The Trolley Case 1323 Transit Charity_closet Luggage Charity Camp Emotions A basement room filled with donated clothes and other items, which the Caritas volunteers hand out to the refugees at Friedland Transit Camp for a small price holding a symbolic value. What is the significance of old suitcases, donated and stored in this “charity closet”? Why can these discarded pieces of luggage, bearing scratches and signs of use, unleash intense emotions? These are the questions that came to me during my time volunteering at the charity closet.

Amin's home 1338 Destruction Home Loss Family Friendship The house of Amin and his family was completely destroyed during an air raid on Aleppo - while they were still inside. As the house collapsed, the family was buried underneath the debris. As if by a miracle, they all survived.

The Torn Banknote 1378 Family Friendship Memory Transit Arrival Loss Home A shredded Syrian 50 Lira note, of low financial, but high emotional value for mother and son of the K. family. Both have been carrying this note with them for four years. A banknote as torn as the family, connected with the hope to grow together again to a whole, to reunite.

Rima's Golden Fountain Pen 1405 Memory Biography Family Comfort Museum Rima's grandfather gave her this fountain pen when she was three years old. She safeguarded this gift all her life and brought it with her to Friedland, where she donated it to the museum to increase its value even further.

Camp Chronicles 1414 Museum SpätaussiedlerInnen(late_repatriates) Document Memory Policy The camp chronicles at the Museum Friedland document the history of the transit camp by means of newspaper articles and photographs. They don’t just document the perspective of the camp workers who collected and filed these documents, but they also speak diverse ‘languages’.

Travel Baggage 1450 Luggage Valuables Family Document In the 1950s, the border transit camp at Friedland served as the first point of contact for people from former German territories. Taking registration documents that have since been archived at the Federal Administration Office in Friedland as a starting point, this text aims to ask which items are considered valuable enough to be taken along by migrants.

Theft of Things and Time 1464 Home Loss Immateriality Valuables Biography Theft Migration_politics Temporality The story of Arif Ibrahim, who came to Europe thirteen years ago, is paradigmatic for the situation of asylum seekers, who, due to the European asylum system, are caught in a continuous state of insecurity because of criminalisation, (impending) deportation, and economic precarity. These people are systematically robbed of their lifetime, opportunities, achievements, and possessions.

Notice of Rejection 1493 Migration_politics Document Bureaucracy Valuables Uncertainty Results of administrative procedures are materialized i.a. through notices on asylum decisions. Even though these papers contain ‘objective facts’, they often affect people in various ways. This section is about the distribution of these papers, different ways of dealing with them, and their effect on people in different situations.

Consumption 1515 Food Money Shopping Commensality Infrastructure How important is shopping for asylum seekers with limited means? Which products are bought where and is shopping a standalone event or just something that needs to be done?

Chapati 1534 Food Friendship Commensality Communication Camp_life Shared meals are an opportunity to invite and entertain neighbors and friends, even if in the confined rooms at the transit camp. Besides drinking tea, this is a central event of enjoyment and temporary communality, which are often able to bridge religious, ethnic, and national affiliations.

Prepaid-Coupon 1555 Communication Infrastructure Uncertainty Work Transit Camp The communication of camp inhabitants depends on the digital infrastructure of the accommodation. Freely accessible Wi-Fi enables the exchange of videos, voice messages, pictures, and documents; a practice that uses up more data. When this option is no longer available due to relocation, the modes of communication change dramatically and require the purchase of prepaid credit, which is a major financial challenge for many.

The Inflatable Boat 1581 Mediterranean Protest Migration_politics Civil_society Emotions Transformation This inflatable was intercepted by the “Libyan Coast Guard”. It documents one of countless failed escape attempts over the Mediterranean Sea. As part of the Seebrücke protest relay, it is now travelling through Germany, promoting safe migration routes, the decriminalisation of sea rescue and a humanitarian reception of those who are on the fleeing.

The Wooden Cross 1604 Religion Camp_life Togetherness umstrittene_Konventionen Ritual Faith Reconciliation The wooden cross is a well-known object, often automatically linked to Christianity. In the Protestant chapel in Friedland, the cross is placed centered behind the altar. What questions does the wooden cross raise in Friedland's diverse religious environment, and what new perspectives on the object arise from it?

