After the Fall: Srebrenica Survivors in St. Louis

War in the Balkans dominated headlines throughout the 1990s, displacing millions of ordinary people and renewing debate over responses to genocide in the modern era. St. Louis is home today to nearly 20,000 refugees from war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, one of the largest concentrations of any city in the United States.

As awareness of the large Bosnian community in St. Louis grows, relatively little is known about the actual lives and experiences of these refugees. After the Fall looks at the impact of the war and the reality of "ethnic cleansing" in the life of one extended Bosnian family in St. Louis.

Through richly textured photographs and compelling first-person interview narratives, After the Fall tells the story of the Oric family from the city of Srebrenica, survivors of the 1995 fall of the United Nations-declared "safe area" and what has been called the single greatest atrocity in Europe since the end of World War II.

Important for those interested in human rights, photojournalism, immigration, and regional history, After the Fall opens a door of understanding on a significant new community in St. Louis of people rebuilding their lives in the aftermath of one of the twentieth century's most brutal conflicts.

Through richly-textured photographs and compelling first-person interview narratives, After the Fall tells the story of a family from the city of Srebrenica, survivors of the 1995 fall of the United Nations-declared "safe area" and what has been called the single greatest atrocity in Europe since the end of World War II.

About The Author
Patrick McCarthy is a librarian at Saint Louis University and founder of the St. Louis Bosnian Student Project.

[Photographs by] Tom Maday is a Chicago-based photographer whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and Newsweek.

[Foreword by] David Rohde is winner of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting on the fall of Srebrenica.

Internet Book Watch

After The Fall: Srebrenica Survivors In St. Louis is an outstanding photodocumentary that combines the informative text of Patrick McCarthy with the impressive documentary photography of Tom Maday to present the genocidal tragedy of the Bosnia-Herzegovina city of Srebrenica and its effects on the lives of one extended family in St. Louis, Missouri. In July 1995, more than 7,500 Bosnians from the city of Srebrenica were massacred by troops of the Bosnian Serb Army. Another 30,000 women and children were forcibly removed from their homes in this United Nations-declared "safe area". The siege of Srebrenica represented the greatest atrocity witnessed in Europe since the days of the Nazi holocaust, yet it was only one episode in a larger war of extermination against the citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina during the 1990s. Some 20,000 Bosnian refugees (approximately 500 of them survivors of Srebrenica) came to settle in St. Louis. After The Fall is a superbly presented, highly recommended memorial, testament, and account of this horrific tragedy that these St. Louis based refugees must come to grips with as represented in the lives, statements, and images of one such extended family.

Patrick McCarthy is a librarian at Saint Louis University and founder of the St. Louis Bosnian Student Project.

About the Photographer

Tom Maday is a Chicago-based photographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Newsweek, and other magazines.

David Rohde is winner of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting on the fall of Srebrenica.