By Jessica Lemp
Decked with images of the aftermath of the Srebian genocide, the Lowenfeld ExhibitionHall on the 10th floor of Axinn Library had a somber but reverent atmosphere on Sept. 26 as University students and professors commemorated the Srebenica massacre.
Lisa DiCaprio, visiting assistant professor of Washington and Lee University, openedthe “Betrayal of Srebenica: A Commemmoration” exhibit of its history.
In the summer of 1995, over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim males were eliminated in what is considered one of the greatest genocides in Europe following the Holocaust.
Although Srebrenica was considered to be a safe haven by the United Nations, Dutch peacekeeping officials did virtually nothing to protect the Muslims in the area and, according to professor DiCaprio, even turned over thousands to the Serbs.
In the aftermath, 17,000 children were left with one parent and more than 3,500 bodies are still left unburied and unidentified, countless have yet to be found.
Paula Allen, a human rights photographer, presented her photo exhibit to approximately50 students and professors. The pictures characterized the mass graves, body bags and grieving relatives of the vicitims.
“The pictures are important [because they provide] a visual narrative,” DiCaprio said. They make the world “indirect witnesses to human rights violations.
Photographs like these make the world liable to punish those responsible and take precautions to prevent something like this from happening again, added DiCaprio.
“The purpose of this exhibit,” she continued, is to “answer the appeal of the survivors never to forget what happened in July 1995.”
Mary Rosenfeld, a senior psychology and photojournalism major, found the exhibit “amazing and very powerful,” adding that it was “important for human rights photography.”
Enza Cacace, a TV and film production major, agreed.
“[The exhibit] is powerful and important in making a little known massacre more public,”she said.
The exhibit will be on display on the 10th floor of the Axinn Library until Dec. 3 and is recommended for those who have a remote interest in learning about the Srebrenica massacre and the effects it had on the women and children who survived it.