The pocket knife 1617 Craft PrisonersOfWar Dishware&cutlery Artwork Camp_life Friendship This pocketknife belonged to Heinrich Kröger, who received it in 1948 from a comrade during his imprisonment. It is made from aluminium and steel and the initials “H.K.” and the year “1948” were punched in the handle. The knife originated in Lublin (Poland).

Lagerszenen 1631 Friendship Craft Camp PrisonersOfWar Memory Artwork Cultural_memory Die sieben einzelnen Bilder wurden 1955 innerhalb einer Woche durch Herrmann Günther aus Jühnde angefertigt. Sie zeigen Szenen des Lebens in einem Gefangenenlager. Günther bezog sich hierbei auf eigene Erfahrungen der Kriegsgefangenschaft.

The torn family 1652 Loss Family Friendship Arrival Transit Home Camp UN-Resettlement What constitutes a home for people who have had to establish themselves several times in situations of transition? Which things matter, which things become irrelevant and which more important when life is shaped by frequent departures, arrivals and new beginnings? What do relationships with family and friends that materialize in different ways during transit mean?

The new Camera 1672 Picture Money Ambitions Requirement Dignity Camera It was a very expensive camera for professional photographers. It looked like a normal camera but was capable of taking quality photos with high resolution. When asked why he decided to spend so much money on a high-priced camera, he simply replied, “If I did not buy it now, I would never again have the chance to buy it...”

"Less than Half" 1687 Cosmetics Oppression Freedom Women’s_rights Dignity Nishtman Abdollahi is a Kurdish political activist and artist from Western Iran. Her main reasons for leaving the country were her personal situation, and also the oppression of women in Iran in general. The latter theme was the driving force behind this portrait titled Less than Half. Nishtman drew the woman on the picture with materials like sunscreen and make-up, thus with the actual cosmetics that are used in Iran.

A Picture worth 4.000 Euros 1736 Home Picture Ambitions Family A picture of a man taking a nap. Maybe the man has just returned from work and is dozing, as he wears a shirt that people usually wear at work, and he still has his socks on. His feet lean against the heater, showing it is a cold day. Next to him are a teapot and two empty glasses. Judging by the simple furniture, one could say that he is in a workers' home.

The Winter Jacket 1740 Charity_closet Uncertainty Clothes Dignity Comfort Collecting It was an unruly jacket. It was too bulky to just fit into the woman's bag. I saw her take off the winter jacket as she stood behind the wall of the charity closet and tuck it into her bag with great difficulty before going inside. Puzzled, I wondered about the reason for what she was doing.

The silver spoon 1750 Family Memory Museum Valuables PrisonersOfWar Dishware&cutlery Survival The silver spoon was part of the family property of Emilie Waschkies. It is one of the few things that Emilie was able to take with her and safeguard at the time of her flight from the family’s estate in Laugallen in the Memel Territory in January 1945. In 2012, Emilie’s granddaughter presented the spoon – and its history – to the Museum Friedland.

Toy figure 1761 Family Memory Valuables Childhood Camp Comfort The toy figure „Klein Biberherz“ [Little beaver heart] from the comic series “Tom and Biber” [Tom and Beaver] initiated in 1957 belonged to Rudolf Karliczek, who came from Poland to the Federal Republic of Germany with his mother as a five-year-old in 1967. He received the figure, which is now exhibited in Museum Friedland, in Friedland transit camp.

Tableware Quarrels 1764 Home Camp_life Dignity Dishware&cutlery Total_institution In transit camps, very different concepts, ideas, practices, and materialities collide regarding what is understood as a dignified and appropriate accommodation. Why is it worth having a look at tableware to understand the tension-filled relationship between institutions and cultures of the home?

Need or Greed 1772 Collecting Uncertainty Clothes Normality Dignity The man was trying on some jeans, they were not yet frayed, but signs of wear were visible around the knees. The jeans did not fit him well, they were too long and too big. Several times he insisted on knowing that more and better jeans were kept in the back rooms, but the employees in the charity closet refused to show him. I wondered why.

