In 1992, shells rocked the city of Sarajevo in the former republic of Yugoslavia. The cause of this attack was a conflict among the three main ethnic groups who lived in the area—the Serbs, the Croats, and the Muslims.

Eleven-year-old Zlata Filipović and her parents were witnesses to the destruction of Sarajevo. Zlata wrote about the effects of the war in her diary until her family was able to escape to Paris, France, in 1993. When her diary was published it became an international bestseller and was translated into thirty-six languages.

The following is a brief excerpt from her diary, which she called “Mimmy.”

This is a view of downtown Sarajevo through a shattered window, in 1994.