It was a good idea of the committed Orlanda Verlag to present five fate of young people on the desperate escape from their home countries. They fled to survive, so fearful that they ignored the risk of drowning. 14-year-old Phu from Saigon did not understand his mother when she told him “You have to get away from here”. After the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, North Vietnam occupied the southern part of the country and there was murderous chaos, the boy had no future. With the last of the money, the mother bribed a smuggler and Phu found himself alone with other refugees on an overcrowded boat on the high seas for 14 days without food or drink. He survived 17 partisan attacks before he was deported by the Malaysian police to a totally overcrowded camp. It was only thanks to a refugee aid organization that he was able to fly to the USA and later study.
The book depicts fates of this kind from different parts of the world in an extremely impressive manner. It helps to empathize with the different circumstances and perspectives and not to remain fixated on European problems. It doesn’t matter whether it is a Cuban boy whose parents were opponents of Castro and who wanted to venture the seven-hour trip to Florida in a completely unsuitable boat at all costs, only survived by chance, or an 11-year-old girl from Afghanistan who fled to Australia would have been worth a book of its own. We have gotten used to the dramatic circumstances of fleeing societies destroyed by wars, civil wars and authoritarian regimes, we have suppressed them. But we should keep an eye on them because they keep illuminating the causes of the flight of young people. Causes, for which our wealthy nations are definitely to blame and therefore obliged to help refugees in need on the high seas. It should be a matter of course, given the saying of little Mohamed from Ivory Coast, “we are in danger of drowning, but I don’t care”.
But Realpolitik acts differently. The book would like to point out this dilemma. It is well illustrated, but the subject requires an explanation of the specific situation in each case. It would be difficult to convey the background of the Cuban revolution. This applies even more to the escape of the 18-year-old Jew Ruth, who left Germany in 1939 with the legendary St. Louis for Havana. The question arises, however, whether such an example of Nazi Jewish policy would not be too much of a burden for such young readers. Instead of this tragic story (with a good ending) one could have told a contemporary escape fate with successful integration in this country.
Mary Beth Leatherdale / Eleanor Shakespeare: Stormy Seas. Stories from young boat refugees. Translated from the English by Barbara Küper. Orlanda Verlag, Berlin 2021. 62 pages, 19.50 euros.