Seminar from the series “Flight and Migration”:
The seminar “Refugee Stories,” which took place at the wannseeFORUM from April 18 to 22, 2016, focused for a week on both the personal stories of people who have had to leave their country in the recent past, and on the historical perspective of refugee movements and how they have been handled: What can we learn from history for the present? What stories and individual fates lie behind the anonymous numbers and images with which we are confronted daily in the news?
The participating students from an 11th-grade class at the Louise-Schroeder-School in Berlin began by exploring their own family histories, examining where they, their relatives, and/or their ancestors had moved from and to, and the reasons for these moves. It became clear that migration had occurred in all families, and that often the reasons for relocating were fleeing war and persecution, or the search for a dignified life in freedom. Thus, displacement was demonstrated as a widespread phenomenon in society, and its connection to their own personal history was brought to the students' attention.
The program included a visit to the "7 x young", which explores the topic of flight using the example of the persecution of Jews in the Third Reich. The exhibition's director, Jan Krebs, emphasizes the importance of connecting history and the present, as the students learned in an interview with him. The workshop also addressed things that are important to them in life and how they would feel if they had to do without them.
Another excursion took the students to the Marienfelde Emergency Reception Center Memorial, which was built in 1953 for refugees from East Germany and today houses both a transitional housing facility for refugees and a museum. In the accompanying exhibition, the students gained insights into the stories of escape across the inner-German border and the reception of people from East Germany in what was then West Berlin.
At the transitional housing facility, they spoke with a resident who had to flee Syria. He had resisted the Assad regime during the so-called Arab Spring and was therefore politically persecuted. He explained that fleeing to Germany saved his life. A similar story was told by a young man who visited the wannseeFORUM and shared his personal story of escape, as well as his visions for the future, with the students present.
Gaining insights into the lives of refugees has helped to foster understanding of their individual situations. At the same time, these encounters have helped to reduce anxieties and counteract stereotypes.
The results of the seminar week were presented to the public in the form of a radio broadcast, which was aired on Radio ALEX 88.4 mHZ on April 29, 2016 and here .
The rap group contributed the song "Tear down the borders":
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