‘We have been crushed, but we have persevered; we did everything we could, what else can we do?’ I say to myself, but I also know we haven’t fought hard enough. All these excuses disappear when I think of Adem who didn’t go to school because he was too embarrassed about having no food to pack for school.

 

Having been forced to be drafted, Muhammad Ali said he had suffered no evil at the hands of the Vietnamese, it was rather the people in his home country who oppressed him throughout all his life. About the ‘yellow people’, he said ‘shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people?

 

If we don’t know the past or we don’t understand how the past forms the present, all of our inferences and conclusions can suffer from errors. In that case, resisting, saying ‘no’ or talking about ‘justice’ and ‘equality’ become impossible. Hence, we would like to thank you for your efforts: Your brave works refresh the memory, which is essential for those resisting against death. Alzheimer shatters the memory and we can smile with happiness. I am not ill. Not yet.

 

Your works heal us, heal the world and take on quite an important task of preparing for peace: Your works give us the power to prepare not for war, but for peace.

 

Petra Holzer & Ethem Özgüven & BIFED Team