Acknowledgments
On the Publication of the English Edition
List of abbreviations
Preface: What Happened Before
Sabaheta's Story
1. Farewell: The Desolation, the Women
2. An Orphaned World: Life before the War
3. War is Coming
4. Living on the Run, Living in Danger
5. A Human Shooting Gallery—Srebrenica 1992-1995
6. Violence
7. Departure without Arrival
Notes
Index
Selma Leydesdorff is Professor of Oral History and Culture at
the University of Amsterdam. She is author of We Lived with
Dignity: The Jewish Proletariat of Amsterdam, 1900–1940 and editor
(with Nanci Adler, Mary Chamberlain, and Leyla Neyzi) of Memories
of Mass Repression: Narrating Life Stories in the Aftermath of
Atrocity.
Kay Richardson is a retired editor with 30 years of experience in
international scholarly publishing. During her 13 years of
residence in the Netherlands, she gained fluency in Dutch and
developed an abiding interest in Dutch history and culture.
"With sensitivity and compassion, Leydesdorff . . . interviews
about 50 female survivors of the Srebrenica massacre . . . in this
valuable oral history. 6/21/2011"—Publishers Weekly
"Surviving the Bosnian Genocide provides a clear, concise analysis
of conditions in Srebrenica and the genocidal massacre in Potocari.
As an author, Leydesdorff manages to organize excerpts from dozens
of interviewees in a manner that allows their words to carry the
weight of the experience, while interjecting herself only to
provide the necessary historical perspective to maintain its
readability. Ultimately, this collection of experiences succeeds at
placing the human toll of mass atrocities in the forefront of the
historical discussion in a way that preserves the emotional scars
such events leave in their wake."—Oral History Review
"Leydesdorff's book focuses on the notorious selective massacre in
July 1995 of 8,100 disarmed Bosnian Muslim men by Serb nationalist
forces under the comand of General Ratko Mladic, in the area around
the town of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia . . . The women speak of
the shock, in the early days of the war, of seeing trusted Serb
neighbors turn into rapists and murderers; of their own fathers,
husbands, and sons forced to take up arms; of weeks spent living
rough with their children in the forests to avoid slaughter; of
hunger, homelssness, and virtual imprisonment in the enclave; and
of the bitter moment of escape that was simultaneously the moment
of loss, the last glimpse of a husband or son. They also spoke
(reluctantly and elliptically) of rape and described surviving
brutal attacks by Serb men. The memories of these victimized women
are the 'little' sorrows of war, Leydesdorff says, seldom deemed
worth listening to, neglected in the political histories.Jan.
2012"—Women's Review of Books
"A book of remarkable integrity that gives the victims voices,
faces, families, and lives. . . . The author succeeds in creating
an honest and sensitive picture from the jumble of stories,
emotions, and reminiscences. . . . A work of great social
relevance."—Internationale Spectator
"Surviving the Bosnian Genocide . . . meaningfully adds to an
endless bibliography on the war, cultural trauma, and genocide in
Bosnia and Herzegovina through a gendered perspective. To this end,
both cultural literacy and sensitivity interpenetrate this study
admirably."—Human Rights Quarterly
"An important contribution to the scholarship on the experiences,
memories, and traumas of genocide and on the wars in Bosnia. . . .
Leydesdorff is one of the best oral historians of women's lives and
their memories and experiences of genocide."—Melissa K. Bokovoy,
University of New Mexico
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