Sarajevo Roses

Sarajevo

In the summer of 2010 I was awarded a Fund For Teachers grant that gave me $5,000 to travel and study a topic of my choice. Being a history teacher, I have an interest in global conflicts. I decided to travel to some of the former republics of Yugoslavia (Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia and Slovenia). During the 1990's the region was in the midst of a violent civil war. I wanted to travel to the region and see how it has recovered. One of the hardest hit areas was the city of Sarajevo in Bosnia. Sarajevo was known as the melting pot of the region prior to the war. It was a place where Croatian Catholics, Serbian Orthodox and Bosnian Muslims lived in peace together.

A Sarajevo Rose

The scars of the war in Sarajevo are still visible. Throughout the city you will find splashes of red paint in the middle of roads or sidewalks. They are called Sarajevo roses. During the war mortar shells would crash into the ground and create these dents. People began to fill in the dents with red paint as a reminder of those who lost their lives. As the city rebuilds and replaces roads and sidewalks, the roses are disappearing but you can still find them throughout the city.  There are other reminders of war including burnt out buildings, bullet holes and memorials all around the city that remind us of all of the lives that were lost.

Tunnel Museum

The purpose of the Fund for Teachers grants is to help teacher learn new things and be able to bring those back to his or her classroom. My plan was to use what I learned to create a unit on conflict. I spent a lot of my time talking with people about the war days and the recovery. Every person I spoke with recommended that I visit the Tunnel Museum just outside of the city near the airport. During the war the Serbian forces had blocked supplies from getting into the city and it became very difficult for people to get the basic necessities of life. A secret tunnel was dug to help smuggle supplies into the city. A portion of that tunnel is still intact and has become a small museum. A trip there includes information about the digging of the tunnel, the supplies that would come through it and the influence of the tunnel on the lives of people in Sarajevo. It is an emotional experience to walk through that tunnel. I left with an enormous amount of respect for those who sacrificed so much to help their neighbors.

Sarajevo Film Festival Poster 

I left Sarajevo with a better understanding of the impact of the war on the people. There were plenty of moments that left me in tears but as I left the city on the train I couldn't help but be in awe of their ability to deal with horrific acts that seem unrecoverable. The surprise for me was that Sarajevo is still a vibrant city with an abundance of art and culture to experience. Unfortunately, I did not have a lot of time to explore much beyond my focus on the war and the recovery.  I would love to go back there someday and just enjoy Sarajevo for what it is today, a small European city on the verge of being something great, again.