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Home Primary What Happened History White Armband Day

White Armband Day

50 years after the Nazi decree that Jews should wear the star of David, Bosnian Muslims were ordered to wear white armbands, as they were marked for execution.

Every year “White Armband Day” takes place on 31 May, to remember the campaign of ethnic cleansing which took place in the town of Prijedor, northern Bosnia-Herzegovina. To mark this day, Remembering Srebrenica are encouraging individuals to wear white armbands for the day to highlight the dangers of discrimination and remembering the victims of the horrific crimes that took place.

Just over 50 years after the Nazi decree that required Jews to wear a yellow Star of David to segregate them from the non-Jewish population, once again members of an ethnic or religious group were marked for extermination, this time in Bosnia. Having taken over the municipal government by force, Bosnian Serb authorities issued a decree on local radio ordering all non-Serb citizens to mark their houses with white flags or bedsheets and to wear white armbands when leaving the house. This was the beginning of the campaign of extermination of the non-Serb population in Prijedor, which resulted in the ethnic cleansing of 94% of the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat population from the Prijedor municipality.

From forced classification, violence and terror escalated in Prijedor and led to executions, mass rape and the creation of concentration camps from where journalists Ed Vulliamy and Penny Marshall shocked the world with their report of images of emaciated prisoners of war behind barbed wire.

In Prijedor, 3,173 people were killed during the war. Almost 31,000 people were detained in prison camps, and 53,000 were forced to flee. In 2013, the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) uncovered one of the biggest mass graves in the Prijedor municipality at the Tomasica mines where over 600 bodies had lain encased in clay for 20 years.

To this day, local authorities in Prijedor have refused to permit the construction of a memorial for the innocent civilian victims killed in the notorious concentration camp at Omarska or a memorial to the children that were killed in the war.

By wearing a white armband on 31 May, you will be standing in solidarity with the victims of human rights abuses in Prijedor and around the globe.

May 31, 2017Amil Khan
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May 31, 2017 History
25 Years Since Bosnian Muslims were Marked for ExterminationScottish MSPs Come Together to Tackle Hatred on White Armband Day
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Remembering SrebrenicaFollow

Remembering Srebrenica
Remembering Srebrenica Retweeted
Vanja_FilipVanja Filipovic 🇧🇦@Vanja_Filip·
1 Mar

Wishing all my fellow Bosnians and Herzegovinians a happy Independence Day.
Sretan Dan neovisnosti Bosne i Hercegovine! 🇧🇦🇧🇦

19236Twitter
Remembering Srebrenica Retweeted
RrrrnessaArnesa Buljušmić-Kustura@Rrrrnessa·
20h

Read this thread. This important research project has uncovered details of the conversations amongst Serb leaders and their plan to exterminate Bosniak Muslims throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. https://t.co/YPNZxaHs3H

1428Twitter
Remembering Srebrenica Retweeted
SrebrenicaSwSrebrenicaSW@SrebrenicaSw·
23h

When a child’s world is torn apart we need to listen, share and remember.

This is Dino’s story. Born in Mostar, 1991.

Read at https://t.co/JaEj433Nin

24Twitter
SrebrenicaUKRemembering Srebrenica@SrebrenicaUK·
20h

#OTD in '92, the citizens of Bosnia voted in a referendum declaring Bosnia to be a sovereign and independent country of equal citizens and nations of Bosnian Muslims, Serbs, and Croats and all others who live in it.

We wish all the people of Bosnia a very happy Independence Day!

28116Twitter
SrebrenicaUKRemembering Srebrenica@SrebrenicaUK·
28 Feb

“Quo Vadis, Aida?” could do for the Srebrenica massacre what “Schindler’s List” accomplished for the Holocaust.”

A feat in educating so many on the topic of Genocide Education. https://t.co/0qxjPbjygY

37127Twitter
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 Latest news 
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Every year, Remembering Srebrenica selects a theme that reflects an aspect of the genocide that must be commemorated, but also speaks to communities here in the UK.  The theme for 2021 is ‘Rebuilding Lives’.  The theme aims to honour the two million people who were displaced during the genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia in […]

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London, United Kingdom — This past July marked 25 years since the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, often referred to as the worst atrocity on Europe’s soil since the Holocaust. The story of Srebrenica, a small town in Bosnia, remains a dark stain on Europe’s history and yet the full details remain unknown to many.  […]

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