When History Is A Nightmare: Lives and Memories of Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Through the testimonies of Bosnian refugees who survived ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina, this title demonstrates how ethnic cleansing has worked its way into people's lives and memories. Stevan M. Weine is a psychiatrist who has spent the past decade working with Bosnian survivors of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. As he listened to their testimonies, Weine concluded that these narratives were capable of bearing a complex truth about the horrific events in Yugoslavia that often were lost in more analytic works on the subject. Weine investigates the survivors' attempts to reconcile the contrasting, collective memories of having lived in a smoothly functioning, multi-ethnic society with the later memories of the ethnic atrocities. Personal portraits of leaders such as Jovan Raskovic and Radovan Karadzic are also included. Weine concludes by describing the recovery effort of survivors - how they work to confront the destructive nature of their memories while trying to bring about healing, both individually and collectively.