How trauma is inherited – a reading commemorating the Armenian Genocide

Description

April 24th is the day Armenians around the world commemorate the victims of the 1915 Turkish genocide. The victims are not only the 1.5 million murdered Armenians, but also the dead of other Christian communities in the Ottoman Empire – and the survivors who were left alone with their grief and trauma. This remains true today because Turkey continues to deny the genocide.
Laura Cwiertnia 's novel "On the Street We're Called Differently ." In Karla's family, everyone knows what it feels like to be an outsider. Karla experiences it as a child in Bremen-North, her father Avi in ​​a monastery school in Jerusalem, her grandmother Maryam as a guest worker in Germany, and her great-grandmother Armine on the streets of Istanbul.
With empathy and subtle humor, the Bremen-born ZEIT journalist and author Laura Cwiertnia traces the history of an Armenian family across four generations. In the background, ever-present, resonate the wounds and traumas inflicted on the surviving Armenians by the 1915 Turkish genocide, wounds passed down from generation to generation. On this Genocide Remembrance Day, Laura Cwiertnia presents her novel in a blend of reading and discussion. Parish priest Hratsch Biliciyan provides an introduction to the topic.

The event will be moderated by Tate Reit, a German-Armenian literature enthusiast. Musical accompaniment will be provided by the Bremen Choir Workshop under the direction of Max Börner.

A collaborative event by the Armenian Community of Bremen, the Bremen Democracy Center, the Bremen Choir Workshop and Stadtbibliothek Bremen.

Traditionally, the commemoration for Armenians from Bremen and the surrounding area begins two hours earlier with a requiem mass at the Armenian cross-stone on Gustav-Deetjen-Allee, behind the train station near the anti-colonial monument (the Elephant). Parish priest Hratsch will pray there – beginning at 5 p.m. – for the victims of the genocide. At the same time, he will encourage those who have found a new home in the diaspora, and especially in the Bremen diaspora, to nurture their community. At the cross-stone, Armenian: khachkar, the Armenian community of Bremen commemorates not only its own dead, but also the victims mourned by the communities of the Arameans/Assyrians and the Greeks of Asia Minor, Pontus, and Eastern Thrace.

Where and when

Free event