“Heimatland” by Güner Yasemin Balci: Quite unique in this world
Reading time: 8 min.
In Berlin-Neukölln, you can study what threatens free, Western, democratic society—and how to strengthen it, says Güner Yasemin Balci, the district's integration officer. Her worthwhile book, "Heimatland," is about this topic.
It's a hot day, 33 degrees Celsius at 10:00 a.m., and Güner Yasemin Balci is late. Well, it's not her, but the subway that's supposed to take her to Neukölln Town Hall, where her office is. Güner Yasemin Balci is the integration officer for this Berlin district, which is known far and wide for its behavioral problems. Two streets away, on Sonnenallee, on the evening of October 7, 2023, Neukölln Hamas sympathizers cheered the orgy of violence that had taken place in Israel that day. More than a thousand people had just been murdered, and here it was celebrated. Images of men giving away baklava were shown on the news around the world. Days later, Güner Yasemin Balci appeared on the "Tagesschau" (Tagesschau) program, didn't sugarcoat anything, but spoke openly about the huge support for Hamas that unfortunately existed in her neighborhood, and the widespread hatred of Jews there.
süeddeutsche
