The story of the woman in the historical picture: That's how I left with the baby.

Ivaje, Kacanik, September 3, 1998. The Kosovo war had taken on remarkable proportions. A large part of the men had joined the Kosovo Liberation Army, leaving their wives with the elderly and children. Among these were Sheriff Luta, 22, pregnant, shortly before his birth.

I had a very difficult birth. Evil health was not the only thing that bothered me. Although the doctors had told me to go to Pristina, they (Serbian soldiers) did not allow me. My daughter, Cemre, was born in Ferizaj's maternity ward”, tells the Sheriff of Deutsche Welle.

The story of the past fills the Sheriff, today a mother of three - a girl and two boys. The report on the dramatic period of 20 years ago starts with her daughter, who belongs to the generation of Kosovo children born in wartime conditions. But the challenge was more than just birth.

Leaving With the Baby in the Gulf

Ivaje, Kacanik, March 8, 1999. When Besa was only six months old, the Sheriff had to leave his home and cross the mountains to escape the Serb forces ever closer to the village. With her husband's family and her family, she starts traveling towards Macedonia, a border state with Kacanik. He didn't have time to take his clothes with him. In the oven he left the bread he was cooking for his family, took his daughter, and hurriedly left.

The difficulties of the past today seem like a bad dream for the Luta family, which after the war has built a new house in old Kacanic. The second year's study in the “branch follows Political science” in Ferizaj. I heard those stories from my mother. As I grew up, I began to understand the reality and its challenges, my father and all Albanians. Same challenges and challenges have been experienced by friends of my generation. We often talk and tell each other these stories. They are so similar and so different from one another” says to Besa Luta DW.

VIDEON THESE

Photo that wrote history

Sheriff Luta does not know exactly how to say the date, when the photograph that turned her and her daughter, Breen, into a symbol of the Kosovo war refugees who took refuge in Macedonia was released. I don't remember whether it was April 3 or 4th of 1999. But the moment of shooting the picture is fresh as it is today. There were many cameramen and photographers that day. I was even asked to give an interview, but I refused. I was so tired of”, telling the Sheriff, at the age of 22.

By the year 2000, she and her family were unaware of the existence of photography. It was her husband, Mirvati, who sees a large commercial on a Pristina street photograph of his wife and daughter. Over the years, they began to appreciate the great importance of photography and the cover of the famous world magazine “TIME”, which had estimated that the journey of Kosovars fleeing Serb military forces would confess through this moment. They soon realized that Mother and daughter were already part of Kosovo's history. “That picture is everything. It shows my mother's extraordinary sacrifice, which kept me in my bosom for weeks walking the mountains. It is a symbol of the sacrifice of all our people”, says Besa Luta.

But the picture caught only one of the difficult moments of the Sheriff's suffering, which with her six - month - old baby started her struggle for survival from March 8 to the first week of April. At one point, when we were sheltered in a house with 300 other refugees, Besa was no longer crying. She was frozen and had nothing to drink. We were so scared. In those moments, my sister - in - law takes the girl and puts her in the bread - roasting oven to melt. In fact, we all thought he was dead. It may have been 10 minutes before Besa suddenly started to cry. We took him out of the oven and put a blanket over him that I still remember. People's applause had no end to”, it shows among the Sheriff Luta emotions.

20 years later...

If he has heard birth and childhood as stories confessed by his mother, Besa today lives her youth in a free Kosovo. Kosovo today has many problems, but most importantly, it is already independent, and I hope that things that are currently not functioning will improve over the course of the time”.

There are many plans for the future, and the first plan is to conduct master studies. Besa doesn't care much about politics in Kosovo. When we're in college, my friends talk for the most part about politics. I just listen and I've preferred never to get involved in such debates”, and it shows up smiling. She has never considered building a life outside Kosovo. “I love to travel and visit other parts of the world, but I see my life and my future here”. She will live peacefully in Kosovo, the country she loves so much and that she, by chance, always represents with her mother.