Young people want to help victims of the Würzburg knife attack with video

When the first news about the knife attack on Barbarossaplatz in Würzburg went through the social media on June 25, Anna Schärmann was twice horrified: on the one hand, because of the terrible act in which a 24-year-old Somali killed three women and injured seven other people, some seriously has, on the other hand, because of a lot of racist comments on the net. “It all shocked and saddened me,” says the 20-year-old.

And at the same time she feels a feeling of powerlessness days afterwards. She should not have been alone with the question she asked: How should one deal with such an occurrence? At the same time, one thought persists: “How light-footed you live all the time! Something like this or worse, that can happen anywhere, even in the city where you are out and about every day.”

Anna Schärmann has been part of “pics4peace” for a few years, a Würzburg initiative in which young people are committed to peace and democracy. There she tells what moves her after the knife attack and also about the fact that she wants to process her thoughts in a video. She had only dealt with how to make videos a few months earlier: “That’s when I noticed that you can convey a lot with the combination of pictures, words and music.” But shoot a video? just for yourself?

Idea: Do something useful with the video

She tells Pia Beckmann about her idea. The former mayor of Würzburg is the chairwoman of the pics4peace association. Together they came up with the idea of ​​combining the video with an appeal for donations. “We thought about doing something useful with the video,” says Anna Schärmann. “The only thing that helps against helplessness is to do something yourself,” says Pia Beckmann, who then contacts the “Würzburg shows heart” association, which collects donations for the victims of the knife attack.

Meanwhile, Anna Schärmann starts producing the two and a half minute long video. She wrote the script for the clip herself, and won her best friend Liliane Gehret as the actress. The video is about feeling alone and about breaking yourself out of the crippling feeling of powerlessness to do something yourself. And why not, for example, divert a few euros from pocket money and thus support the victims?

Video is to be shown in schools and youth centers

“Main piece of heart for A.” is the title of the video with a local allusion. It calls for help for the eleven-year-old girl who lost her mother in the attack and was herself injured. At the end of the clip, other young people assure “I’m there”. The donation account for “Würzburg shows heart” is displayed.

The club is delighted with the initiative. “From young people for young people. We think that’s good!”, Judith Jörg, 2nd chairwoman of “Würzburg shows heart”, is quoted in a press release from pics4peace. If Pia Beckmann has his way, the video, which is also uploaded to YouTube, should be shown in as many places as possible, including schools, youth centers and public waiting rooms. It should give impetus to further ideas: “And if maybe just a piggy bank is set up somewhere,” she says.

The author of the video has definitely already learned something. “There’s no point in going out every day with fear,” says Anna Schärmann when you ask her what the video shoot did for her. And something else is important to her: “Even if it sounds a bit cheesy: You are incredibly grateful that you are alive, that at the end of the day you can lie peacefully in bed and actually only have a few everyday problems.”

The video is available on the Internet at https://youtu.be/jIKyRUXgAX0

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