Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo

Then a child living through a war, Zlata Filipovic has often been compared to Anne Frank. That's cliches and, at least for me, misleading as to what to expect from this book. After all, even though the Bosnian war quickly escalated into an ethnic conflict, she was not a recluse fearing arrest and deportation, nor was she faced with racist policies affecting her daily life.

Having said that, her experience remains of course an horrible one. You may or may not have in mind the atrocities perpetrated upon civilians back then and there (and I don't want to go into a political argument, here's not the place for that) having some of such atrocities being described first-hand by a young teenage girl makes for an haunting read.

Indeed, if it is show more sad enough to see a childhood wasted because of a stupid and barbaric conflict, worst is the way the war slowly creeps into her life until what this diary is, at its core, all about: the infamous siege of Sarajevo she had to endure with her family.
Really, there's no word.

The whole is a descent into hell where nothing is spared -the isolation, uncertainties, fear, deprivations and shortages, on top of the refugee crisis, constant shelling, hidden snippers and people dying all around her (including some of her schoolmates, as young as she was). Reading this while bearing in mind that, here's what a child had to go through is frightening. The fact she, in a way, got used to it is also seriously disturbing:

'Mimmy, I've noticed that I don't write to you any more about the war or the shooting. That's probably because I've become used to it. All I care about is that the shells don't fall within 50 metres of my house, that we've got wood, water and, of course, electricity.'

Such testimony obviously is hard but, beyond the siege of Sarajevo and the Bosnian war, here's after all a voice telling of how conflicts affect children on a very human and personal level. Don't we all tend to forget that too easily when facing wars on the news or else? Even if it can only serve as such a reminder, then 'Zlata's Diary' deserves to be read. show less

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1095084.html

This is the diary of a bright eleven-year-old, Zlata Filipović, whose relatively normal life growing up in Sarajevo was suddenly and abruptly disrupted by the outbreak of war in April 1992; her daily life shifts suddenly from worrying about school and partying with friends and family, to hiding from snipers and artillery fire in her home and waiting to hear which of her friends has been killed. For those of us who deal with international affairs on a daily basis, it's a pretty good reminder that conflict is not really about the political leaders whose childishness Zlata excoriates; it is about ordinary people whose lives suddenly become hell because of evil decisions made by evil men.

Zlata comes show more across as a perceptive child, and it is interesting how her interpretation of the conflict shifts from essentially reflecting the Sarajevo consensus to more bitter and wiser invective against everyone responsible for the situation. But this is also a story whose telling in itself changes the teller: by the middle of the book, her diary-keeping has made her a celebrity; by the end (December 1993), she is being evacuated from Sarajevo with her family at the personal instructons of the French Minister of Defence.

But she doesn't let it go to her head. Comparisons with Anne Frank by external commentators are inevitable; Zlata just remarks that she hopes not to suffer the same fate. Even after the outside world "discovers" her, she still writes about family gossip as unselfconsciously as she did before the war started. show less

It's hard to rate & review a diary. I found this enlightening, given my relative ignorance in respect to wartime in Sarajevo in the early 1990's. However, it wasn't what I would call a gripping read. But then again, it was written by an 11-year-old. I did find the included photos interesting, and after finishing the book I of course had to go google Zlata Filipovic. There are a few interesting Youtube videos of her in recent years. She seems to be very well-spoken and worldly.

Reading an 11-year-old’s diary when she’s a happy child and then suffering the fates of the Bosnian War is tragic and sad. Pages of the diary were published during the war in 1991-93 when she lived in Sarajevo, and she knew she was being compared to Anne Frank. Her writing is exemplary for her age but she never understood why there was a war and why peace wasn’t coming. She was both hopeful and sometimes suicidal as friends were killed and families, friends, and neighbors were displaced. From the introduction we learn her family eventually escapes to Paris and from Wikipedia we learn she went to Oxford and now champions the cause of children suffering through war. Of course an inspiration. Reading about war from a child’s show more perspective is eye-opening to say the least. I am glad she left us this legacy. show less

I remember seeing this book around a lot in my local library in the mid '90s, as its author, Zlata Filipović, ultimately settled in Ireland once her family had finally been evacuated from Sarajevo. I'm not quite sure why I hesitated to read it then—Filipović is only a few years older than me and I had read Anne Frank's Diary more than once—but I came across it again recently and decided to finally pick it up. It's a useful historical record to have, and my younger self might have connected to it more strongly had I read it years ago, but today it just struck me as being very much written by an 11-year-old.

Zlata Filipovic begins her diary in September of 1991 at the beginning of 5th grade. She writes of typical 11 year old concerns and her family's winter skiing trip. In the spring of 1992 they begin hearing of battles in cities around Sarajevo and then the shelling begins there. Zlata chronicles the fears and deprivations that her family, friends and neighbors go through from the perspective of a child who cannot understand why this is all happening.
In the late fall of 1992 the City Assembly starts looking for a child's diary about life in war to publish in connection to UNICEF week. Someone recommends Zlata and she copies out pages of her diary to submit. The pamphlet was published the next spring and she draws media attention. show more Although it does not improve the political situation, shelling or the deprivation, it does garner some friendships in the journalist corp and a few additional supplies for her family and friends. In July 1993 film crews interview her for ABC News, as well as the BBC and reporters from France and Italy. Then in December she was asked to participate in a live TV interview with the French Defense Minister Francois Leotard. On the show he promised to help her family to get out of Sarajevo. She and her family leave with French assistance (mainly the publisher who wants to publish the full diary) through UN transport. In Paris her entire diary of the 1991 to 1993 experience was edited and formally published.
According to a 2012 interview with her, that I read after finishing the diary, she spent three years in Paris and then her family moved to Ireland. She attended Trinity College and Oxford University. She is still living in Dublin, working as a film producer and documentary maker. show less

In 1991 Zlata was living a normal life. She went to school, she had friends over for a birthday party, she watched MTV and sitcoms.

When war broke out in Sarajevo, Zlata's life changed forever. Suddenly she was thrust into a world where bombs pummeled her city every day. Innocent people were shot by snipers, so it was unsafe to leave the house. Schools were closed. Electricity, gas, and water only came on intermittently. Zlata and her family had done nothing wrong. They were like thousands of other Bosnians, caught in the crossfires of a war, trying their hardest just to survive.

One thing that really hit home for me is that Zlata is just about my age. On the very day that I was throwing my 10th birthday party, Zlata was carrying water show more from wells because they had no running water. She was receiving packages from the UN with "luxuries" like soap and cheese.

Zlata's descriptions are amazing. She writes about when springtime comes, but you can't tell because they've cut down all the trees. There are no trees to blossom, no birds to burst into song. This is a sobering book and an inspiring one. show less