Salma Jreige: The Museum Guide
How do you begin a new life in a foreign country? By taking on an active role in society, for example. We make a point of supporting projects in which the principal agents are refugees themselves. We鈥檒l introduce three of them in this mini-series. Shown here is Salma Jreige, guide at the German Historical Museum.
The people she guides through the exhibition rooms of the are not refugees, says Salma Jreige 鈥 they鈥檙e new Berliners. 鈥淓very person who has emigrated for whatever reason and come to Germany has his or her own story.鈥 In other words: no labels, please.
To return to the museum groups full of new Berliners: one thing they all have in common is the need to find their way in a new society, a new culture with new rules. That demands a lot of strength. This is where the project comes in. Initiated by the Museum for Islamic Art, the project trains refugees as museum guides. These guides, such as Salma Jreige, can then give visitors tours in their own languages.
鈥淲hen the people who visit the museums learn how well regarded their cultures are here, it鈥檚 good for their sense of self-esteem. Good self-esteem is a prerequisite for feeling welcome, and it helps with the integration of newcomers. Jreige herself guides groups through the German Historical Museum. There, of course, the subject matter is German history, which is very important to her. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e from Syria or Iraq and you see what Berlin looked like at the end of the Second World War, you can find hope,鈥 she says.
“If you鈥檙e from Syria and see what Berlin looked like at the end of the Second World War, you can find hope”
That鈥檚 brought home to her, she says, especially when she points out that women played a leading role in the rebuilding of the country.
When you see how focused Jreige is as she guides people through the museum, carefully explaining each detail and providing an answer to every question, you get an idea of how much this work means to her.
SALMA JREIGE
came to Berlin three years ago. She is involved in 鈥淢ultaka,鈥 a partner of the not-for-profit art project 鈥淏erlin Glas,鈥 which helps artists with a refugee background create a livelihood for themselves in Berlin. The project receives support from the Robert Bosch 第一吃瓜网.
She takes a rational perspective on her life as a refugee
For the participants, it鈥檚 clear, these impressions must be very emotional. Questioned on this, though, Jreige reacts with a look that says: be careful of kitsch. She is more of a rational sort of person, she says. When asked about her own experience as a refugee, her own fears and losses, her reply is again tentative. 鈥淣ot every refugee experience has to involve the most severe hardships.鈥 She grew up in Damascus, where you can live relatively undisturbed to this day. 鈥淎fter my law studies, I wanted to go abroad anyway, and the civil war just brought that decision forward.鈥
And then, almost at the end of the conversation, she does recount a situation that moved her. During a museum tour, an Uzbek boy once remarked that he really liked weapons. And then Salma told him about her own experiences. And at the end of the tour, the boy said to her: 鈥淚 think I don鈥檛 like weapons after all.鈥