Bookshelf

🎨 Impressions

German language book, English review. I first heard about Tahsim because his popular skits on TikTok and Instagram found the attention of my wife. In a deadpan way he makes fun of German bureaucracy, cultural phenomena, his Mom’s ineptitude of communicating in German even though having lived here for over twenty years, but most of all he highlights the current rise of racism against all migrants such as him in our country.

I think this makes him a highly important figure in this hateful climate. Bridging the gap with humor is the way to go and he does it masterfully. It helps a lot how he, the son of a couple who fled political persecution in their home country, learned to navigate the educational system up to the point of acquiring a Bachelor’s degree in German language and literature and became a teacher.

In the book, he details his upbringing here in Germany. The devotion of his parents for raising him and his three siblings despite all the headwinds they were facing. For me as a reader, it helped a lot to learn how it’s like and build empathy. There can never be enough empathy for others.

I was fascinated to learn about his family’s history, too. They are Yazidis from Turkey and used to live in the region of Kurdistan. Though speaking Kurdish, there are differences between Kurds and Yazidis. Hate and division played a big role there. When the Kurds tried to gain independence from Turkey in the 1980s with the formation of the PKK political militant arm, the Turkish army burned down whole Kurdish villages in an effort to stop that. It’s all certainly a lot more complicated in its origins, but as far as I understand the main reason for the problems has been the lack of religious tolerance. The Turkish government just didn’t allow for minorities to believe in something else than Islam.

Living in constant fear of being eradicated just like their relatives had been, Tahsim’s family decided to seek political asylum and Germany seemed to be a good option. Now, around 230,000 Yazidis live here, more than in Turkey. But you can say they have just exchanged some problems for other problems. Open hatred and racism from all sides – the Germans, the Turkish, the Kurdish. Hearing all these stories really changed me into wanting to become more of an ally. After all, we all have the same goal. Living a peaceful live and helping our kids grow up into a friendly society.

Tahsim is around fifteen years younger than me and even though he has more university experience than I have, I can feel this in his phrasing. It’s funny though. And his way of writing kept me glued to the pages, too. It’s just a highly interesting topic to me – in order to work on improving society we first need to understand the challenges in all their facets. It took me just a few days to finish the book. He leaves a lot of room open and questions unanswered, though.

I think there are many more books in Tahsim’s future. I’d love to hear his thoughts on a variety of related topics. But for now, he has built a solid foundation with this autobiographical work. We now know where he comes from. And I’d love to see where he’ll go.

📔 Highlights

Diese sonst so deutsche und weiße Fernsehlandschaft wird für einen kurzen Moment durchbrochen, und es fällt das Wort »Kurde«. Das hört sich vielleicht abgedroschen an, war aber für mich, meine Geschwister, unsere Cousins und andere kurdische Jugendliche sehr wichtig.

Ärzte sind Helden, das ist unbestritten. Aber sie sind auch kleine Egozentriker, zumindest die Ärzte, die wir kennen. Wenn es keine Rapper, Schauspieler oder Fußballer gäbe, wären Ärzte, so mein Eindruck, wenn ich meine Mutter zu ihren Terminen begleite, die arroganten Celebrities unserer Welt.