Der Kapuzenpullover 1799 Clothes Comfort Museum Togetherness Arrival Solidarity Pullover, Turnschuhe, Jeans. Viel mehr als das, was er auf dem Leib trug, hatte der Syrer Fahed Kalaji nicht bei sich, als er Anfang März 2016 über die Balkanroute nach Deutschland kam. Die Kleidungsstücke bedeuten ihm viel, erinnern ihn aber auch an die gefährliche Flucht.

The Misbaha 1813 Religion Valuables Memory Survival Comfort The Islamic prayer chain, the misbaha, is one of five personal objects that accompanied Monzer on his escape. It originates from Mecca in Saudi Arabia and was given to Monzer during the Hiǧra pilgrimage. Before his flight, Monzer used the Misbaha in a religious context, but the experiences during his escape give rise to new functions and meanings of the object.

The prayer book 1822 Religion Survival Valuables Schutz Transformation A small prayer book, originally distributed as one of many objects on the streets of Homs in Syria, is now a constant companion in a light brown, leather purse. An object that has undergone an arduous flight from Syria via Egypt and the Mediterranean, and which its owner Monzer still carries with him today as a protective object.

The Broken Ring 1839 Memory Valuables Family Illegality UN-Resettlement jewelry What do memorabilia mean for people who have left their home country because of the harshness of the state, social mistrust, and individual lack of perspective? Who have fled illegally from one country to another during a period of four years, been in jail and in various refugee camps at times, and have lost everything but a ring? What power do such memorabilia develop for the wearer and what meaning is attributed to them?

Donations - true or supposed charity 1852 Valuables Clothes Dignity Charity Worn-out shoes with holes in the soles, clothes with burn marks or torn linings, handed in as donations at the Caritas clothing store in Friedland. When unpacking the donations, I often asked myself: What criteria do donors use to clean out their closets, attics and basements? What motives encourage people to donate? And what is true or supposed charity?

Immateriality 1863 Immateriality Many people who are forced to leave their country have few belongings of importance when they arrive in Europe. To what extent does it make sense for anthropologists to study material culture in this context?

The vinyl record 1873 Memory SpätaussiedlerInnen(late_repatriates) Music Museum A record by the Tajik singer Djurabek Murodov (Ҷӯрабек Муродов) as a reminder of the country in which Lydia Hoffmann, daughter of ethnic German late repatriates, grew up.

The self-made barbecue 1878 Dignity Camp_life Transit Artwork Craft Late summer 2017: Family R. from Afghanistan reaches Friedland after about two and a half years on the run. Times in camps are always times of waiting, of living in transition and of not arriving. In order not to let this wear them down and not to give up hope, some refugees use their creativity to counteract the waiting and to strengthen their self-confidence. In the case of Rasul R., this was the construction of a barbecue, which is still used today in many activities in the FriedlandGarten.

The white Envelope 1886 Emotions Letter Biography Family Uncertainty Once a month „Let’s make it“, a project of the Museum Friedland, invites refugees, who are temporarily residing in the close-by transit camp, to use pencil and paintbrush to put their thoughts, memories, and hopes on paper. Samah Al Jundi-Pfaff, who works at the Museum Friedland has herself fled Syria in 2015, launched this project. She would have never thought that its message would travel all the way to Alexandria, Egypt.

Documents of the Undocumented 1950 Ambitions Document Family Dignity Migration_politics Policy Requirement This is a picture of the document which is required for children of undocumented migrants in Iran to be able to attend school. Without this paper they have no right to education. In order to obtain this document, the family father needs to contact the governmental authorities at a specific date to pay a fee and sign the paper. Omid, an Afghan child from an undocumented family, wants to attend the first grade. However, he is unable to obtain this document because his father is not there to sign it.

"The Last Things" 1958 Mediterranean Loss Death Transit Valuables On the 18th of April 2015, a boating accident in the Mediterranean Sea presumably killed up to 800 people. The boat was on its way from Libya to Italy. The journalist Margherita Bettoni reports in an article for the Sueddeutsche Zeitung Magazin about the work of a Milanese forensic scientist who examined both the bodies and the objects of the drowned fugitives. An interview about the direct language of materiality and its effect.

