“Would you have done the same?”

Recently, I gave my first school readings. They took place for grades 9 and 10 at Fichte-Gymnasium, a secondary school in the German city of Hagen.

I really enjoyed speaking to the students. In advance I would have expected them to be loud or unfocussed sometimes, but there was an attentive silence in the auditorium and afterwards they asked many intelligent and reflective questions.

I noticed that they had completely different questions than adults and approach the subject in an innocent and open-minded way. For example, they asked me whether my great-grandfather had killed people at the front, which of his stories I found particularly moving, whether he had suffered any trauma and how I felt when he died.

One student wanted to know why my great-grandfather surrendered on the front instead of continuing to hide in the ditch. Her question reminded me of my first interview with my great-grandfather in 2015, when I was not much older than the pupils before me. Back then, I had asked him why – as a soldier on the front – one wouldn’t pretend to be dead to avoid being shot. I realised that the students, just like me ten years ago, didn’t know what war is like. And I hope they will have never to experience; yet it is important to learn about what war means. “If you are interested in interviewing contemporary witnesses, do it as soon as possible, because in ten years it might no longer be possible”, I encouraged them.

Next, a student raised his hand and said: “I have a question: Would you have acted like your great-grandfather?”

I was impressed; what a thoughtful question. I hope I would have acted like he did in many situations, but I can never know for sure. Would I have, like him, dared to supply prisoners of war with food? Secretly listened to the BBC? Refused an instruction to show humanity instead? By not thinking or acting the way the regime demanded, you risked a lot, in worst case your life.

“I think no one of us here in the room could say what we would have done because we do not know the exact circumstances that would have shaped us or under which we would have acted”, I answered him. “But it is a good question to think about.”

At the end of the first reading, two pupils came on the stage and gave a speech on behalf of the year 9. One of them said it was a touching and informative reading for them in which it became clear that war means death, loss and suffering. “People who used to live together peacefully, for example from the Netherlands and Germany, as you told us, faced each other as enemies. That is absolutely insane”, she said. The other pupil added that he appreciates that the experiences are passed on, and that they attach importance to remember in order to prevent wars and maintain peace.

I was very pleased to hear what the younger generation thinks about the topic, as I have had only little contact to them so far. I look forward to giving more reading for pupils, they are a great audience.