The National Library burned for three days last August and
the city was choked with black snow.

Set free from the stacks, characters wandered the streets,
mingling with passers-by and the souls of dead soldiers.

I saw Werther sitting on the ruined graveyard fence; I saw
Quasimodo swinging one-handed from a minaret.

Raskolnikov and Mersault whispered together for days
in my cellar; Gavroche paraded in camouflage fatigues;

Yossarian was already selling spares to the enemy; for a
few dinars young Sawyer would dive off Princip's bridge.

Each day---more ghosts and fewer people alive; and the terrible
suspicion formed that the shells fell just for me.

I locked myself in the house. I leafed through tourist guides.
I didn't come out until the radio told me

how they'd taken ten tons of coals from the deepest cellar of
the burned-out National Library.

-- Goran Simic (1993)

Today marks the 10th anniversary of a crime against culture: the shelling and destruction of Bosnia's National and University Library by Bosnian Serb forces.

Housed in a handsome Moorish-revival building -- originally built in the late 19th century as Sarajevo's town hall (Vijecnica) -- the National and University Library held an estimated 1.5 million volumes, among them 155,000 rare books, unique archival collections, 478 manuscripts, the national collection of record of all the books, newspapers and magazines published in Bosnia since the 19th century, books published abroad about Bosnia's history and culture, as well as the central research collections of the University of Sarajevo.

In a three-day inferno (August 25-27, 1992) the library building was completely, gutted, the greater part (more than 90%) of its irreplaceable contents reduced to ashes. About an hour after nightfall on August 25th, a concentrated barrage of incendiary shells fired by Serb nationalist forces from positions on the heights overlooking the library burst through the roof and the large stained-glass skylight, setting the book stacks ablaze. Repeated shelling kept rekindling the fire, while snipers, mortar shells and anti-aircraft guns fired at sidewalk level shredded fire hoses and targeted firefighters and volunteers attempting to save the books. Eyewitness reports describe the scene:

[The National Library] was blazing out of control Wednesday after the besieged Bosnian capital came under fierce bombardment overnight. Firefighters struggling with low water pressure managed to extinguish the blaze several times during the night but the building ... kept coming under renewed attack. ... By mid-morning, the north and central sections of the crenelated four-storey building were completely engulfed by flames. Windows were exploding out into the narrow streets and the building's stone north wall was cracking and collapsing under the heat of the raging inferno. ...The fire started shortly after10 p.m. on Tuesday night and, despite the efforts of the city's fire department, kept reigniting and growing. The slender Moorish columns of the Library's main reading room exploded from the intense heat and portions of the roof came crashing through the ceiling. ... (Kurt Schork, "Sarajevo's Much-loved Old Town Hall Ablaze," Reuters, Wednesday, August 26, 1992)

Serb fighters in the hills ringing Sarajevo peppered the area around the library with machine-gun fire, trying to prevent firemen from fighting the blaze along the banks of the Miljacka river in the old city. Machine gun bursts ripped chips from the crenellated building and sent firemen scurrying for cover. Mortar rounds landed around the building with deafening crashes, kicking up bricks and plaster and spraying shrapnel. Asked why he was risking his life, fire brigade chief Kenan Slinic, sweaty, soot-covered and two yards from the blaze, said: "Because I was born here and they are burning a part of me." (John Pomfret, "Battles for Sarajevo Intensify as Bosnian Peace Conference Opens," Associated Press, August 26, 1992)

Braving a hail of sniper fire, librarians and citizen volunteers formed a human chain to pass books out of the burning building to trucks queued outside. Interviewed by a television camera crew, one of them said:

"We managed to save just a few, very precious books. Everything else burned down. And a lot of our heritage, national history, lay down there in ashes." Among the human casualties was Aida Buturovic, a 32-year-old librarian in the National Library's international exchanges section; she was killed by a mortar shell as she tried to make her way home from the library. Amidst the carnage caused by the intense Serbian nationalist bombardment of the city, her death went unnoted except by her family and colleagues. Bosnia's Ministry of Health reported on August 26, 1992, that 14 people had been killed and 126 had been wounded in besieged Sarajevo during the preceding 24 hours.

Death and Rebirth of the Sarajevo National Library,(on the 10th anniversary of the destruction of Bosnia's National and University Library),aired on Aug. 26, 2002, by the WBUR, NPR show "The Connection," hosted by Dick Gordon.

Guests included: Enes Kujundzic, director, National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo; Andras Riedlmayer, bibliographer, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University; Azra Alimajstorovic Roberts, Bosnia Desk, Voice of America; and Nicholas Basbanes, author of A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books.

Sarajevo - Vijecnica on fire

Sarajevo - Vijecnica (Jan. 1996) gallery of UNESCO photos
photo 1
photo 2

Vijecnica (view from top, 1997, new roof being installed on the burned-out building);
shows intact roofs of surrounding buildings

The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Bosnia Library Project - Appeal for Assistance
or write to Jeff Spurr <spurr@fas.harvard.edu> who directs the Bosnia Library Project.