Survival in Sarajevo:
Jews, Bosnia and the Lessons of the Past

Los Angeles—To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo, the Skirball Museum and Cultural Center presents Survival in Sarajevo: Jews, Bosnia, and the Lessons of the Past, Photographs by Edward Serotta, on view May 1-July 14, 2002, in the Skirball’s Ruby Gallery. A panel discussion, “War Crimes, Bosnia, and the Jews,” moderated by Edward Serotta, opens the exhibition on Wednesday, May 1 at 7:30 p.m. and is free to the public. See details below.

Mr. Serotta’s compelling images capture the dedication, commitment, and heroism of a tiny Jewish community that refused to take sides in an ethnic war between Serbs, Muslims, and Croats. They tell the remarkable story of how a small band of Holocaust survivors and their children turned the Sarajevo Jewish community center into one of the most effective non-sectarian humanitarian aid agencies operating in the Bosnian war zone.

Fifty-four volunteers— Serbs, Croats, Muslims, and Jews, none of whom had any experience in relief work, ran the programs of La Benevolencija (Judeo-Spanish for good will). Supported by JDC (the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee) and other organizations throughout the world, La Benevolencija operated a soup kitchen that fed nearly 300 people daily, ran a free walk-in medical clinic, and set up an ad hoc post office when mail deliveries to Sarajevo were cut off. Best known were its three pharmacies, which dispensed thousands of prescriptions free of charge. La Benevolencija and JDC ran 11 rescue convoys out of the city—three by air, eight by bus, bringing 2,300 Sarajevans of all faiths to safety.

Serotta, an American who has been living in and photographing Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe since 1988, traveled inside this bustling community center as shells rained down on the city. His emotional and powerful images introduce viewers to Denis Karalic, a tearful 13-year old Muslim boy leaving Sarajevo on a Jewish rescue convoy; Cicko Abinun, the Jewish community cook as he prepares lunch on one of his three stoves; and Donka Nikolic, a 94-year old Holocaust survivor, who receives an injection at home from Miki, the Jewish community’s Serbian nurse; among many others.

Many of these photographs are culled from Serotta’s book, Survival in Sarajevo (available through Distributed Art Publishers), and were taken on assignment by Serotta for TIME Magazine, The London Independent, Die Zeit, and Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine. The exhibition has been seen in 43 public venues in 12 countries.

Edward Serotta has two other books to his credit: Out of the Shadows and Jews, Germany, Memory. Since 1997, he has been Director of the Central Europe Center for Research and Documentation, a Vienna-based institute dedicated to chronicling Jewish history and current events in Central and Eastern Europe.

The exhibition and panel discussion were made possible by The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, the Austrian Consulate General in Los Angeles and the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, the Center for European and Russian Studies, UCLA, and the Jewish Museum Vienna.

The Skirball is also home to Zeidler’s Café which serves innovative California cuisine in an elegant setting and Audrey’s Museum Store, which sells books, contemporary art, music, and more.

About the Skirball
The Skirball Cultural Center is dedicated to exploring the connections between four thousand years of Jewish heritage and the vitality of American democratic ideals. We welcome and seek to inspire people of every ethnic and cultural identity. Guided by our respective memories and experiences, together we aim to build a society in which all of us can feel at home.

Through the display and interpretation of our museum’s collections; changing exhibitions; public programs exploring the literary, visual, and performing arts from around the world; scholarship and publications; and through outreach to the community, we achieve our mission.