Zeit online: "My heart is broken and the pieces lie scattered in Europe"

"My heart is broken and the pieces are scattered in Europe" - Their children left Syria to seek refuge abroad. Aisha Mohammed and Omar Khalil stayed behind like millions of other parents. - What will become of them? *All names have been changed at the request of the family. The morning after the explosion is quiet. Flocks of white doves circle over the neighborhood in Hassakeh, the largest city in northeastern Syria. The smoke has cleared. (...) Only the puddle-sized soot stain on the street behind the school wall testifies to the fact that there was an attack on a military vehicle here yesterday.. A block away, Aisha Mohammad*, 53, kneels on the floor of her first-floor apartment. In front of her: a cookie jar with the inscription "Kernafa Luxury". She has spread the contents out in front of her. Memories of the children who have moved away. (...) For weeks we, the photographer and I, searched in Syria for a family willing to talk to us. About the parting and the staying behind, the life of the families between Syria and Europe. Again and again we got rejections: "The story is so intimate", "I'm sorry, the pain is too fresh to talk about it". Then, the parents of my friend Anas agreed. His parents said they couldn't promise anything. But they wanted to try to put into words what they had no words for. - Written by Bartholomäus Laffert | Big thank you to Shaveen Mohammad who accompanied the way. | As well as a thank you to Andreas Prost and Annabelle Seubert. → Read the story at Zeit online / https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/2023-06/syrien-familie-gefluechtete-krieg-leben