The meeting highlighted the strong alignment between the missions of the Museum and the UN Office, with several avenues for future collaboration discussed. WCM has already contributed to the Office’s global Prove It Matters campaign.

“The War Childhood Museum’s global presence, particularly through its exhibitions in key locations around the world, directly supports and advances the mission and mandate of our Office. The Museum is an excellent tool for raising awareness about the consequences of armed conflict for children,” said Frazier.

“Cooperation with the United Nations remains a key priority for the War Childhood Museum. Our mission is closely aligned with that of the Office of the Special Representative, and we look forward to working together to deepen understanding of the consequences of war for children around the world,” said Halilović.

Both sides expressed interest in continuing their dialogue and exploring opportunities for joint initiatives.

Organized by the International Council of Museums’ International Committee on Ethical Dilemmas (ICOM ICEthics), in partnership with the War Childhood Museum, the conference brought together museum professionals, researchers, and heritage practitioners from around the world.

Exploring the Role of Museums in Post-Conflict Societies

The conference explored topics including intergenerational trauma and family memory, the conservation and interpretation of difficult heritage, community participation, digital archives, contested historical narratives, and the ethical responsibilities of museums in post-conflict societies.

The War Childhood Museum also presented its work through the paper “Breaking the Silence: Family Memory, Testimony, and Narrative Reconstruction at the War Childhood Museum,” co-authored by Maida Salkanović, the Museum’s Communications Manager, and Emina Zoletić, a PhD candidate at the University of Warsaw and recipient of the War Childhood Museum’s Lejla Hairlahović-Hušić Scholarship.

The presentation explored how the Museum’s approach to collecting personal objects and testimonies can encourage conversations about war within families, helping contributors revisit previously unspoken experiences and reconstruct family memories.

Reception Hosted by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland

On the evening of 27 October, the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Bosnia and Herzegovina hosted a reception for conference participants at Europe House in Sarajevo, providing an opportunity to continue discussions and strengthen international connections.

Addressing the participants, Marcin Czapliński, Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Bosnia and Herzegovina, emphasized the importance of remembrance and dialogue in building lasting peace.

“We have learned that lasting peace requires both remembrance and the willingness to engage with difficult chapters of the past,” he said.

Sarajevo as a Place for Dialogue on Peace and Memory

Dr. Lina G. Tahan, Chair of ICOM ICEthics said that she wanted to hold this conference in Sarajevo because of the city’s history and because the War Childhood Museum means a lot to her personally. 

“Having contributed my own story to the Museum, I feel particularly connected to its work and the message it carries: peace is fragile, and we should never take it for granted. With so many conflicts happening around the world today, Sarajevo felt like the right place to come together and talk about how we can build and rebuild peace. I think these conversations are especially important right now,” said Dr. Tahan.

They began their working day at the Museum’s office, where they met members of the program team and learnt more about the Museum’s work – from collecting objects and working with the archive to developing programmes and engaging with audiences.

One of their tasks was to suggest ways to make the Furaj mir platform more engaging for members of their generation.

Their ideas and observations offered additional insight into how young people communicate today, what matters to them, and how we can engage them in conversations about peace.

Discovering the Museum from a Different Perspective

After spending the morning at the office, they visited the War Childhood Museum’s exhibition and learnt about the work of museum guides. They spoke with our guides Kenan and Hanan about their daily responsibilities, working with visitors, and the experiences that come from meeting people of different generations and from different parts of the world.

For Tajra, the day offered much more than an introduction to the workplace.

‘My plan was just to miss a day of school and get out of a physics test, but I ended up learning something much more important – how to build peace,’ she reflected.

She explained that the experience had given her a sense of what it is like to work with people and a better understanding of the daily lives of Museum staff. She particularly enjoyed the atmosphere and would happily return.

Amila was also surprised by how much she enjoyed working at the Museum. She particularly valued the opportunity to talk to staff and share experiences.

‘We also spoke with people from different parts of the world who had come to visit the Museum. The day went by quickly, and I would definitely do it again.’

Learning Beyond the Classroom

Social Day gives secondary school students the opportunity to spend a day in the workplace, explore different professions and gain experience beyond the classroom. It also allows host organisations to hear how young people think, what interests them and how they see the world around them.

We are particularly pleased that our guests devoted part of their day to considering how to make peacebuilding more relevant to their generation. Their observations remind us how important it is to give young people space to play an active role in shaping our programmes.

