A group of young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia visited our Museum last week. The group consisted mainly of students who participated in the study program “Path of Remembrance for Children Victims of War,” dedicated to memorializing the suffering of children during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995. The program started in Prijedor and continued in Banja Luka, Maglaj, Konjic, Vitez, and Sarajevo. The visit was organized by the “KVART” Youth Center from Prijedor.
Participants, accompanied by the organizer and peace activist Edin Ramulic, toured our permanent exhibition and attended a presentation about the mission, vision, and development of the War Childhood Museum in recent years.
War is terrible even a bullet doesn’t hit you
Edin Ramulić explains that while the primary goal of this study program is to visit monuments dedicated to the children who were victims of war, it’s also important to them to visit the WCM, where hundreds of stories of children who survived the war are preserved. Everyday life during a war is “an untold story,” especially when it comes from the children’s perspective, Ramulic points out.
War is terrible even when the bullet doesn’t hit you. Our goal is to show how much of a great misfortune war is. We aim to do everything we can to raise awareness for peace among new generations so that they continue to build peace in their local communities, Ramulic emphasizes.
Everything changes when you realize how much these exhibits meant to someone during the war
For Ema Beganovic, who studies in Tuzla, it wasn’t the first time she visited the WCM. Upon her first visit, she was deeply moved by the exhibits.
This museum is truly unique; it offered me something I hadn’t had the opportunity to see before. I believe everyone should visit WCM at least once. The stories behind the exhibits are incredibly touching. Everything changes when you realize how much these exhibits meant to someone during the war. I believe people donated them to the museum because they knew their memories would be preserved forever in this way, Beganovic points out.
It is important to hear the stories of children growing up in war
Aleksandar Nikolic from Pozarevac visited the WCM for the first time, but as a history student, he was already familiar with the museum work. Nikolic, who grew up in peace, applied for the “KVART” study program to understand what it is like to grow up in war.
This is a specific experience for me. I am glad that the War Childhood Museum doesn’t focus only on the local topic but also covers the Second World War, as well as current conflicts, wars, and genocides. It’s crucial for younger generations, even children, to read and think about these stories, and to fight against all the present evils. The museum sends a clear message that war should never happen again anywhere and that we all must do our best to prevent such madness in places like Ukraine, Gaza, and all other less-known conflict zones, concludes Nikolic.
