While talking to my mom about The Cellist of Sarajevo, she told me a few stories of her own. My family was living in Budapest, Hungary for about three years (1992-1995), which happens to be around the same time as the war in Sarajevo. I thought that some of these things my mom told me were pretty fascinating, so I decided I wanted to share with other people in Literature of Witness. When living there, my mom was a part of the American Women's Club in Hungary.
(http://www.wideweb.hu/hungary/country-information/people-society/expatriate-associations/north-american-women2019s-association-of-budapest)
There was a refugee camp in a town called Teplice in the Czech Republic. My mom told me that a lot of people from that refugee camp came to Hungary, and because of that my mom was somehow a part of the war, even in the smallest way. People told her stories about Sarajevo, ones that are similar to what we have read in The Cellist of Sarajevo. Granted, she did not speak to a sniper, but girls around our age told her how they would have to run from one side of the street to the other, attempting to avoid being shot. When she heard about what was going on from eye-witnesses, her and the American Women’s Club immediately wanted to help. They set up a sort of system: the organization bought wool, it was then transported into Sarajevo where women living there would knit beautiful sweaters with intricate designs. Then the sweaters would be transported back to Hungary and people would buy the sweaters. This way, the women in Sarajevo had a source of income, and they were able to keep all of the profits because the wool was bought for them. Although money may have not been particularly useful, I still am fascinated that my mom was a part of this, when I – before reading this book – was unaware of the war in Sarajevo.
It really is interesting how much of an impact the war had on so many people. It seems at first that it really only affected the people of Yugoslavia, but when you look at the number of people who helped the cause, participated in the black market, were involved in the politics, met a refugee family, etc, you can really see how it has touched many parts of our world. I, too was unaware of this particular part of world history before touching on it this year, and what really amazes me is that even with the fact that the war touched so many people, so few people talk about it. It seems almost forgotten compared to the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda, which is interesting because the crisis of Sarajevo happened fairly recently. It would be interesting to know what the factors are in certain genocides that cause them to be longer remembered.
ReplyDeleteWhat i also find interesting is that events like this never come into our history classes. Before this unit I had not heard of the Armenian genocide, the siege of Sarajevo or the genocide in Rwanda. It is both disturbing and disappointing that we spend time in history classes learning about the first civilization and the methods of farming in the 1400's however we do not focus on big events like these genocides. I feel that many adults take it for granted that we know about these events as they occurred during their lifetimes, however we were small children when these things happened and we were unlikely to be reading the newspaper at age 3. I feel that is is a disgrace that important events like these do not have more place in our history classes.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you shared your mom's experiences. Thank you for bringing our classroom closer to the world out there.
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