Prijedor (Bosnia) Genocide Remembrance Day Vigil: White Armband Day and Online Photo Campaign
Initiated May 31, 2014
White Armband Day: To remember. To see. To witness. About White Armband Day: May 31st is the remembrance day of all the victims of genocide in Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In honor of this day, NEFBiH members and supporters gathered in the heart of Boston each year to spread awareness of the Prijedor Genocide, wearing symbolic red clothing and white armbands. Simultaneously, NEFBiH gathered images of supporters and activists wearing white armbands to further raise awareness of White Armband Day.
In May 1992, armed Serbian forces released a command for all NON-Serbians to mark their households by hanging a white cloth from their windows as well as to wear a white armband if they were to leave their houses. This marked the beginning of concentration camps, mass rapes and murders, which resulted in genocide and ethnic cleansing against more than 95% of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) and Bosnian Croats from Prijedor and surrounding areas. During the Holocaust in 1939, Nazis forced the Jews to wear white armbands with a blue Star of David. The white armband decree in Prijedor was the first such command after the Holocaust.
