Customer Reviews

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

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Bottom line, this is a great book. The introduction alone,

by editor Laurie Kain Hart, is absolutely extraordinary,

and the author's own preface is exceptional. But the text,

and the heart, of "Good People in an Evil Time" is simple

accounts by ordinary Bosnian people of their experiences

during the war.

Many other books have addressed political, military, and

historical aspects of that war, but frankly few of them

seem to help in understanding the human side and the

present day. For those who did not experience the war first

hand, answers to the human questions have been very slow in

coming, but this book has them by the dozens in the voices

of ordinary people.

For the creation of this book Broz was exceptional in

several ways. She is a granddaughter of Josip Broz,

commonly known as Marshal Tito, Yugoslavian hero of World

War II and head of state of the communist post-war

Yugoslavia. Her family name carried respect that

undoubtedly gave her entree to pass many gates that would

have closed to others and provided a foundation for trust.

Her status as a doctor gave her standing to request entry

to combat zones to try to help those who were suffering,

and her personal qualities brought her to act where most

others would not.

In Broz's own words, "Treating people of all three religious

traditions, I felt their need to open their souls and tell

me, shyly at first, what had happened to them during the

war. From these brief stories on cardiology wards, I

realized how thirsty people were for a truth that was subtle

and nuanced where the shells were falling, in a way that it

wasn't in Belgrade or in the worldwide black-and-white

coverage."

A great achievement of this book is to show so clearly how

people are more than their membership in an ethnic group.

Hopefully, it will also remind us to look beyond

caricatures of ethnic groups in conflict and to search for

victimizers and power seekers who hide themselves or profit

by casting blame everywhere but on themselves.

For the Bosnians and those near to them, this book also

helps to confirm that goodness among them was not isolated,

to remember and honor some of those who practiced it. My

wife and her family came to America from Bosnia as refugees

during the war, and many members of their extended family

still live in different parts of Bosnia. While without

doubt there are bigots, villains and crooks as well as

decent people in the former Yugoslavia, the voices in this

book echo the many experiences and first-hand accounts of

the mutual understanding and simple unconcern over ethnic

differences among ordinary people of the region.

Agression on Bosnia 1992-1995. This book is giving extraordinary testimonies about small everyday people who helped others, cherishing compassion and human kindness, even many times putting them-self in deadly situations, crossing the lines of ethnic divisions, religions or political opinion. All stories are proof that human goodness must prevail over human darkness, that human being alone and small as it look,can make huge difference in our world. Bosnian story can happen anywhere, so it is highly recomended in todays world, where more compassion is needed in our every day life.

Thank you Svetlana for your great work.