Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Senahid, 17, student.
Saban, 48, father of six children.
Nino, 20, a journalist.
These are just three of the 20 Bosnian genocide victims whose names were woven into a quilt unveiled Sunday in St. Louis — because it is here where their loss is understood best.
The memorial quilt was woven in Bosnia-Herzegovina to commemorate the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica. The weavers chose St. Louis not only because it has the largest number of Bosnian refugees in the country, but also because it has the largest number of survivors of the Srebrenica massacre.
The quilt now has 20 panels containing the names of victims, all relatives of the five female weavers, who live in the city of Tuzla. But the women would like others to order panels for their loved ones who died, so the quilt will grow into a powerful memorial.
"It is very comparable to the AIDS quilt in how it raised awareness," said Nihad Sinanovic, who was 11 when he escaped from Srebrenica in 1993. "It will bring a lot of attention to how 8,000 men and boys were killed."