"Human beings are strange animals"

That's a quote by a lady, who has lost big parts of her family in the extermination camp of Sobibor, back in the 1940s.

Background was a "Coming to Justice" seminar, that all the ASF-volunteers did together last week at the Anne Frank House. Besides there were some young people from the Netherlands, the Ukraine, the US and Spain, who also participated. As the topic of the seminar suggests, was it all about approaching the complex term of "justice" from different angles.

 

The 4-day seminar began with a tour through the Anne Frank House and topics around the Second World War as well as and discussions about "guilt" and "responsibility" and the Nuremberg trials. The next day we slowly went over to the war in former Yugoslavia (1991 - 1995) and the genocide in Srbrenica. One of the girls that led the workshop, is from Croatia herself and was round 10 years old, when the war broke out. Her stories were very touching and her strengh admirable.

The following day we went to the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) to see the trial of Radovan Karadžić.

What it feels like to sit only 3 meters away from a man, who is responsible of the dead of thousands of people, is barely describable.

All in all it was an intense, moving and challenging seminar, which clearly was very emotional to most of the participants. I am truly thankful that I was allowed to be part of such a program and such an awesome group of people, who are convinced that human rights aren't only some sentences on a piece of paper. Who are stiving to make this world a better place, in no matter which way.
I learned a lot in these four days, among others to see things more differentiated. And most important I learned to see the human being behind the mass murderer.