Eve Rennebarth (32 years old)
The encounters that were not planned but were only possible through an event like the NIGEL learning partnership meeting in Spanish Guernika made the biggest lasting impressions:
Between fish soup and dessert, I learn that the subject of the involvement of grandparents in the Spanish Civil War is apparently just as taboo in Spanish families as this subject is in German families about the Nazi era. While walking along streets wet from rain, we talk about the differences in how eastern and western Germany come to terms with the Third Reich, or about working with contemporary witnesses in Dresden. When Spanish contemporary witnesses describe how they experienced the execution of relatives by Franco’s troops or the bombing of the city, I feel an almost painful sense of distance because I cannot ask questions directly and have to depend on translation.
The visit to a former armoury, now being squatted by teenagers from Guernika, was also unexpected: the way in which the teenagers stubbornly, peacefully, and very deliberately worked to obtain the building for cultural work made a lasting impression on all of us. This action, or also the work by "Guernika Gogoratuz," which included the design of places for remembering like the Peace Museum in Guernika as well as work in the community, seem to be to be the best answer to a question asked by one of the younger participants in a very theoretical discussion: What does the history of my grandparents concretely have to do with the present, and how can I translate what I have learned into action?