Dilîşan's Camera 1966 Memory Destruction Freedom Death Camera This camera (a Nikon D90) belonged to the Kurdish-Syrian journalist Dilîşan Îbiş, who was killed by a car bomb planted by ISIL in Deir ez-Zor in 2017. In a guest article, her friend and colleague, Hoşeng Hesen, describes her life and the challenges faced by journalists in north-eastern Syria.

A cross made out of refugee boats 1981 Religion Memory Artwork Mediterranean Migration_politics In the Cathedral of Noto (Sicily) there is a cross, 4.60 meters high, weighing about four and a half tons. This cross was created by an Italian artist from the remains of refugee boats stranded on the southeast coast of Sicily. What is the significance of the cross in this specific place on the Italian island of Sicily?

The Handcrafted Shoe 1994 Faical Souei is now in his eleventh year running his business in the Theaterstraße in the center of Göttingen, which bears the name “Amir”. Here, he makes his own shoes, offers shoe repairs and a key-making service. A lot of stamina, creativity, and dexterity go into his work.

The Non-Donation – Attempt at a definition 2006 Charity Donation Charity_closet Kleidung As a welfare organization in a first reception facility, Caritas Friedland's main concern is to provide the best possible support to clients and staff. The clothing store operated by Caritas in the border transit camp Friedland relies on donations. It goes without saying that not all donations can be used directly. Sometimes, however, it is more than questionable what use the donations should have.

When your perspectives affect your materiality… 2014 Artwork Women’s_rights Picture Oppression decoration This is a picture of Bahmans favorite singer Marzieh, a very popular singer from Iran during the 1970s, the time before the Iranian Revolution. In his restaurant Shirin, Bahman put up a picture of her in a beautiful frame.

Zahra's Bangle 2023 jewelry Friendship gift Museum Transit Zahra brought this bangle from al-Hasaka via Amouda, Gaziantep, and Mersin, to Friedland. It was a gift from her older sister who bought it for her, just like that, many years ago.

Dust from a Previous Life 2038 Destruction Family Home Letter Emotions Valuables This small box covered in dust is what Um-Abdallah found among the rubbles of her house that had burned to ashes in the bombing of Mukhayyam al-Yarmūk district close to Damascus, Syria. It was a Mother’s Day gift from her daughter, back at the time when she was in kindergarten. Inside the box there is a letter written in Arabic in a childish hand-writing. It is a letter Um-Abdallah’s five-year-old daughter wrote to her mother when she was only five and had learned to read and write very early.

About the value of the title deed 2055 Destruction Transit Memory instability war The deed provides information about the condominium that the M. family purchased in Ashrafieh, Syria, before the outbreak of war in 2010. It is an apartment with two rooms, kitchen and bathroom for five people. Buying an apartment or a house in Syria is the first visible step towards a respectable life as a family, because ownership means stability and security.

Crossing the Farther Shore 2064 Artwork Cultural_memory Loss Picture boat_People As a photography installation by artist Dinh Q.Lê, Crossing the Farther Shore is a visual archive containing and speaking mostly voices of the pre-1975 southern Vietnamese people, whose stories are either erased by the communist regime or overwhelmed by international media.

High-visibility reflection vests 2082 border_regime visibility_vest Infrastructure Migration_politics Signal vests are ubiquitous on the escape routes to Europe. They signal danger, order, help; they organize the movement of refugees and reflect power relations. The ethnologist Ignacio Fradejas-García witnessed these functions when he accompanied refugees on the Croatian-Hungarian border in autumn 2015.

Striving for Normality 2095 Ambitions Biography Bureaucracy Dignity Arrival Requirement Valuables Document Family Um-Abdallah received this language certificate after having passed the exam successfully. This is one of the telc/B1 certificates that refugees and migrants who are going to live and work in Germany usually need. Um-Abdallah is quite happy to have obtained the certificate with good marks.

Silent Witnesses of Hardship : Things Obtained in … 2104 This comb and the scissors have been with Wassim for six years. He is a hair-stylist who works at a hair salon in Goettingen. He does not use these items anymore, but he still has them and carries them with him!

