Starting up again

August 24th. Today we returned to Berlin from Schwedt and tomorrow I will leave for London to see my cousins - all 2nd generation survivors like me. I will take a break from the blog for the next 5 days. So let me fill in some of what's been going on the last couple of days. On Monday the 22nd, Elizabeth and I worked hard in the morning in the dance studio on movement ideas. Afterwards we spent some time with Thomas talking more about ideas for the project. By this time I was missing both my jacket and my dance pants. It took a couple of days for me to work out where the pants had disappeared (I had used them to keep my pants dry when we had dinner on the veranda overlooking the canal). The pants are never to be seen again. We tried going back to find them but the staff thought we were looking for black funeral flowers instead of Schwartz hosen... We traced my jacket back to Thomas's van through a photo that EB took. On Tuesday morning I set out after breakfast on my own to stretch my legs (Elizabeth and I have been living in a small hotel room). I was was looking for the street where there was something called The Karthaus which I had gathered (most of the conversations are in German) was a place where there were activities for young people - a potential spot to find participants here for the project. It was not on the short street where I had thought it might be but as I looped back around on the next street over I saw a mural on a building that said Karthaus. I screwed up my resolve and went through the open gate to see what I could see. An open door! I poked my head in, interrupted two ladies talking, said I didn't speak German, and vois la, I got to speak to one of the staff there. She was very nice and welcoming, perfect English and I explained as best I could. They do have a dance space on the 3rd floor and Wi Fi! One possibility... Later in the day we had a meeting with one of the Gymnasium teachers (High School), Herr Rall, who is the "religious istruction" teacher. It's not called that in all districts but maybe something like cultures of the world or ethics. He had come across my Aunt Maria's Stolperstein and has used it as a place for his students to have direct contact with the reality of the Holocaust. I was amazed and quite moved to learn that he has a group of students that keep the stone polished and clean. Lots of conversation about Right Wing rhetoric, extreme patriotism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and so on. Wolfgang Rall has been threatened where he used to work in Angermunde (a town not far from Schwedt) because of his efforts against the extreme right. The people on the right in the town refer to him as "Jew Rall" and with his students there, he has scratched off swastikas on a public wall, removed stickers about "The third way" from mailboxes and picked up hundreds of small propaganda notes from the streets. "The 3rd way" organizer pushes the idea: No Asylum Homes in Our Town. Racism is alive and well here too... Herr Rall has been researching the Oppenheimer family since he worked for several years in Angermunde where my Mom's family were members of the "Alt Evangelishe" Lutheran church. After a two hour discussion it was agreed that we would meet again next week and he will film an interview with me to tell the story of my Mom's family. He feels it is important to understand that people are affected in many different ways by white supremacy, racism and hatred. So that was Tuesday.... Today there were two meetings: First with the wonderful ladies from the Stadtmuseum who helped us work out a plan for inviting different groups of people to tell their stories about displacement. Afterwards we met with a woman from the Volkshochshule - a city sponsored community education program - where there are also rooms and wi-fi where we can invite people. We keep being referred to a couple in the city who have direct contact with refugees. Something for us to follow up on. Then we sat down and worked on the language to use for a poster. EB and Thomas did most of the work because they are the German speakers. I was there to keep the focus I think but I was very impressed with the way they searched for the right words to capture our intent. What is the intent? In a world of increasing migration and displacement, we need to appreciate the experience of refugees by allowing them to convey their knowledge of having once belonged somewhere, lost that safety and begun the process of belonging again. I want to help push back against inhumane attitudes in the world.