On being a refugee in Berlin
Syrians and other "new Berliners" today are experiencing something familiar to people who, at different times, came from places like Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Vietnam....
BERLIN (5. March, 2025) — Recent events have me thinking about a brief, personal trip I made to Berlin from the United States in 2004. Upon my arrival, friends here spontaneously invited me to a big, wonderful party — a family reunion. Like many Berlin parties, this night of music-and-dancing started late and ended at some point after dawn the next day. I don’t actually know when it ended, though, because I gave my grateful “good nights” to our hosts before staggering out at 3 a.m. (And I was the first to leave the party!)
It was a great Berlin celebration of (and by) a wonderful group of extended families from Afghanistan. I was welcomed to this family reunion by one host/mother who, greeting me at the door, immediately escorted to meet a 10-year-old son/nephew from another branch of the clan, visiting from Washington, DC.
Being raised as an American in the United States, this young man spoke neither Farsi nor German, only English — and, because I had some experience as a “regular American dad,” I was given the ‘assignment’ of engaging him, surrounded by all the “oldsters” of his family-reunion party in Berlin. [The boy’s first, most urgent questions were about the puzzling German words on a familiar wall-poster: Star Wars: Episode II – Angriff der Klonkrieger.]
I attended this fun Berlin party, where I did what I always do: Be interested enough to ask people about their lives (both present and past) and, as a US journalist, to process their answers aloud with them — live, face to face….
The family really didn’t have to worry about the boy, who became comfortable enough with the crowd. For my part, I too felt welcome enough to do what I do: Be curious & ask other guests about their current lives in Berlin, as well as their past; as a US journalist, I also was interested enough to process their answers, together with them, on-the-spot; face to face.
In a word: I interviewed a lot of Afghani-Berliners about the thing that lay heaviest on our minds that night: The ongoing (2001-2021) war/invasion and occupation of their home-country, Afghanistan, by my home-country, the United States — acting in the emotional wake of 9-11….