AHS-2016-09-13

Interviewer

Josh Krakos & John Iffland

Date of Interview

Fall 9-13-2016

Interview Location

St. Louis, MO

Length of Interview

1900-01-01

Date of Birth

1986

Gender

Male

Religion and/or Ethnicity

Muslim

Description

Born in Tuzla to a family of Bosnian Muslim from the town of Dubrave in the Tuzla Canton, Remembers memories from before the war traveling around the former Yugoslavia buying chocolates and always eating them on their return journey to Tuzla, Lived with father and grandparents as mother passed away while he was still young, Father was employed in a mine in a office role, Remembers playing with children as his father played chess with their father, Remembers that things changed while watching Batman on TV at home and the movie being cut out due to something happening, Family began to act strangely but was too young to figure out what was happening, While living in an apartment building in Tuzla family and himself began to live and hide in the 1st floor hallway, Could no longer go outside to play and was escorted to school and while at school the windows were boarded up, Remembers a talk about gas attacks and in his mind saw it as a gas attack from Batman, Would have nightmare about these gas attacks and wake up in a sweat, Remembers the adults speaking about "pigs" and himself and the other children laughing but later found out that this was another word for a type of bomb, Remembers food becoming scare and not having enough, No sugar or oil and only things such as a few vegetables or meat from animals cousins had in a rural area outside Tuzla, Remembers the refugees from Srebrenica coming to Dubrave after the genocide and adults speaking about the event, Stayed in the country of Bosnia for the whole war and after the war until 2014, Moved to St. Louis to be an Imam for the Bosnian Islamic Center "Nur", Bosnia still struggling with many political and economic issues, What happened in Bosnia did not need to happen, It was all politics and sometimes politicians want people to hate each other, Believes that counites that have influence in the world should make efforts to prevent conflicts and genocide in the world, Wants future generations to take action if they see something horrible happening and they have the power to stop it

Keywords

Dubrave, Živinice, Tuzla, Politics, Srebrenica

Pre-War Residence

Dubrave, Živinice

Wartime Residence

Tuzla

First Country of Residence

United States

First US Residence

St. Louis, MO

Document Type

Oral History

Collection

Affton High School

Digital Format

MP3

Digital Publisher

Center for Bosnian Studies

City

St. Louis, MO

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In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted.