MONOGRAPH INVISIBLE HEROES OF GREECE HAS BEEN PRESENTED

BANJA LUKA, MARCH 20 /SRNA/ - The monograph Invisible Heroes of Greece by Gordana Blagojević was presented this evening in Banja Luka, featuring testimonies about the remarkable solidarity and humanity of the Greek people toward children from Republika Srpska during the 1990s war.

Blagojević stated that around 150 Greek municipalities took part in these efforts, which helped approximately 40,000 children. She recalled that the aid came from ordinary citizens, but that institutions such as the Red Cross, local governments, and the Church also played a significant role. She added that the assistance was reflected both in hosting children within families and in sending material support. She assessed that, at a time when everything seemed hopeless, new bridges between people were being built in parallel, thanks to the selfless help of the Greek people. As a result, many families grew closer, godparent relationships formed, children learned Greek, and friendships became lasting. Bogdan Dražeta, assistant professor at the Department of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, told reporters that the focus of the work is on how ordinary people helped other ordinary people in difficult times, opening space for humanity and compassion as universal values. He added that special emphasis is placed on assistance to children from Republika Srpska, the Republic of Serbian Krajina, and Serbia, who stayed in Greece from 1992 to 1996, where they were accommodated among ordinary people. “Assistance was not exclusively institutional; people organized themselves independently, while institutions often served as channels of communication and support. It is precisely this immediacy and personal engagement that make this story a powerful testimony of solidarity,” Dražeta said ahead of the promotion. The Head of the Representative Office of Republika Srpska in Greece, Jelena Jovanović, stated that in 2020, the Office launched a project together with the Ministry for European Integration and International Cooperation of Republika Srpska, calling on all people who had stayed in Greece during the war to come forward. “We intended to document the assistance provided by the Greek people to our people. Until then, the aid offered by the Greeks had not been institutionally documented,” Jovanović said, adding that this led to cooperation with Gordana Blagojević.