Museum of War Childhood
The Museum‘s collection will contain a number of personal belongings, stories, audio and video testimonies, photographs, letters, drawings and other documents offering valuable insight into the unique experience of growing up in wartime.
The Museum of War Childhood is set to open in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in May 2016.
The initiative was launched by Jasminko Halilovic, founder of Sarajevo’s URBAN Association, who also founded the wider Childhood in War project in 2010. The project includes a book of the same name, which foregrounds the personal testimonies of people who experienced growing up during wartime. The Museum of War Childhood represents the next step of the Childhood in War project.
"While working on the book [...] people brought me the most unbelievable things that they were keeping in their cellars or under the beds, and that is when an idea was born in my head to preserve those things somewhere, one day,” said Mr Halilovic.
While the collection of the Museum of War Childhood will be put together by the URBAN Association, its construction will be funded primarily by private investors. The museum will be self-sustaining, and will employ around a dozen young people.
Everyone has an item that reminds them of their childhood; so do people who were growing up during the war. The War Childhood Museum collects artifacts, from favorite books and an improvised oven to ballet shoes that war survivors have saved to this day. Even more important and valuable than the items themselves are the personal experiences of their owners. This is why every item is accompanied by a unique personal story.
The exhibition is now open in the Historical museum until 14 May, every day from 10am until 7pm, and entrance is free.
Photos from the exhibition you can find in our gallery Museum of War Childhood.
