Essay On Zlata

706 Words3 Pages

13,952. That is the unbelievable amount of people who were killed in the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War. Naturally, people were shocked when the Bosnian-Serbs began an unprecedented attack on the city of Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, as a result of starting an ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims, who are part of the monotheistic religion, Islam). Zlata Filipović, author of Zlata’s Diary, was a young girl unfortunately residing in Sarajevo on April 6, 1992, when the siege of Sarajevo began. As a consequence of the war, Zlata was stuck there for two years, and during that period, she lost countless numbers of friends and family. War is a desperate struggle between two sides, feeding off of the people around it, making the destruction of people feel depressing. The most damage from war occurs emotionally due to the intense sadness caused by constant loss of lives. The deaths of people that you know are the worst result of war because it causes unhappiness and takes an emotional toll on you. For example, this is shown when Zlata’s friend is killed by shrapnel from a shell. She wrote "Today a shell fell on the park in front of my house, the park where I used to play and sit with my girlfriends. A lot of people were hurt ... AND NINA IS DEAD. A piece of shrapnel lodged in her brain and she died. She was such a sweet, nice little girl. We went to kindergarten together, and we used to play together in the park. Is it possible I'll never see Nina again? Nina, an innocent eleven-year-old little girl - the victim of a stupid war.” …show more content…

Zlata’s Diary contained situations similar to this when her friend died in a park, when her bird died, and when her cousin died. In total, 13,952 people were killed during the siege of Sarajevo because of an act of racism, and that means that more than 13,952 people lost someone they