Vergessen ist keine Option!

How can we commemorate victims of far-right violence in such a way that it changes the here and now? How can we take traumatic and personal pain and glean from it a transformative force of solidarity fighting for thorough investigations and processes of transformation towards a more just society? How can we honour these people, with each of their unique dreams and life paths, rather than because of their violent deaths? What language(s) and new forms would this require?

The question »Why did my father have to die?« has haunted Semiya Şimşek and Gamze Kubaşık throughout their lives and remains unanswered to this day. Their fathers, Enver Şimşek and Mehmet Kubaşık, were murdered by the so-called NSU on 9 September 2000 in Nuremberg and 4 April 2006 in Dortmund. Their mourning and commemoration processes have taken place in the context of public, political battles for remembrance, clarification and commemoration. They have made it their goal to continue to remind society of their fathers and to demand complete and thorough investigations.

In a multimedia staged reading with musical accompaniment – and together with Ülkü Süngün, Ali Şirin and Kutlu Yurtseven – Gamze Kubaşık and Semiya Şimşek commemorate their fathers Mehmet Kubaşık and Enver Şimşek.


Part of 7th Berliner Herbstsalon ЯE:IMAGINE: THE RED HOUSE

© Dominique Brewing