Employers hosting secondary school students during Social Day contribute the students’ wages for the day to the Social Day Fund. The funds raised support young people in launching initiatives and addressing issues they identify in their communities.

What are your impressions after visiting the exhibition?

Something can be simple and yet extremely powerful. Simplicity is powerful. The exhibition is presented in a very straightforward way, and the objects themselves are everyday objects that each of us can relate to.

Yet they carry an extremely powerful message because they held symbolic meaning for these children during an incredibly difficult time in their lives. Through their simplicity, these objects tell powerful stories. That contrast between the simplicity of the objects and the strength of their message is what impacted me the most during this visit.

Was there anything that particularly surprised you during the visit?

Not one thing in particular. Through some of the objects, I could relate to memories of my own childhood. In my case, I was very fortunate to grow up in a country that had not experienced violent conflict in recent decades.

Seeing these objects brought back memories of my childhood, but it also made me reflect on how fortunate I was to have grown up under such different circumstances from the children who experienced the war here in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In your view, what is the importance of initiatives like the War Childhood Museum, both globally and locally?

We are talking about children. As the Swiss Ambassador, I represent a country that strongly supports the protection and defense of international law, particularly today. But this goes beyond international law. This is about children everywhere.

Throughout history, even during the Middle Ages, there has been an understanding that children and other vulnerable people should be protected during conflict. There has long been a recognition that children should not be targeted in war.

It is up to all of us to stand up for their protection, because we are talking about children everywhere.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.

Read more about our activities this month:

Educational Programs and Visits

Throughout September, we welcomed educational groups and visitors from different cities across Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as from France, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and the United States.

We were also pleased to welcome back a group from the Ukrainian NGO STAN, which returned to the Museum for another visit and a conversation with our Education Programme Coordinator and Lead Educator, Merima Ražanica.

International Research and Documentation

In September, War Childhood Museum Ukraine announced two new collaborations to strengthen its work documenting childhood experiences of the Russian-Ukrainian War: a partnership with the Ukraine War Archive and a new documentation initiative within the “People of the Future” project.

The Museum also completed its research and documentation project in Colombia, conducted in collaboration with researcher Louis Monroy Santander. Through the project, WCM collected personal stories and objects documenting childhood experiences shaped by Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict. In an interview marking the conclusion of the research, Monroy reflected on the stories he encountered and the lasting impact of conflict on people’s lives.

Monroy also presented the Museum’s documentation process at Javeriana University in Bogotá, sharing photographs and stories from the research with students, educators, and practitioners.

In the Netherlands, the Museum launched a new initiative to collect personal stories from people who experienced war as children and now live in the country. The initiative invites contributions from different generations and communities, including those affected by the Second World War and conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine. The collected stories will become part of the Museum’s international collection and contribute to a wider initiative to present WCM’s work through a major exhibition in The Hague.

To mark the International Day for Universal Access to Information, September 28, Andrii Borutia, researcher and public program coordinator at War Childhood Museum Ukraine, reflected on the state of Ukrainian archives and open data, highlighting their importance for preserving memory during wartime. Read his article (UKRAINIAN).

Exhibitions and International Projects

In September, the youth-created exhibition “Nekad se zakuha” (“Things Sometimes Boil Over”) was presented at the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the PitchWise Festival.

Developed by young people from Prnjavor through the “Furaj mir” (“Live Peace”) program, with the support and mentorship of the War Childhood Museum, the exhibition explores the experiences of displaced people and refugees who now live in Prnjavor. Through food and everyday experiences, it examines themes of survival, care, displacement, and rebuilding a sense of home. Following presentations in Prnjavor and Novi Pazar, the exhibition reached audiences in Sarajevo.

September also marked the conclusion of texTALES, a two-year project co-funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe Programme. The project brought together partners and participants from Italy, France, and Greece to explore how fashion, textile design, and storytelling can challenge stereotypes about migration and promote inclusion.

The collaboration resulted in Handle With Care, a travelling exhibition and fashion collection shaped by personal experiences of migration and belonging. Watch the final video documenting the creative journey of texTALES, from participants’ stories and collaborative workshops to exhibitions across Europe.

Peacebuilding and Education

To mark the International Day of Peace, September 21, the War Childhood Museum organized “The Body Speaks the Language of Support,” an Image Theater workshop with 15 ninth-grade students from Mula Mustafa Bašeskija Primary School in Sarajevo.

