Flüchtlinge

Last week, I visited my 93 years old grandmother in Germany and we talked politics and what's currently happening around the world. We obviously hit the topic of the current migration crisis affecting us in Europe. Suddenly, she said something which I think should be mentioned: 

"Towards the end of World War II, we had to take up more than 1 million refugees from East Prussia, and 80% of all houses were bombed and destroyed. Somehow we managed!"

My grandmother Grete (on the left) with her 3 sisters Helene, Anneliese and Else.

She told me about local government people entering each home deciding how many refugees each family must take. One could not refuse. Living rooms were vacated, everyone had to take on immigrants according to the size of the property. My grandmother told me that they (her parents and their 4 children) had to accommodate a family of 4. My great-grandmother, then shortly living in Kiel, had to give up her living room in her tiny flat accepting 2 women.

Refugees did not have to pay for their stay but were supposed to cook and take care for themselves as they, like the rest of the population, received food stamps. In certain rooms with no heating facilities, holes had to be drilled into the walls and ovens put up. 

This got me thinking. 

Of course, no state should enforce taking on refugees into private households, I don't even think it's legally possible. After all, we don't live in a dictatorship like my grandmother did during the war. All I want to say is, there is still so much we as a society can and should do if only we put in some effort. 

That's it, no further comment.