Books are important in every child’s upbringing, especially during the war. Children can find comfort, hope, strength, and a deeper understanding of the world through books. Our story also began with a book.
What was the war childhood for you? — Question that opened up hundreds of worlds
Fourteen years ago, the founder and Director-General of the War Childhood Museum, Jasminko Halilovic, who himself was a child during the siege of Sarajevo, asked his peers on an online platform: “What was the war childhood for you?” Numerous responses followed. Over 1000 individuals, mostly from Sarajevo, but also from different parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina briefly described their experiences of growing up during the war. This seemingly simple question opened up hundreds of worlds. Jasminko Halilović decided to compile these short testimonies and publish them in the book “War Childhood” in 2013. But the stories kept coming, as did various objects that marked many wartime childhoods. The book “War Childhood” has been translated into English, German, French, Polish, Italian, and Japanese, making it accessible to millions of people worldwide.
The War Childhood Museum was founded in 2017 to open a space for people whose childhood was marked by the Bosnian war to share their experiences in their own words. Over the past seven years, the Museum has opened offices in Ukraine, the Netherlands, and the USA. Nowadays, it holds nearly 6000 testimonies and items from children from over 20 past and current global conflicts. And it all started with a book!
On World Book Day, which has been celebrated worldwide since 1995, we bring you several stories from our collection about how important books were to children during the war.
Hedgehog’s Home
There are still some people in this world who haven’t read ‘Hedgehog’s Home.’ If you find yourself in a city under siege, and you are old enough to read at least most letters of the alphabet, I would recommend this book as a good starting point. It’s true that in order to read a book you need a candle, or another, better source of light. It’s important to be safe, for example, in the lobby of a building. There is no doubt that there will be words that you won’t understand, which is why it’s always good to have a sister around. She knows better. You will probably find some pages missing from the book, because pages always end up missing in books that end up in many hands. And in times of war, books pass from one set of hands to the next much faster than if there was no war. I don’t know why. Maybe because people don’t like to waste candles during the war.
Nadim, b. 1982
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Endemic Plants and Latin Grammar
It was a winter morning. I was alone in my bedroom, lying on the couch.
After the air-raid siren sounded, I heard my window glass shatter. I got very scared. When my mom entered the room, I turned and saw that the piece of shrapnel that tore through the window had lodged itself into the bookcase, between the titles “Endemic Plants” and “Latin Grammar.”
Edin, b. 1974
Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Book from Vijećnica
My friend and I stopped by the Vijećnica (City Hall) a few days after it had burned down in hopes of finding something and saving it on our way to school.
I know that she found a couple of pages, while I found this book. We both ended up covered in soot and ashes. 🙂
That was the first year of the war. I had no way of knowing then how long it would last and what would happen next, but the act of saving that book seemed to make sense. I don’t know why, but at that moment I felt that I was doing something very important.
Alma, b. 1978
Bosnia and Herzegovina
There Was Only a Book
I woke up on the 24th at 7:30, saying to my mom, “Let’s get ready for school, we are going to be late. Class starts already at 8.” She said, “There will be no more school. There’s a war.” The shooting started, and I heard a machine gun. It frightened me. I would lay in bed, not knowing what to do. Later, we went to my grandfather’s basement. There was a TV, a kettle, a sofa – it was a cool basement. Our cat Glasha was with us in the basement.
In the spring we moved to western Ukraine. My father’s sister lives there. We read this book on the sleeper train on the way there. They had given these out to us at school not long before this. Such an awesome book! While we were on the way, I read it from start to finish – it’s 95 pages. At home, I read it a couple more times – I didn’t want to lose any battery life. There was no internet anyway, so there was only this book.
Nastya, b. 2011
Ukraine
Grandfather’s Memento
This copy of the Quran has a long family tradition. It used to belong to my grandfather before he had to forcefully leave his home and his village. It is one of the only things that he managed to save when soldiers broke into his house to kick him out.
My grandfather died and the copy was left with the family. It reminds us of our land. I often feel scared that something bad will happen to me but my family, particularly mum and dad, help me feel safe.
Salwa, b. 2006
Palestine