Through movement and creative expression, students explored empathy and solidarity with children affected by armed conflict. Together, they developed a short performance imagining a world without conflict and the steps needed to build it. Take a look at the workshop video.

Our Education Programme Coordinator and Lead Educator, Merima Ražanica, also participated in the panel “Classrooms for Peace – From Education Policy to Classroom Practice” at the forum “War is the Topic. Education is the Purpose.”, organized by BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina. The discussion focused on the role of education in fostering peace and translating peacebuilding principles into classroom practice.

The War Childhood Museum Ukraine team also participated in the “Vidsich” Book Forum in Zhytomyr on September 19. Svitlana Osipchuk, Program Director of WCM Ukraine, joined the panel “Dignity Begins in Childhood,”discussing the importance of preserving diverse childhood experiences of war and avoiding simplified narratives.

At the same event, Nataliia Ponezha, co-author of the Museum’s educational materials How to Talk to Children About Memory: Using the Object-Based Learning Method, led a practical seminar introducing participants to object-based learning and its application in classrooms and community work.

Institutional Cooperation and Public Engagement

In September, the War Childhood Museum hosted a reception with members of its Global Advisory Board and the American Chamber of Commerce in Bosnia and Herzegovina (AmCham BiH). The event brought together business leaders and representatives of the diplomatic community, providing an opportunity to strengthen relationships and exchange ideas about supporting the Museum’s work. Take a look at the atmosphere from the reception.

Our Exhibitions Manager, Ivana Roso, participated in the sixth Sarajevo Creative Meet, held under the theme “City as a Stage.” As part of the panel “Cultural Institutions as Creative Infrastructure,” she discussed the role of museums and cultural institutions in supporting contemporary artistic practices, education, community engagement, and the development of Sarajevo’s creative ecosystem.

Members of the War Childhood Museum team also joined Race for the Cure, showing solidarity with people affected by breast cancer and their families.

Media Mentions

The War Childhood Museum continued to receive attention in international and regional media throughout September. Below is a selection of coverage from the past month:

• Growing Up in War: Memory Becomes Peacebuilding – IJAB (ENGLISH)
• The Weight of Remembrance: Museums’ Considerations in Portraying the Past – Balkan Diskurs (ENGLISH)
• War Childhood Museum – Deutsche Welle / DW Travel (VIDEO)

By joining the Global WPS–HA Compact, the War Childhood Museum became part of a network of organizations and institutions working to strengthen the role of women and girls in peacebuilding and security. The Museum joined the initiative following Bosnia and Herzegovina’s accession in December 2025, when it became the first country in the Western Balkans to do so.

During the event, the Museum presented its work and contribution to documenting the experiences of children affected by war, with particular emphasis on the importance of including girls and young women in discussions about peace and security.

By joining the Compact, the Museum committed to integrating its objectives into its existing research, exhibition, and educational activities. This includes strengthening the documentation and presentation of the experiences of women and girls affected by war, creating space for discussions about the gender-specific dimensions of wartime experiences and peacebuilding, and providing opportunities for girls and young women to actively contribute their perspectives to conversations about peace and security.

Through its programs and international partnerships, the Museum will continue working to ensure that the voices of those who grew up during war are heard and valued, including those of girls and young women whose perspectives are essential to understanding the consequences of conflict and building sustainable peace.

More information about the Global WPS–HA Compact is available at wpshacompact.org.

For children growing up during war and conflict, memories of school are often intertwined with uncertainty and disruption. Yet within these memories are also teachers who offered encouragement, created moments of normalcy, shared knowledge under extraordinary circumstances, or simply remained present when so much else was changing.

Across the War Childhood Museum’s collection are stories in which teachers appear in different ways — sometimes at the center of a memory, sometimes in a seemingly small moment that stayed with a child for years.

On World Teachers’ Day, we share some of these stories and remember the teachers who became part of childhoods shaped by war.

A Send-off

The classes in the “Skender Kulenović” primary school, where I attended second grade, were held in poor conditions. They took place in an apartment building, which our teacher Elvedina Fazlić, with great effort, had turned into the most beautiful classroom we could imagine.  

This photograph was taken in 1995, in front of the entryway to the building where the classes were held. My teacher and my friends from class gave me this photo, along with a letter, as a parting gift when I left for a different school in another part of the city.

