Good People in an Evil Time: Portraits of Complicity and Resistance in the Bosnian War

Good People in an Evil Time: Portraits of Complicity and Resistance in the Bosnian War

by Svetlana Broz
Good People in an Evil Time: Portraits of Complicity and Resistance in the Bosnian War

Good People in an Evil Time: Portraits of Complicity and Resistance in the Bosnian War

by Svetlana Broz

Paperback(2nd ed.)

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Overview

In the 1990s Svetlana Broz, granddaughter of former Yugoslav head of state Marshal Tito, volunteered her services as a physician in war-torn Bosnia. She discovered that her patients were not only in need of medical care, but that they urgently had a story to tell, a story suppressed by nationalist politicians and the mainstream media. What Broz heard compelled her to devote herself over the next several years to the collection of firsthand testimonies from the war. These testimonies show that ordinary people can and do resist the murderous ideology of genocide even under the most terrible historical circumstances. We are introduced to Mile Plakalovic, a magnificent humanist, who drove his taxi through the streets of Sarajevo, picking the wounded up off the sidewalk and delivering food and clothing to young and old, even when the bombing was at its worst. We meet Velimir Milosevic, poet, who traveled with an actor and entertained children as they hid in basements to avoid the bombing and gunfire, and we hear the stories of countless others who put themselves in grave danger to help others, regardless of ethnic background.

Faced with a world in which unspeakable crimes not only went unpunished but were rewarded with glory, profit, and power, the Bosnians of all faiths who testify in this book were starkly confronted with the limits and possibilities of their own ethical choices. Here, in their own words they describe how people helped one another across ethnic lines and refused the myths promoted by the engineers of genocide. This book refutes the stereotype of inevitable natural enmities in the Balkans and reveals the responsibility of individual actions and political manipulations for the genocide; it is a searing portrait of the experience of war as well as a provocative study of the possibilities of resistance and solidarity. The testimonies reverberate far beyond the frontiers of the former Yugoslavia. This compelling book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the reality on the ground of the ethnic conflicts of the late twentieth and the twenty-first centuries.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781590511961
Publisher: Other Press, LLC
Publication date: 01/17/2005
Edition description: 2nd ed.
Pages: 584
Sales rank: 872,057
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.15(d)

About the Author

Dr. Svetlana Broz

Dr. Svetlana Broz, cardiologist, is currently Director of the NGO Garden of the Righteous in Sarajevo, the President of the Board of The First Children's Embassy in the World and a member of various NGOs, including the Association of Independent Intellectuals CIRCLE 99. She lives in Sarajevo.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgmentsxiii
Introduction: Why Read This Book?xv
Chronology of the Conflictxlv
Prefacelix
Translator's Notelxiii
Pronunciation Keylxv
The Testimonies
Can You Count on Your Neighbors?3
Friends and Strangers11
Captain Mica16
If Your Own Won't Take You, I Will23
Out of the Hell of Mostar35
A Longing to Paint38
Death in Another Man's Grave41
Neighbor, Come Back!44
A Clean Street46
Little Moscow49
A Hospitable Home59
Big Shepherds with a Lot of Sheep63
Uncle Marko78
Sarajevo Together85
A Sarajevo Mosaic93
Whatever Happens to You Will Happen to Me97
Safe in a Muslim's Apartment101
These Are the Balkans104
The First Packages111
We Staged Our Own Kidnapping114
An Old Hand at the Underground119
Set Your Mind at Ease123
A Balkan Spy129
Save the Child136
Shelter in a Shop138
The Fragrance of Lilies140
Sane Children144
As Long as I'm Here, Don't Worry148
Divide Everything in This Package in Halves153
These Are Just Kids156
A Flash of Light That Is Shining Still161
One Good Turn Deserves Another166
Rape in Grbavica176
Take with You the People Who Are Yours180
Tears in the Eyes of a Giant188
Tuzla, Above the Hatred191
Please, Mama, Don't Let Them Take Me194
Brandy for a Grandson's Wedding206
A Gift from Good People209
Forgive My People for What They Do212
Farewell to Mother219
It Took Courage to Go Home223
You Reap What You Sow229
A Humanitarian Aid Wedding236
Banja Luka, A Tormented Town239
The Wallet243
Tricked into Surrendering246
Who Is After Us and Where Are They Taking Us?249
Coffee, Behind Bars255
A Soldier Wept261
Trust Earned268
A Passport274
Through a Mine Field to My Love282
A Cup of Coffee at Mustafa's286
And Seven Days Later291
A Life with Dignity300
There Would Never Have Been a War304
Hang Me, Let Him Go310
Enjoy Your Trip, Ma'am!312
Your Typical Jewish Name314
Those Barbarians Took a Part of Us321
Help for a Wounded "Chetnik"332
You're No Better Off than Me334
I'll Do It336
Like a Sister to Me342
If Everyone Else Can Wait, So Can I344
Three Potatoes351
We Won't Fight Without Him354
The Ninth Brother357
I'm Going with You359
Out of Nowhere, a Feast368
I Mean to See an End to This Evil371
A Man and the Writing on the Wall377
A Promise Kept382
A School Friend385
The Tunnel390
A Last Name Saves the Day395
Living Side by Side in Tuzla399
The Man with a Hat on His Chest403
I Will Not Leave My Town406
The Most Loyal Comrade-in-Arms411
You Are a Disgrace to Sarajevo!416
The Hodja's Hundred German Marks423
Colonel Risojevic's Protection428
Touched by Human Kindness433
I Love You, Grandma, More than Anyone, Anywhere441
That's Not the Way I Think451
Kill Them and Kill Me, Too458
Fadil466
When Death Stalked the Streets470
Afterword474
Appendix IBosnia-Herzegovina: History, Culture, Ethnicities481
Appendix IIGlossary491
Appendix IIIRecommended Readings and Films513
Editor's Acknowledgments515
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