Teacher Material – Page 6 – Learning history that is not yet history

Teacher TV: How to teach history in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Teachers TV production company from Great Britain recorded a documentary film on the teaching of history in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2007. As a result of the 1992-1995 war, education in Bosnia and Herzegovina is divided according to the national principle.
Access to the study of history for the three main national groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina is different. The same events from a common history are interpreted differently, depending on national ideology.
In some parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, even schools are physically divided into two parts, so that students of Croatian and Bosniak nationality have no chance to meet.
The film depicts classes of teaching history in three schools, according to Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian curriculum, as well as the interviewed teachers and students.

Availability: online

Language: Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, English

Crimes in front of the eyes of the tribunal: Central Bosnia

“Crimes in front of the eyes of the tribunal: Central Bosnia” deals with some of the gravest crimes committed against civilians during the Croatian-Muslim conflict in central Bosnia from the beginning of 1993 to the beginning of 1994. Investigation of the alleged crimes committed by both sides in the conflict, began while the conflict was ongoing, and led to the raising of some of the first indictments of the International Tribunal. The film depicts the original footage from 1993 that shows the mass sufferings and crimes committed in Stupni Dol and Ahmici by Croatian forces against the Muslim population. The film also shows the crimes of Muslim forces against the Croatian civilian population in Bikos and Uzdol, as well as Serb soldiers in the camps of Kamenica and Livade. The film also deals with the issue of the participation of mujahedin in committed crimes.
The film depicts footage made by the UN when entering the destroyed villages, which was later used as evidence.
Interviews of investigators and the process of gathering evidence, testimonies in court and convictions for war crimes before the tribunal.

The film is part of a series of documentaries prepared by the ICTY.

Availability: https://www.sense-agency.com/naslovna/naslovna.1.html

Language: English (with local subtitles)

What we (do not) teach children

The material represents an analysis of the content of the textbooks of the national group of subjects in elementary schools – geography, history, mother tongue and religion.
The content that relates to the analysis of history textbooks is at 153-218.
Textbooks in BiH continue to play a central role in the teaching process. They represent a body of knowledge that students need to adopt. BiH is undergoing education reform. The process of nine-year elementary education was introduced throughout the country and new generations of textbooks were issued.

The research that has been carried out determines to what extent these new textbooks for the teaching of history are in line with contemporary principles, such as interculturality, universal values and human rights, integrated learning and the teaching and development of critical thinking. 20 textbooks were analyzed, containing 665 lessons.

Availability: Andrea Soldo et al., Education in BiH:
What we (do not) teach children. Analysis of the contents of the textbooks of the national group of subjects in elementary schools. Fund for Open Society BiH, 2017, Sarajevo.

Language: Bosnian

Fama Collection

The siege of Sarajevo is told through the experience of ordinary people – citizens of Sarajevo. Most of the recorded video testimonies were created during or immediately after the siege of Sarajevo. Video interviews were done with about 450 citizens of Sarajevo – politicians, doctors, children, generals, artists, journalists, educators, housewives, actors, innovators, ordinary citizens. Their personal testimonies were chronologically recorded, from March 1992 to March 1996. The material containing survey about survival `92-`96 is the first and only research conducted on the survival experience of ordinary citizens of Sarajevo during the siege. Questionnaires (31 standard questions) provide a unique insight into life and survival under siege according to the experience of 4,637 individuals from all urban neighborhoods and provide the possibility for a comparison.

Availability: http://www.famacollection.org/

Language: Bosnian, English

Balkan research network in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Balkan Research Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIRN BiH) is a non-governmental media organization based in Sarajevo, specializing in monitoring and reporting from war crimes trials.

The website brings information and reports from trials, recordings and transcripts of the trials, as well as texts of the indictments and judgments.

There are also two films available on the website, “I Miss You …” a documentary about the suffering and reality faced by people who lost family members during the peacetime and war period, and the “Silent Shout” about traumas that are still, twenty years after the end of the war in Bosnia, felt by the victims of sexual abuse.

Availability: http://detektor.ba/

Language: Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, English

Heroes in white

Documentary was produced by the Association for the Protection of Historical Values of BiH “Haber” from Sarajevo led by producers Omer Edo Hadrović and Nedžad Ajnadžić. The authors of the film are Esma Velagić and Sanela Kapetanović.

The film is about doctors in war-time Sarajevo and their sacrifice in almost impossible conditions.

Availability: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEAJ1rJgLAk

Language: Bosnian

Sarajevo’s most famous public secret: Confronting Caca, Kazani and crimes committed against Serbs in besieged Sarajevo, from war time until 2015.

The key issue the author asks is “to which extent are social groups and societies generally willing, not only to point out the crimes of others and to remember their victims, but also to face the crimes committed by their own party, and to remember the victims of those crimes?

The focus of the study is the question of public attitude towards crimes committed against Serbs in Sarajevo during the 1992-1995 war committed by the units of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This topic in public is related to two terms – Musan Topalovic Caco (Commander in the Army of BiH) and Kazani. How Caco and Kazani became symbols of crimes committed against Serbs in Sarajevo and how public discussion and public discussion of these issues developed during the war, but also during the two decades after the war?

Nicholas Mol, Case Study, Publisher: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, part of the publication Between Memory, Denial and Forgetfulness. Three case studies on the culture of remembrance in BiH 20 years after the war, 2015

Availability: http://fes.ba/files/fes/pdf/publikationen/2015/MOLL_1_12_2016.pdf

Language: Bosnian

The Bosnia list

“The Bosnia list” is a book written by Kenan Trebincevic together with journalist Suzan Sapiro, who helped organize his writings describing the beginning of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was created thanks to the desire of his 72-year-old father to visit Bosnia and Herzegovina twenty years later, and before his death.

Availability: The Bosnia List: A Memoir of War, Exile, and Return by Kenan Trebincevic

Language: English

Robert Donia, “From the Assembly of the Republic of Srpska 1991-1996”, excerpts from the presentation of the Republika Srpska MPs as evidence at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, University Press, Sarajevo-Tuzla 2012.

The book by American historian Robert Donia brings transcripts of parliamentary speeches, as well as the statements of the top executives of the Republika Srpska. This material was mostly used as evidence at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where Donia, as an expert, repeatedly carried out expertise and testimony.

Availability: www.helsinki.org.rs/serbian/doc/Donia%20StSi-BCSDT.doc

Language: Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian

Crime and punishment / Srebrenica

A documentary directed by Maria Fuglevag Varsinski from 1998. The film, about 75 minutes long, shows personal testimonies of survivors of Srebrenica genocide. In addition to the testimonies of the survivors, the film shows numerous archival recordings from 1995 of the places of suffering of the Srebrenica citizens.

Language: Bosnian, Montenegrin, Serbian, Croatian, English

Availability: online