Azra, born 1987

Bosnia and Herzegovina

My First, Red Report Card

The war’s beginning “forced” me to hurry up and finish the first grade. As a real geek, of course, I had all A’s and positive reviews from the teachers’ council written into my beautiful red report card. Vacation had ended, but the war was still raging. I started second grade in a makeshift classroom in a former billiard club. Improvised schools, classrooms—and report cards. At the end of the year, I begged my teachers to write my grades into my beautiful red report card— but they would not do it! We got small, sad looking, paper report cards that looked like pages that had been pulled out of our usual report cards! And that continued into third, fourth, and fifth grades. Although the school had its “official” paper report card, I continued to scribble my grades into my red report card so that they would all be in one place. I kept doing this until fourth grade. I lost my second-grade report card in the intermittent years. Now, this red one is my only reminder of the one subject in my eight years of schooling that I did not finish with an A. It was in second grade, in a makeshift classroom, and the teacher was testing my times tables: “How much is 9×9?” “89,” I said. Then I corrected my answer to “87,” and finally to “81.” It was already too late—“Sit, B!”

Merima, born 1984

Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Miraculous Medal

In sixth grade, my history teacher told us the story of the Virgin Mary’s apparition to Sister Catherine Labouré in Paris. The Virgin gave Catherine clear instructions on how to mint the medal and told her that whoever wore it around their neck would be protected. At that time, my home city, Beirut, was gripped by civil war. 

Believing in the medal’s protective power, I went home and asked my mom for one. She eventually found this silver version and gifted it to me. I have worn it ever since. It has been with me through countless escapes to the shelter, days of missed school, and the loss of many typical teenage experiences.  

Over the years, I have gifted many more Miraculous Medals to my friends and family, but this first medal stayed with me as a symbol of faith, hope, and resilience. Now, it finds a new home at the War Childhood Museum.

Lina, born 1976

Lebanon

Certificate of Appreciation

When the shelling was heavy, our neighbour took us to his house. We stayed there for two days. Then, we joined my grandfather in a camp in Lebanon. Now, we live in a tent.

This is the first Certificate of Appreciation that I have ever received. I got it after midterms because I had good grades. It’s such an important thing to me. My little brother ripped it. When I told my teacher about what happened, she gave me a new certificate. I like the teachers in my school because they are nice, and the school is very colourful.

Whenever I needed to feel proud or to encourage myself to do something difficult, I would just take the certificate out of my drawer and look at it. It gave me strength.

Maha, born 2004

Syria

The Youngest Student

Even during wartime, we attended school. One day, a shell fell near our classroom. The shrapnel shattered the windows but the glass fragments were stopped by the curtains. The blackboard was pierced by shrapnel. We, the children, ducked for cover and waited, motionless. When the dust settled, the teacher said simply: “It’s over, we are moving on!” Then she picked up the chalk, wiped the shrapnel-ridden blackboard, and continued with the lesson. 

Besides school, we participated in extracurricular activities. That is how I, at 12 years of age, became the youngest student of the Sarajevan Foreign Language Center at Obala. It was the city’s oldest foreign language center, and had continued operating even during the war. Thanks to that course, and my great affinity for languages, I now work as a freelance English language translator.

Naida, born 1981

Bosnia and Herzegovina

As part of its international research and documentation work, the War Childhood Museum collaborated with researcher Louis Monroy Santander to collect objects and personal stories from people whose childhoods were affected by the conflict. Through these objects and testimonies, individual experiences become part of WCM’s growing international collection documenting what it means to grow up during war.

We spoke with Louis about the stories he encountered during his fieldwork, the objects people chose to preserve, and what documenting childhood experiences can tell us about both war and its lasting impact.

During your fieldwork for the War Childhood Museum, what has stayed with you most from the stories people shared about their childhoods?

What has stayed with me most is how the effects of war often continue long after childhood itself. Many of the people we spoke with experienced violence or displacement when they were young, but these experiences continued to shape their lives in different ways as they grew older.

The stories are very different from one another, but many speak about having to adapt repeatedly – to displacement, insecurity, discrimination or the loss of people and places that were important to them.

At the same time, these are not only stories about what happened to people. Some of the participants later became human rights defenders, community leaders or peace activists. Documenting their childhood experiences therefore also means documenting what they carried with them into adulthood and what they chose to do with those experiences.

The War Childhood Museum documents personal experiences through objects and the stories connected to them. What did this approach reveal during your work in Colombia?

Objects can bring us very close to someone’s personal experience. Large historical events can sometimes feel abstract, but an object allows us to see what those events meant in one person’s everyday life.

