From DW Documentary.
In June 2024, Joanna lost her 20-year-old son Philippos. He was beaten up by another young man, following his sister’s high school graduation party. Two days later, he died. The alleged perpetrator, a 19-year-old Syrian, was arrested.
A summer evening that ended in disaster. After his sister’s high school graduation party, 20-year-old Philippos was brutally attacked in the German town of Bad Oeynhausen.
As his mother Joanna was mourning her son, Philippos became headline news. Before long, his death was used to reignite the debate on Germany’s asylum policy. Both in the German parliament, and in the media.
Philippos’ mother did not participate in this discussion. For her, the nationality of the perpetrator was irrelevant. "The doctor who fought for my child’s life is Syrian," she said. "So is my hairdresser. And me? I’m Polish.”
Instead, Joanna, who is deeply religious, tried to find a way to deal with her anger, rage, despair, and grief. She sought advice from a prison psychologist and a priest: Why did Philippos have to die? Am I allowed to be angry with the perpetrator? Do I have to forgive him?
She sat opposite the defendant at the Bielefeld Regional Court, endured the police reports and witness statements, listened to the autopsy results from the forensic pathologists, and witnessed the images of her dead child on the dissection table.
"Even hearing the incomprehensible, the painful, knowing how Philippos died… I owe that to my child," she said.
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