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The Siege's Effect on Miki's Family

Dublin Core


The Siege's Effect on Miki's Family


Sarajevo (Bosnia and Hercegovina) -- History -- Siege, 1992-1996.
Yugoslav War, 1991-1995.


Oral history video clip featuring Miki Jacevic, a survivor of the Yugoslav War. This video was originally produced by Media Entertainment, Inc., for the 2000 documentary The Genocide Factor.


Media Entertainment, Inc.


Genocide Factor Collection, Oral History Program, Tampa Library,
University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida.


Tampa, Fla. : University of South Florida Tampa Library.




Jacevic, Miki


Tape number: 4111E


video / mp4




Oral History


Sarajevo (Bosnia and Hercegovina)

Oral History Item Type Metadata


Nelson, Jane


Jacevic, Miki


Yes. Well, my family is--we'd always been in Sarajevo. It kind of was--unlike you, usually in Europe it's much different in terms of mobility. Families do tend to stay together, and they usually stay in the place that you were born in. So, in that regard, my whole entire family has been for the last number of generations in Sarajevo. And we all were there when the war started. What happened was interesting dynamics, because I do come from a mixed background in terms of that some of my family members are from different ethnic backgrounds, and that was a challenge. In addition to the fact that war was going on, you had the fact that within your family, you had representatives of different ethnic groups that, according to all the reports and all what was seen on TV and what you hear all the time, are hating each other and killing each other; whereas within our family nucleus, we of course were not only not killing each other, we were loving each other and supporting each other and making it through the war. So, that was kind of a paradox of a life situation in which you find yourself, in that on a larger scale, it is the fact that certain members of our tribes, if you want, have been against each other. Yet, in our particular family, that definitely was not the case. Some of my family members had much more struggle in terms of that they found themselves in places in which they were targeted, and a couple of my uncles were actually arrested and taken to places where they were tortured, and we kind of had to work to get them out and paid some ransom. It always becomes a drama within a drama in each particular story. But also, it was always how do we--how do you stick together and help each other in a sense when none of us can really help anybody? Pretty much you're stripped away for your own possibility to help yourself, even, let alone others. Yet, kind of in that situation of extreme suffering, I think, the most compassion came out in people. And I think that was the major lesson for me in the war, and kind of redirected my life's journey in terms of that I've realized that out of these small acts of compassion and care for other people, especially for those elders and others who couldn't care for themselves, comes really what's the best part of human beings. So I always also say it's--for me, what happened in Sarajevo has shown and produced what's really the worst in human history and human beings, but also the best, the best that we could do to help and nourish that connectedness between humans in terms of pure survival.

Original Format

Beta tape




Media Entertainment, Inc., “The Siege's Effect on Miki's Family,” USF Library Special & Digital Collections Exhibits, accessed November 19, 2019,