SAM MEFFIRE
Born in Saxon, Germany, ex-police officer, ex-convict, streetworker
"I think, Eastern Germany is still marked by its policy of walling off. During the Communist times nobody knew any foreigners. They weren't wanted and no effort was made to get to know them. The official propaganda said something different, but in everyday life it just didn't happen. And that's still a big problem today, I think. Because as soon as you get to know someone then he´s not this dark, threatening unknown anymore. This sub-human who you have to hate to protect your own species. And I think that grows faster, the less you know about the other, and the less you see him...
Violence was an everyday thing for me. And I was both receiver and giver from the very beginning. Maybe that's part of the disaster, that it was such an everyday thing, from the very beginning."