The Things that Stay 2127 Vorübergehend Alltag Permanente Dinge Food Kontinuität Many people do not reside permanently in one city or country. They move for work, for love or for their studies, to get away from war or from poverty. Mobile people are often very aware of the fact that they are not going to stay in one locality. This knowledge has an influence on what kind of things they carry with them, keep and leave behind.

The Piece of Cloth 2157 Transformation Transit Biography Home What are your first thoughts on this little piece of cloth? What was its use, what did it belong to? The piece of cloth is small, changing its color from a shade of beige to bright red. With each location it passed, the uses that have been transferred to it and the continuous change in its meaning, it can be clearly seen that migrating objects are neither static nor unchangeable materials ‘carrying’ specific mean­ing, but are in a constant process of adaption and transformation.

Papers: Things Obtained in Displacement 2175 Document Family Home This passport belongs to Aazad, a Kurdish-Iraqi-German citizen who migrated to Germany 26 years ago. He lives in Goettingen with his family, his wife and four children. He works in a kiosk. He has been given this passport after he was proved as a well-integrated migrant, considered as a German citizen.

Objects as Means of Motivation 2236 Memory Transit border_regime Women’s_rights Demütigung This piece of paper is a rejection note from the Greek border police given to Selma[1]- a Kurdish twenty-year-old woman who crossed the border from Turkey to Greece trying to reach Germany. Selma is now in Germany, and more than a year has passed since the Greek border police gave her this note and deported her back to Turkey. The fold-lines and the pressure marks due to staying long in her pocket have made it ragged, but Selma is still willing to keep it.

Refugee Camps and COVID-19 2243 Camp Infrastructure The EU humanitarian aid Corona Social Distancing Everyone deserves to be protected from the Coronavirus. Refugees included. With the outbreak of Covid-19, refugee camps are a huge concern. Aid organizations’ operators draw back from the field and their centres remain closed until further notice. They work remotely to support the governments in their efforts to respond to this pandemic in the protection of the people in camps - the very vulnerable places in terms of the spread of the virus.

Street - Protest - Cracks 2254 Bureaucracy Document Oppression Freedom Loss Uncertainty Illegality In 2014, Berta Amlak took to the streets of Addis Ababa to join the protest for a free and democratic Ethiopia. The following dramatic events forced him to flee the country. Deprived of personal photographs and family contact, this shot, taken by his mobile phone, is a visual metaphor of the streets, the violently cracked down protest, the wounds of the dead and injured, as well as the multiple cracks that permeate the country’s society.

Poverty und Violence 2306 Infrastructure Camp Violence Poverty Lockdown This mobile phone belonged to a 19-year-old man from the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire. It was already some months that he had arrived in Greece and sought asylum there. He was staying at Moria Camp. He lost his life in a fight over this cellphone.

Shoe lace, Belt, GPS, Google Maps: Vital Things to the … 2315 Disposession Emotions Migration_politics Oppression Dignity These white shoe-laces tied on the grey sneakers are not the original laces of these sneakers. The original laces were grey, the same color as the sneakers. Javad could not find grey shoe-laces, therefore he bought these, after he lost the original ones during an on-foot journey on the route shown on the map; this is a picture of the GPS navigation map on Javad’s Mobile phone that shows the route and distance from Istanbul, Turkey to Alexandropoulos, Greece on Google Maps. According to that, it will take 3 days and some hours on foot.

Audio cassette from Iran 2336 Memory Women’s_rights Media Family Who still listens to audio cassettes these days? Why should a person keep a cassette for more than 40 years? This audio cassette from the 1970s explains two stories at the same time. The life of M., an Iranian migrant, who fled the country in 1982, and the story of her mother, who stayed in Iran. While the recorded voice of her mother tells about the difficulties of the woman’s life in Iran, the cassette is the only object M. took with her while migrating and reflects her life as a migrant woman in the diaspora. This audio cassette not only displays the story of a female political migrant from the 1980’s, but is also the only proof she has of her lost past.

A pipe and three people 2352 Iran Pfeife Family Memory Bürgerkrieg The pipe in the picture belongs to Jalil. He brought it with him from Damavand (Iran) to Goettingen (Germany) on the day he left Iran forever, five years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran.