‘When I close my eyes, I dream of peace’

 Wouldn’t we wish all children in the world to have dreams like this? To fall asleep in the evening, safe, knowing that it will be a peaceful night under a cosy, warm duvet? Perhaps after a bedtime story from their father or after a few pages of an absorbing book? Without sirens, gunshots, screams and escaping to a (possibly existing) bomb shelter? To simply live in peace, knowing that in the morning the teddy bear will still be sitting on the edge of the bed and mum will be preparing breakfast? Not having to worry about parents and siblings? To have reliable relationships and to know that the family and home environment are a safe haven? How many children in war-torn countries around the world would wish for that!    

An inner immune system

We live in a time of uncertainty about what the future will look like. To maintain confidence even in difficult times, to become a contributor, protected from becoming a victim or agent of misguided power interests is essential for children (and adults). It includes building confidence in their own strengths and the people around them, combined with genuine empathy, a willingness to co-operate and a sense of responsibility. “Social bonds, in both a personal as well as more general social context, are a further prerequisite for emotional health and for the full development of human personality”.¹ wrote the psychologist and historian Dr Annemarie Buchholz-Kaiser. This bond enables us to assume social responsibility later and to treat our fellow human beings and all peoples with respect and dignity.
    The foundation for this is laid in the first interpersonal relationships. “If In this way a person’s inner immune system against future wars can be developed and maintained that protects him from the influence of power-hungry and dubious leaders. value concepts become emotionally entrenched in a child, that child can later build upon them and develop the necessary resistance, as well as an inhibition against attacks on his and other people’s dignity”, states Annemarie Buchholz-Kaiser.² Wouldn’t all children in the world be entitled to this so that they can later contribute to peace in the world?

‘A dream I am still dreaming today’

A look back: After the devastations of the Second World War, bitter and painful experiences were anchored in the minds of many people. Never again should such a tragedy be allowed to happen. People wanted to do everything in their power to create global peace. The basis for this was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drawn up over two years by responsible individuals. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1948 by 58 member states without dissenting votes and with eight abstentions. Since then, it has been translated into more than 200 languages. The preamble states: “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world […]”.³ 
    As we know today, not all signatory states were sincere at the time. Eleven-year-old Vanessa Redgrave, however, heard this message on a BBC radio programme: “I was eleven years old when these words took hold of me and gave me a dream that I still dream today.”⁴ This experience and the associated hope for peaceful coexistence around the world became an inner guideline for her (as for many other people of that generation) and accompanied her on her career path to becoming a world-famous actress. During the war, she had experienced what fear and the feeling of being in mortal danger meant for children and knew what it takes to find one’s way in a threatening environment and not to give up even in the most difficult situations. She later commented in an interview: “Even if you can’t read, you can act and sing. That’s what we did in the cellars when the bombs fell on us. We had no school. But luckily there was a nanny at a distant relative’s house, far outside London, who looked after us. She taught me to read and write. That literally opened up the world for me.”⁵
    Vanessa Redgrave’s later political commitment and her life as an actress were rooted in this experience of being existentially threatened.⁶ The goal of equal rights and equal value for all people and nations as the basis of freedom, justice and peace flowed into her actions throughout the rest of her life, whereby she herself developed a non-partisan way of thinking. “I don’t want to see myself as left-wing or right-wing. This distinction is part of a certain way of thinking in my life where that dominated,” she said in summer 2006, “the truly creative achievement of life lies in helping each other to understand things that you didn’t understand before.”⁷

Unheard cries for peace

Injustice, violence, war, poverty and hopelessness, which characterise the fate of children in war-torn countries, have not let go of Vanessa Redgrave.
    In Sudan, Gaza, Afghanistan, Iraq or in one of many other war zones – in all these places, the adolescent generation had to go through experiences similar to hers. After a visit to Sarajevo, a city devastated by the Balkan wars, she took on the role of UNICEF ambassador. This UN organisation published the book “I dream of peace” in 1994.8 It gave children from the former Yugoslavia, now a devastated part of Europe, a voice.
    In the foreword, Vanessa Redgrave wrote: “This book is therefore a strong protest against the violation of these children’s minds, bodies, and lives – a violation of their right to grow up in a world without war, regardless of where they live or who their parents are. We must listen to the messages of the only peace makers, the only future we have – the children – and we must act accordingly.”
    With harrowing images and moving texts, the children made an urgent appeal to the world to finally stop the wars. “It is also a passionate appeal by children whose right to a normal life has been taken away and whose cries for peace have so far gone unheard. Their drawings an writings are silent reminders of the unspeaktable atrocities that afflict their daily lives”, James P. Grant, Executive Director of UNICEF, wrote in his introduction. In dozens of schools and reception centres throughout the region, children were encouraged to draw and write about what moved them and what burdened their lives. The result was not only pictures of traumatic events, but also counter-images – of happy memories of the past and dreams for the future.