The stories we collected come from very different parts of Colombia – cities, small towns and rural communities – and from people whose childhood experiences were very different. Their objects and stories reflect displacement, separation from family, insecurity and other consequences of the conflict, but also memories of home, family relationships and the ways people adapted to difficult circumstances.

Looking at the conflict through childhood experiences also brings attention to things that can disappear from broader historical accounts: what a child remembers, what they were afraid of, what they valued, what they carried with them and what they decided to keep many years later.

Was there anything about working with personal objects that changed the way you understood the stories you were documenting?

Working with objects makes the process very personal. An object may look ordinary to someone else, but for the person who kept it, it can hold an entire story.

During the documentation process, we were not only asking people what happened to them. We were also asking why a particular object mattered, what memories it carried and why they had kept it for so many years.

That creates a different way of talking about war. Instead of beginning with armed groups, political events or statistics, we begin with someone’s lived experience. The object becomes a way into that memory.

What does it mean to you for these stories from Colombia to become part of the War Childhood Museum’s international collection?

It means placing individual experiences from Colombia alongside childhood experiences of war from other parts of the world. The conflicts may be very different, but some experiences of growing up during war can speak to one another across countries and generations.

For me, this has also been a professional and emotional process. Listening to these stories and documenting the objects connected to them has made me think deeply about how violence affects people not only while a conflict is happening, but throughout their lives.

Preserving these experiences is important because they add something that statistics and historical accounts cannot provide on their own. They allow people to encounter war through the memories of individuals who experienced it as children.

By bringing these stories into the War Childhood Museum’s collection, they become part of a broader record of childhood during war – one that preserves differences between conflicts while also creating space to recognize experiences that people across different parts of the world may share.

Together, these initiatives strengthen different aspects of the Museum’s work—from ensuring the long-term preservation of already documented testimonies to recording the experiences of children and teenagers whose families have been affected by captivity.

War Childhood Museum Ukraine Joins the Ukraine War Archive

The War Childhood Museum Ukraine has partnered with the Ukraine War Archive, Ukraine’s largest digital platform preserving evidence, testimonies, and other materials related to the Russian-Ukrainian War.

As part of the collaboration, the Museum is sharing testimonies previously featured in its exhibition projects with the Archive. These include stories from children and teenagers about living through Russian aggression, forced displacement, and experiences in temporarily occupied and frontline territories.

“We are glad to cooperate with the Ukraine War Archive because they are a prime example of an institution focused specifically on preserving collected materials. The Ukraine War Archive also offers a ready-to-use set of preservation tools, so we are pleased to apply them and transfer the previously published materials of the War Childhood Museum,” says Svitlana Osipchuk, Program Director of the War Childhood Museum Ukraine.

The Ukraine War Archive operates as a closed platform accessible to verified users, including law enforcement agencies, international organizations, journalists, documentary filmmakers, researchers, artists, and other professionals working with war-related materials. It preserves photographs, videos, audio recordings, written testimonies, interviews, and open-source content, with different access levels available for sensitive materials.

“We are thrilled about this collaboration and welcoming the War Childhood Museum Ukraine into our partner community. The recorded testimonies of the Museum are particularly valuable for documenting and preserving children’s experiences during the Russo-Ukrainian War. Now, these testimonies will become part of the Ukraine War Archive’s collections, which will not only help safely preserve the material but also allow verified users to work with the testimonies for various purposes—primarily aimed at achieving justice and preserving the memory of living through this war,” says Iryna Pavliukovska, Head of Partnerships at the Ukraine War Archive.

For the Museum, the collaboration provides an additional way to ensure the long-term preservation of collected testimonies while making selected materials available for professional research and other forms of engagement. These personal accounts can contribute to a broader understanding of how war transforms children’s lives and how their experiences become part of the history of the Russian-Ukrainian War.

Documenting the Experiences of Families Affected by Captivity

At the same time, the War Childhood Museum Ukraine is continuing to expand its documentation work. In collaboration with “People of the Future,” the Museum has launched an initiative to record the testimonies of children whose loved ones have returned from captivity.

“People of the Future” is a project of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, created for children and younger siblings of prisoners of war, fallen defenders, civilians unlawfully deprived of liberty, and people missing as a result of Russian armed aggression. The project brings together government institutions, businesses, humanitarian organizations, civil society groups, and benefactors to support Ukrainian children affected by the war.

