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Witness History: Sarajevo’s haven of peace

Documentaries

Sarajevo’s haven of peace

09/08/2023 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, Sarajevo’s haven of peace

The Jewish charity that helped people in the Bosnian war during the siege of Sarajevo

How Bosnia’s small Jewish community helped people from all sides of the conflict, during the siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s.

After the collapse of former Yugoslavia, Bosnian Serb forces laid siege to the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, in 1992. More than a quarter of a million people lived under almost constant bombardment and sniper fire for more than four years. Over 10,000 were killed. 

Hunger and destitution took hold quickly. So, a small Jewish charity stepped in to provide essential food and medicine and evacuate elderly people and children from all sides of the conflict. In peace time, Sarajevo’s Jewish community had maintained good relations with Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats. This enabled them to provide a haven of peace for everyone. 

In this episode, Jacky Rowland hears from Jakob Finci, who was the vice president of the Jewish community at the time. Part of their motivation, he says, was that many Jews in Sarajevo had been sheltered by Bosnian Muslims during the Nazi occupation in the 1940s. 

This is a CTVC production for the BBC World Service.

(Photo: members of the Jewish community being evacuated by bus to Croatia in 1993. Credit: Getty Images)

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