Before coming to Srebrenica, I was absolutely dreading it. After hearing the genocide survivor last week and everything that he had to endure, I did not think I was prepared to see the memorial depicting the tragedy. I found that the hardest part of today was seeing how children were killed during this tragedy. Specifically, Witness DD’s testimonies, depicted both in the video and written in the museum, stuck out to me. In the first room we were in, there was a quote from her explaining how she has to cover her eyes when she sees other children going to school because it reminds her of the loss of her little boys. In the video, she discussed the exact moment her son was separated from her, and hearing the pain in her voice struck a chord inside of me. Growing up, I’ve always heard the saying that no parent should have to bury their child, and just imagining the ongoing suffering of her loss is near impossible for me.
When walking through the cemetery, I had a lot of trouble grasping the age at which many people died. Based off of the tombstones, the youngest boys were about 15 years old and the oldest was 78 years old. I did not, however, look at all of the tombstones so the age range is much greater. I know that there was a 1-year-old who perished. When I saw that there were so many people around my age, I was absolutely shocked. I am eighteen years old now, and I do not know how I would be able to go through something as traumatic as a genocide. Seeing the many tombstones of the young boys was so difficult for me because I felt a connection to them in regards to our age. I know that there are very few ways in which I can form a connection to them given what they went through, but that was really hard for me.
As difficult as going to Srebrenica was for me today, I am so grateful for the experience. There is something so different between hearing about something like this in the classroom versus hearing about it from survivors while standing in the area where it took place. I think that this is definitely going to be something that I struggle to comprehend for years to come, but I want to tell people about this. I want people to know about the tragedy that occurred in Srebrenica. People have to know that this has happened before and it is happening now in other places. I believe that we have an obligation to raise awareness and do something about it, even if it’s just sharing the story.
Kaitlyn Cavallaro: Balkans DoC 