Unheard voices

The children and young people talk about their experiences in a country where people had previously lived together in peace despite different religions, languages and cultures. Not only for them was it incomprehensible, but a war was forced upon the country from the outside, bringing with it terror, misery and cruelty. Friends became enemies, and borders ran through families. “My father is a Croat, my mother is a Serb, but I don’t know who I am”, writes Lepa (eleven years old) from Belgrade. They miss their fathers, who are at war. “If only you knew how it feels to have your father in the war. You flee the misery, but misery follows. You hear not a word about your father, and one day everything goes black and there is Daddy at the door. He stays with you a few days and then happiness is gone again”, laments 11-year-old Žana from Bosnia.
    Many children missed their loved ones and experienced how their familiar surroundings were destroyed. Understandably, like 11-year-old Jelena from Croatia, they lost their hope that things would ever change again and simply longed for an end to the war: “I couldn’t believe there could ever be life in our town again. Anyone who saw the destruction would feel the same. That is why this dirty war must stop”. A call that one can only support, just like Maida from Skopje (12 years old): “War is the saddest word that flows from my quivering lips. It is a wicked bird that never comes to rest. It is a deadly bird that destroys our homes, and deprives us our childhood. War is the evilest of birds, turning the streets red with blood, and the world into an inferno”. Jelena and Maida are representative of the millions of other children in Gaza, Congo and many other countries around the world that are not being left alone and where the Charter of the United Nations is being trampled underfoot. They are burdened by the gravity of what they have experienced, like Sandra (ten years old): “There are so many people who did not ask for this war, or for the black earth that is now over them. Among them are my friends. I send you this message: Don’t ever hurt the children. They’re not guilty of anything”. They hope for peace and that they will not be forgotten: “War is here, but we await peace. We are in a corner of the world where nobody seems to hear us. But we are not afraid, and we will not give up”. (Fifth-grade student from Zenica in Bosnia).
    Ten-year-old Roberto from Pula in Croatia supports this appeal with his vision of peace: “If I were President, the tanks would be playhouses for the kids. Boxes of candy would fall from the sky. The mortars would fire balloons. And the guns would blossom with flowers. All the world’s children would sleep in a peace unbroken by alerts or by shooting. The refugees would return to their villages. And we would start again”.

Peace needs …

It is our common task to fulfil this wish for worldwide peace that these children express to us. This is all the more urgent today, as our world once again stands at a critical and dangerous turning point. Peace requires equal respect for other countries, respect for all cultures and honesty in our actions. Today, this is being prevented by delusional ambitions of autocratic rule, which, combined with arrogance and a sense of being the chosen people, seek to thwart the emergence of a new, multipolar world order. Our world affairs therefore also depend on whether, at long last, spiritually mature personalities can once again take on the responsible task of working towards peaceful coexistence within the framework of the world community.  •

1   Buchholz-Kaiser, Annemarie. “Strengthening the Human Being”. Unpublished, Zürich 2000. p. 7
2   ibid, p. 11
3   https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights 
4   Geisenhanslüke, Ralph. “Ich habe einen Traum: Vanessa Redgrave” (I have a dream: Vanessa Redgrave)  In: Die Zeit no. 9 of 23 February 2006; https://www.zeit.de/2006/09/Traum_2fRedgrave 
5   ibid.
6   She protested against nuclear weapons and later against the Vietnam War. She accepted the associated difficulties for her career as an actress, even when she became known for her support for the PLO and the Irish Republican Army (IRA). She produced a series of documentaries that reflected her convictions, but also took on the role of a Holocaust survivor and later played the daughter of a Jewish family who resisted the rise of National Socialism underground in the film ‘Julia’. She received an Oscar for this film performance in 1978. In the run-up to the award ceremony, she received threats from a Jewish group protesting against her commitment to the Palestinians. In her speech at the awards ceremony, she spoke out against this (interrupted by boos) and emphasised her commitment to fighting fascism and anti-Semitism. On 10 December 2023, on the occasion of the 75^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Vanessa Redgrave was honoured with the European Film Award for her life’s work.
7   Geisenhanslüke, Ralph. «Ich habe einen Traum: Vanessa Redgrave.» In: Die Zeit no. 9 of 23 February 2006; https://www.zeit.de/2006/09/Traum_2fRedgrave 
8   UNICEF. I dream of peace. Images of war by children of former Yugoslavia. New York: Harper Collins 1994. All other citations are from this publication (ISBN 978-0-06-251128-7)