Stories from Srebrenica - what is the purpose a heartbreaking story?

As a child, I remember hearing about a war in Eastern Europe. As a seven-year-old, the concept of war was vague but clear enough to understand it was a serious matter. Later in life, the -Srebrenica- would surface on the news during the Hague tribunal. During those years, the Dutch' involvement under the United Nations' command became a political subject. However, the details of what exactly had taken place in Srebrenica in the summer of 1995 seemed far away.

In 2020, Jasminko Halilovic , the founder the War Childhood Museum of Sarajevo approached me. He invited me to come to Bosnia and Herzegovina to interview survivors of the Srebrenica genocide. That year, on July 11th it would be exactly 25 years since 8372 boys and men were executed. I didn't need much time to think about it. I knew it would be an intense assignment and a difficult subject but I was eager to learn and have the Humans of Amsterdam audience join me on this journey.

We agreed that I would come in April. That way, I would have enough time to finalize the stories to publish them in July for the 25th commemoration of Srebrenica. After several meetings, all the arrangements were made. We were ready for the trip. In a now all-too-familiar turn of events, the pandemic broke out right before booking the flights to Sarajevo. Due to travel bans, we weren't able to fly. We concluded that we would wait and see if there would be an opportunity to create the series a few months later. I wasn't confident that we would be able to go forward with the project due to most European borders closing down. However, a few months later, when I spoke to Jasminko, he was determined to make this series and so wee decided to pull through. We had three weeks left to travel to Bosnia to produce, write and edit the stories before the 11th of July. I knew it would be challenging, and we would have to work really hard to make it happen, but it was a challenge I was willing to accept.

Together with a small team, we traveled through Bosnia. I got to bring Benjamin Heertje , We often work together on these intense projects. We stayed a few days in Tuzla, the nearest city to Srebrenica. It took me a few days to fully understand the scope of what had happened here. Prior to the trip, I dutifully tried to read some literature focusing on the massacres, but only by speaking to survivors of the genocide I began to understand the events that had transpired here in Srebrenica. These weren't the typical stories I capture on the streets of Amsterdam. They are stories about what it's like losing your brother or when you can't bury your father because, after 25 years, they still haven't found his remains. It's about what it's like to grow up without any male family members because all of them were murdered. The fieldwork was heavy, and covering such powerful and emotional stories was difficult. As an interviewer, I always want to give each person renewed energy. Some days we would cover several stories, which was overwhelming and made it challenging to keep the energy up. For some survivors, it was the first time sharing their stories.

On one of the final days of the trip, I met Ned?ad. A man in his forties, who, if you would meet him, you would never be able to guess, the horror he lived through. During the interview, Ned?ad described how he was about to be executed step by step. The interview took about two hours, and I remember thinking: ''This man is describing the path to his grave, but somehow, he is still here?". Ned?ad escaped a massacre together with one other person whose identity remains anonymous. They walked through the forest for weeks, with bullets in their body, to get to the safe zone. By miracle, Ned?ad survived.

After that interview, I couldn't help but think: "Why am I covering these stories? What is the value of sharing such a traumatic experience? How does Ned?ad benefit from this? How does the reader benefit from his story?''. I'm not cynically saying this. These are questions I constantly ask myself. ''What is the purpose? What is the value?'' As a storyteller, I never want to find myself in a place where I'm sharing stories as a form of entertainment or selling shock value. Stories must be written to keep the reader interested, but there is always a bigger purpose. After interviewing Ned?ad, I sat with these questions for a while. I didn't have an immediate answer. It took me one whole day to write his story. While writing down all the details leading up to his execution, I felt like I was writing him toward his death sentence. I rarely get emotional during an interview. Not because I'm not an emotional person, but when I do an interview, I focus solely on getting the story right. As a trained social worker, I learned that you always have to be empathetic, but you are there to provide care. When I interview someone, I want to convey their story as authentic to the best of my capability. While writing down his story, I felt tears falling. That night, I spoke to my mother on the phone and asked her: ''What do you think is the value of writing these stories?''. She answered in Dutch: ''Het is gezien, het is opgeschreven, het is niet onopgemerkt gebleven.’’ Translated, it means something like: ''It's seen, it's written, it won't go unnoticed".

I finished the stories right before the deadline, and over ten days, we posted them on all over Humans of Amsterdam's social media platforms. Through this campaign, we managed to reach 11 million people in total. We received thousands of messages from people worldwide, many of whom had never heard about the events that had taken place in Srebrenica. We had two exhibitions—one in Sarajevo and the other one in Stockholm.

I'm thankful for the people I met during the trip. It's not easy for the survivors to relive these memories. It takes a lot of courage to share such a personal and painful story. Yet, every survivor was determined to do so knowing that their story would be heard.I'm glad Jasminko convinced me to make this series despite the setbacks of the pandemic. As a Dutch creator, joining forces with a local Bosnian museum to shine a light on this painful part of our shared history felt like building a bridge toward understanding.

If you like to read the stories of the survivors of Srebrenica you can do so through this link: https://humansofamsterdam.com/series