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The War Childhood Museum will open its first exhibition in Gorazde on July 15, 2024. Titled “Childhood Under Siege,” the exhibition will feature stories and objects from the daily lives of children who have grown up in cities under siege, such as Gorazde, Sarajevo, and Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mariupol in Ukraine, and Gaza in Palestine.

Each story showcased in the exhibition highlights the numerous negative impacts of armed conflicts on children, emphasizing various aspects of this complex experience.

WCM, exhibits, GorazdePieces of Chocolate

I was only two years old when the war started. For a long time, we lacked basic provisions and could only dream about sweets. It was only when the first UNPROFOR soldiers arrived, and we received our first humanitarian aid packages, that chocolate became available. I saved every wrapper. The chocolates came from Germany, Slovakia, Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Austria…

After we were forced to leave our house in Rogatica, we ran through the woods from the aggressors. I was little, so my parents had to carry me. There was some chocolate among the provisions my mom brought with us. Each time I started crying or became agitated, she would give me a piece of chocolate.

Azra, 1990, Gorazde, BiH

The exhibition is produced in partnership with the Cultural Center and the Homeland Museum from Gorazde, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports – Canton of Sarajevo. It is open for visitors from July 15th to August 15th at the Gorazde Cultural Center.

The War Childhood Museum opened its first permanent exhibition in Sarajevo in 2017. Since then, the museum has been actively collecting personal stories and memories from children whose childhood was marked by armed conflicts worldwide. In addition to Sarajevo, the War Childhood Museum exhibitions are currently open in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Seoul, South Korea.