“When we watch news reports about defenders returning from captivity, it is always a deeply joyful yet poignant moment. It brings immense joy to the families who have waited for their loved ones to come home. But the story does not end there. Years of waiting, uncertainty, and the impossibility of learning even the slightest detail about a loved one’s fate leave a profound mark on the entire family—on everyone who waited,” says Svitlana Osipchuk.

Through the initiative, the Museum seeks to better understand and document how waiting, uncertainty, separation, and the return of loved ones from captivity affect children and teenagers.

By both preserving previously collected testimonies and continuing to document experiences that have received less public attention, the War Childhood Museum Ukraine is working to ensure that children’s perspectives form part of the record of the war and remain accessible for future research, education, and remembrance.

Read more about our activities this month:

Educational Programs and Visits

Throughout August, we welcomed educational groups and visitors from different cities across Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as from Italy, countries across the Western Balkans, Greece, the United States, and Ukraine.

The Museum also welcomed Volodymyr Bachynsky, Ambassador of Ukraine to Bosnia and Herzegovina, who met with WCM founder and Director General Jasminko Halilović. During the visit, they discussed the Museum’s work in Ukraine, where WCM has been active since 2018 and has built a collection of more than 1,000 testimonies from children and young people documenting their experiences before and after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Research and Documentation

In August, we shared more about the War Childhood Museum’s ongoing research and documentation work in Colombia, launched earlier this summer as part of our efforts to document and preserve experiences of childhood shaped by armed conflict around the world.

The research is being conducted by Louis Monroy, WCM Research Collaborator, a university lecturer in Colombia whose work focuses on international relations, peacebuilding, and transitional justice.

Through the project, WCM is collecting personal stories and objects that shed light on childhood experiences from 1948 to the present day, spanning different periods of Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict. The project expands the Museum’s international collection and contributes to preserving diverse experiences of war-affected childhood across different historical and geographical contexts.

Peacebuilding and Education

In August, we looked back at “Creativity for Peace,” a two-year program through which teachers and students across Bosnia and Herzegovina used creative approaches to promote peace in their schools and communities. We shared moments from the program’s closing event and reflected on the experiences and connections built along the way.

We also spoke with Vernesa Manov, a teacher from Donji Vakuf who, together with her students, expanded the program activities—from creating a school museum to organizing humanitarian initiatives in their community.

International Projects

In August, the two-year texTALES project, co-funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe Programme, came to a close. Bringing together partners and participants in Italy, France, and Greece, the project explored how fashion, textile design, and participatory storytelling can challenge stereotypes about migration and create space for dialogue and inclusion.

The collaboration culminated in Handle With Care, a travelling exhibition and fashion collection shaped by participants’ personal experiences of migration, belonging, displacement, and home. Take a look at the final video retracing the two-year journey of texTALES, from storytelling and creative work in social tailoring workshops to the collaborative process and exhibitions across Europe.

Stories From Our Collection

In August, we launched Monthly Story Spotlight, a new series highlighting one object and the personal story behind it from the War Childhood Museum collection each month.

For the first edition of the series, we shared Lilian’s story from Gaza. Before leaving her home, she visited the sea one last time with her friends and collected seashells—a small object preserving the memory of a place and a moment before displacement.

The series will continue to introduce audiences to individual stories from the Museum’s collection, which includes more than 7,000 stories and objects documenting childhood experiences from 22 armed conflicts around the world.

Marking Important Dates

On World Humanitarian Day, August 19, we highlighted stories from the War Childhood Museum collection that illustrate the role humanitarian assistance can play during war and the ways children experience and remember receiving it.

We also marked 34 years since the burning of Sarajevo City Hall, which was set ablaze on the night of August 25–26, 1992, when it housed the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Around two million books and other library materials were lost in the fire.

Among the objects preserved in the War Childhood Museum’s collection is a book that survived that night, rescued from the burning library by our contributor Alma. We revisited Alma’s story and the story of the book she saved, which decades later became part of the Museum’s collection.

Media Mentions

The War Childhood Museum continued to receive attention in international media throughout August. Below is a selection of coverage from the past month:

• Sarajevo, the Museum Preserving Children’s War Memories – Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa
• War Childhood Museum – Deutsche Welle / DW Travel (VIDEO)
• Not Remaining Silent Without Causing Trauma: How to Talk to Schoolchildren About War and Memory (UKRAINIAN)