Helga Hirsch:
“Vom Verlust der Heimat zwischen Oder und Bug”
Everybody is focused on their own problems and those of the group with whom they share their experiences. But people who feel their fate is recognized by their environment can stop focusing on their own problems more easily and develop compassion for others. They no longer feel they are competing with other victims.
I wished to convey such a sense of compassion to the people I talked to when I asked them to share their experiences: the enforced loss of one’s homeland as a result of the World War II in the region between the Oder and Bug rivers.
I met displaced Poles, Jews, Ukrainians and Germans on my travels to western Ukraine, Poland, Israel and German cities. The more I read, the more cases I researched, the more familiar I became with these regions, their conflicts and their remembrance cultures. I realized that by presenting an account of their courage in view of the often oppressive and hopeless situations they face, revealing their sadness and shame in the face of humiliating, painful experiences, I paradoxically felt that I myself had received a gift. These people let me participate in their pain and thereby created a fruitful exchange in which nationality no longer played a role.
Entwurzelt
Vom Verlust der Heimat zwischen Oder und Bug
296 pages with 10 b/w illustrations
Hardback with dust cover|14.5 x 22 cm
ISBN 978-3-89684-065-3
EUR 20.00 (D)
Published in March 2007 in the Körber Stiftung series
