"He died with them. Let him rest with them." #Srebrenica 2023

Diana and Hatidža Hren in front of trucks with bodies of newly identified victims of Srebrenica in July 2010- DW

Translation and editing 

By Dr. Eman Tahawy

2010:

Rudolph, the Christian man who was betrayed by the Serbs, was buried as were his Muslim friends who stayed with them for the last day before his death. He is buried in the same place that includes the remains of 775 Muslim men and youths killed by Serbs in 1995. Rudolph was a Catholic Croatian who shared the same fate as 8,000 Muslim neighbors killed in the Srebrenica massacre. And the neighbors there are like brothers or kinship. Where he lived before and during the war, he met the same fate.

And yesterday: when they asked his mother if she wanted to bury him anywhere, she would like? She said: No, leave him where he died with them, may he rest in peace with them. He lay with his Muslim friends in the mass graves, then was reburied after 15 years of careful research because the Serbs distributed the bodies to more than 70 areas and obliterated the burials to hide the effects of the genocide. This did not happen in the backward Middle Ages or in the heart of Third World countries, but it did happen in the heart of Europe at the end of the twentieth century.

"He died with them. Let him rest with them."



At this cemetery Srebrenica, Ivo, 20 years was buried in 1992. Photo: DW


"Rudolf is buried among the friends he stayed with until the last day." - Barbara Hren (mother)



Barbara Hren-Photo: DW


In 2010, Rudolf's body was found in one of the secondary mass graves in Kamenica.

With the support of Rudolf's wife Hatidža (Khadija)and daughter Diana, Mother Barbara then decided to bury Rudolf at the Potočari Memorial Centre, along with his Bosniak friends with whom he had lived and died.

He was one of four Srebrenica Catholics killed in the genocide, but he is the only one buried at the memorial center.

It was Rudolf Herren, who was a famous local footballer before the war, whose mother Barbara Herren requested that he be buried in the Catholic rites, but with those who were his neighbors and friends.

"The father-in-law is Slovenian, and his wife, Maria, is German, and a law. My father is Romanian and my mother is from Yugoslavia. Then my son announces, 'I am Catholic, I am Croatian.'". later on, he married a Bosnian woman Hatidža (Khadija). They were together until the end.”

The two brothers stayed in Srebrenica to defend their town. He had got a job in Red Cross with his wife.



Funeral of Rudolf on 11 July 2010


Barbara's younger son Ivan (Ivo) died in 1992 and buried in a local cemetery in Srebrenica. While the elder Rudolf (Rudy) was shot near Zvornik after being arrested in Kamenica in 1995 after trying to escape with friends in the woods towards Tuzla. He was seen alive before being killed. She waited for 15 years.

"Hren's family has a special place in the heart of all Srebrenica residents. Rudolf's wife (Hatidža) taught Bosnian at a local school during the war."

Rudi and Hatidža with their daughter Diana . Photo: ntv.ba

Hren came from Vojvodina to Srebrenica in 1960. Barbara's husband, Aleksander Hren, was a mine worker who died in 1976.


Mother says:

“We stayed here, the kids went to school, high school. The eldest son - he loved everyone. Everyone who passed would call him Rudy, Rudy, and he would be named Rudy by everyone.”

On July 11, 1995, mother Barbara saw Rudy for the last time, and years of grief have passed since then. All her family members died. She says she doesn't miss the money, but she misses the departed souls.

Barbara Hren RIP in Srebrenica. Feb, 2018

February, 2018:

Barbara Hren is buried in Srebrenica - February 2018

Barbara Hren, the mother of Rudolf and Ivan, who perished in the Srebrenica genocide, died on Friday at the Tuzla Nursing Home at the age of 83.

Sadmir Nukić of the Srebrenica Detainees Association told the Patria news agency that Bosnia and Herzegovina has lost another heroine who gave the country her most valuable asset, two boys.

(Barbara Hren gave her most precious sons to Bosnia and Herzegovina).

June, 2020:

Hatidža Hren, a teacher, one of the founders of the Association "Women of Srebrenica" and its first president, and the wife of Rudolf Hren, the only Catholic killed in the Srebrenica genocide, died in Tuzla on June 7. Hatidža died at the age of 58, and today she was worshipped in Srebrenica. The burial was carried out at the Komarčevo cemetery, in the presence of a large number of citizens.

Photo: D. S./Klix.ba

Photo: D. S./Klix.ba

Photo: D. S./Klix.ba

Photo: Anadolija

Sources:

http://srebrenica-genocide.blogspot.com/2010/07/rudolf-hren-croat-buried-in-srebrenica.html

Nukić: Barbara Hren je za BiH dala najvrijednije što je imala (nap.ba)

Čekaj, čekaj petnaest godina...Rudi se ne vrati – DW – 10.07.2010

Srebrenica residents bid farewell to Hatidža Hren, wife of the only Catholic buried in Potocari

Odlazak Srebreničanke Hatidže Hren, supruge jedinog Hrvata pokopanog u Potočarima U Srebrenici klanjana dženaza Hatidži Hren, supruzi Rudolfa Hrena 

SREBRENICA: KLANJANA DŽENAZA HATIDŽI HREN: OSTAVILA JE VELIKU PORUKU SVIMA NAMA