“At present, I definitely do not feel safe,” says Jewish American Lilia. “Sometimes I want to blow myself up. Like a large red balloon (…) with my big soft belly, I am finishing every cartridge, ”I wrote in Berlin in Berlin in Berlin, in Berlin there was an Iizid-Kurd. And the Israeli conductor and pianist isaya, who lives in Berlin, dryly says: “I feel committed to optimism.”
Three completely different answers to the question: “How are you?”, 48 comics: inside Germany, after October 7, 2023, people who suffer from anti -Semitism, hatred and racism or professionally communicate with lizantropic ideologies. What began with a spontaneous human need as a voluntary project of some drawers: originally published on the Internet every week, every week was published on the Internet, an anthology with 60 negotiations published by Berlin Comic Verlag Avant was published.
There are famous names, such as the Muslim Jewish pair of Saba Nur-chim and Meron Meron Mendel or Berlin-Imamin Seyran Atesh, who survived the Holocaust, such as Emmy Arbel, who lives in Israel, an activist: inside, Like Daniel Burgardt from Erlangen, critical memory or artists such as Naama Friedman. And some who prefer to stay anonymously.
Contracial point for the formation of a warehouse and confessional coercion
“How are you?” The question may be banal or naive, taking into account violence in the Middle East. Nevertheless, this diverse, colorful book for conversations establishes an important counterpoint in the discourse climate, which is characterized by a forced repository and confessional. The pressure in order to comment on the conflict in the Middle East (presumably) corresponds to their own origin, political socialization or the expectations of the majority are recognizable for all respondents.
Hannah Brinkmann, Natalie Frank, Michael Jordan Wa (ed.): “How are you? Sixty negotiations after October 7, 2023. Avan-Verlag Berlin 2025, 136 pages, 35 euros
“Sometimes I am afraid not to have the right relationship,” says the former neighbor in the room of the drawer Nadin Pedde, when he asks the pseudonym Betty. Betty holds seminars on radicalization, anti -Semitism and the ideology of conspiracy. Participants: Inside, she reports on brightly colored panels, she wanted to “find out what is right and what is wrong.” Betty asks: “Can’t I just suffer from myself in the Middle East, or is it too little?”
The feeling of being defenseless is again outweighed among the Jews. In some, a repressed family story appears, as with the author of Berlin Lee Streisand, who fell into a panic after October 7, 2023 and could not leave her apartment for 14 days. “This is similar to a connection with time that we have not experienced ourselves, but it is stored in us,” says her comic version, drawn in Knubbeloptik from Flix.
The surviving concentration camp Emmy Arbel finds the question “How are you?” Of all the things, in the Ravensbruk memorial, where he travels once a year as a modern witness and stuck after October 7th. She feels crazy in Ravenbrake, from all places, writes the draftsman Barbara Yelin. This depicts Abel in dark pastel creep – only in the guest house in which the leaders lived and guarded the guard, who should protect the memorial from the Nazis. According to Abel, you take care of them wonderful. But she wants to return home: “This is not safe in Israel. And yet this is the best place for me. “
A shocked sense of belonging
The social sense of belonging to the Palestinians: inside and people from the countries of the Muslim countries also stirred on October 7. The author of Saudi Arabia Rasha Hayat, who lives in Hamburg, complains about a general suspicion against the Arab people. You can see them dynamically hatched, climb into the water in a black swimsuit: “I’m angry. I want a government representative who says: we protect you and a plural society. But you strangle anger. I swim, it helps me. “
Very few positions themselves are as clear as the author of Namam Friedman, who says: “… but you cannot be tolerant with intolerant. There is no ransom for Simvar ”-Hamas lover in Gaza, which was the highest Israeli military, is in a comic book with hanging hands in front of a horned devil.
Political analysis cannot be expected from this book, but one constantly reminds of the actual banal fact that wars and conflicts do not affect the abstract states and regions, but people and their families.
Most of the stories that are shown in a variety of drawing styles press helplessness and grief from private individuals whose biographies threaten from October 7, that they are crushed between old and new anti -Semitism, anti -Muslim racism and instrumentation from all sides.
Refusal of violence
It should be noted that you can tell 128 pages about the conflict of the Middle East, without falling into ordinary hatred and narratives about the victims. In view of the old olive tree in Palestine, “the loss of people, from the country, law and self -determination” is named, and “continuous, never affected sense of loss” will complain. But also emphasizes the rejection of violence. There is no watermelon far and wide, there are no red triangles.
The main attention should be focused on sympathy and sympathy, emphasizes Véronique Sina, which accompanied the project as a consultant. In the report of Dr. Danji Zauali from Erlangen, it is told how basal sympathy is absent in Germany: the child who has lost relatives in Gaza should “hear himself” from the teacher that there was no Palestinian state and never existed. ”
“How are you?” On the other hand, he wants to give emotions, fears and fears of injured people in the room. According to Véronique Sina, due to its multiplotry, the average comic book is especially suitable for this.
“The conversation with each other is the radical that we can do today,” says Saaba Nur Chima, drawn Amelie Persson. The German Palestinian Amal, who lost part of his family in Gaza, also finds hope in dialogue: she invited a representative of the Jewish community to coffee. Since then you have met in a larger group every month. The German-Israeli Jew Shai Hoffmann for a long time supports the dialogue in the podcast “speaking of Israel and Palestine.” When he was asked how he was doing, he says: “This continues.”
