the survivals and their families. Special attention was used to respect dignity of each person who shared their story and pay respect to the items collected in the mass graves being exposed.
Collaboration between memorial institution and media organization in order to tell and preserve stories of the killed ones can be replicated in every post-conflict society. Joint efforts to secure high quality content, paying respect to the victims and their family members can result with amazing outcome which will be welcomed by society.
Oral history methodology can serve as a base for CSO organizations/media who are working on collecting testimonies of the victims, being a base for this kind of projects. Agreeing on visual elements of the project results (video material, exhibition space, artefacts selection and presentation) was of a great importance, having a clear guidelines how to reach the final goal. Clear division of the job between the Memorial Center and BIRN BiH also allowed both organization to focus on their tasks, as well as well-developed monitoring and evaluation plan.
Living in a world with hundreds of major and small scale conflicts, it is really important to think about post-conflict societies and challenges they will face after the wars end. Many societies are out of capacities to get involved in transitional justice processes and deal with broken states systems. For this reason, it is important for the post-conflict societies which already went through some kind of transition to share their experience and lessons learned and serve their knowledge and know-how.
