Srebrenica Survivors in St. Louis - review

Srebrenica Survivors in St. Louis by Patrick McCarthy (pictures by Tom Maday) chronicles the events leading up to the massacre at Srebrenica in 1995 and the flight that lead 20,000 Bosnians to St. Louis. McCarthy looks at the Serbian invasion into Srebrenica through the lives of six siblings and their families.

This book is also a photo journal and the pictures are vivid. The accounts by the six siblings are wrenching - the anger, the despair, the evil of the whole event. McCarthy coordinates the accounts well, even following one family back to Bosnia to begin a new life. The conditions and the failures were utterly unbelievable.

While the descriptions of what happened in 1995 were harrowing, one of the more intriguing parts was the refugees' view of America. While they appreciated the availability of work (though it was hard), the siblings each viewed America as an unsafe place to raise children. They commented on how they couldn't let children play outside because of predators or complaining neighbors. Most wanted to go back to their homeland if the region stabilized again.

This was an impulse purchase as we visited St. Louis this Christmas. It was a rewarding and revealing read.