REMEMBER YOU!
Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with GÉRALDINE BLACK
REMEMBER YOU!
A plea on how Europe can escape the trap of nationalism.
What does it take for a society to become complicit in political crimes? In her book “Die Gedächtnislosen”, Géraldine Schwarz tells the story of her family: her German grandfather was a fellow traveller, he aryanised a Jewish business in 1938 and refused to pay reparations to the sole survivor after the war. Her French grandfather served as a gendarme under the Vichy regime. Spanning three generations, the author embeds her Franco-German family history in the bigger picture and discusses the differences in the way history is dealt with in Germany and France, as well as Austria and Italy. She draws connections to the present: where there is a lack of historical awareness, demagogues and populists are all the more successful. A plea for remembrance work to counteract nationalism and populism.
The Franco-German author, journalist and filmmaker Géraldine Schwarz has scored an international success with her first novel: “Die Gedächtnislosen - Erinnerungen einer Europäerin” (in the French original “Les Amnésiques”) has been translated into many languages and was awarded the European Book Prize 2018. Former US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Powers calls the book “an urgent wake-up call that highlights the dangers of creeping authoritarianism and warns of the backlash that threatens if the injustices of the past are not illuminated and dealt with.”
Géraldine Schwarz, Franco-German journalist and documentary filmmaker. A long-time Germany correspondent for Agence France Presse (afp), she now publishes in various international media
Moderation Tessa Szyszkowitz, author (Real Englishmen. Britain after Brexit, Picus Verlag, 2018) and journalist for PROFIL, Falter and Cicero is also a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.