They Survived a Genocide. Now They Guard Its Memory | Srebrenica

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Published Jul 10, 2026

They survived the Srebrenica genocide. Today, they keep its memory - working as curators and archivists at the memorial built on the site of the worst atrocity on European soil since the Second World War.

In July 1995, over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were murdered by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica, a town the UN Security Council had declared a safe area. International courts have ruled it a genocide.

"The Memory Keepers of Srebrenica" follows three survivors who returned to work at the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center, built on the grounds of the former UN base where thousands once sought refuge.

Their work of remembrance now confronts a rising tide of denial - described as the final stage of genocide itself. Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, President of the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, reflects on why justice is a precondition for reconciliation, and why the facts, once proven, must be kept.

The film was produced with the The Srebrenica Genocide and the United Nations Outreach Programme, which works to preserve the judicially established facts of the genocide, counter denial, and support remembrance and education for new generations.

Released for the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica, 11 July:

https://www.un.org/en/observances/srebrenica-genocide-commemoration-day

00:00 Surviving the genocide
01:00 Working at the Memorial
02:51 The checkpoint at Potočari
03:12 Coming back to stay close to the dead
04:07 Judge Gatti Santana on justice and truth
05:12 The belongings from the mass graves
05:56 Denial — and what comes after it
06:54 Teaching the warning signs