Jenny Erpenbeck asks this question of her readers in Go, Went Gone, on a full blank page, repeated again, on another blank page.
Go, Went, Gone is a short novel published in 2015 in Germany, and released in the US in 2017. In it, Erpenbeck tells the story of a group of African refugees protesting at Oranienplatz in Berlin. Richard, a retired, widowed professor, instead of just passing by, starts a conversation with the men in this group. That conversation leads to visits. He learns their names, and befriends Osarobo, Rashid, Ithema, and Karon as they navigate Germany’s cool, seemingly arbitrary and improvised migration system.
Go, Went, Gone served as a mirror of sorts for me as I do intermittent volunteer work with the New Sanctuary Coalition, (NSC) an NYC based group that ensures that people are present for migrants while they work their way through the US legal system in the hope of continuing their lives here.
While the lobby of the Ted Weiss Federal building has all of the heavy marble majesty of an early 21st century federal office building, a quick elevator ride leaves visitors in a white antiseptic corridor where schedules for judges with lists of names printed on orange paper line the walls.
Migrants wait in a room with low ceilings, fluorescent lighting, and immovable chairs. That day, I helped Andi, a minor, update his change of address paperwork, an essential bureaucratic requirement. I waited and watched a judge grant him a court date far in the future so that he could have legal counsel. We had sharpies on hand so that he could write the phone number of a relative on his arm in case his phone was confiscated. Later that same day, just outside the courthouse, ICE agents placed him in detention.
The book’s protagonist, Richard, did much more than show up at a court hearing for the migrants he befriended. He visits them in their temporary housing. He learns their stories, about their countries and how they became separated from their families.
In one scene, Richard takes Itehema to see a lawyer who traces modern German migration law back to Tacitus of Rome.
“It is accounted to a sin to turn any man away from your door. The host welcomes his guest with the best meal that his means allow. When he is finished entertaining him, the host undertakes a fresh role: he accompanies the guest to the nearest house where further hospitality can be had. It makes no difference that they come uninvited; they are welcome just as warmly. No distinction is ever made between acquaintance and stranger.”
Erpenbeck challenges us: “[M]ust living in peace – so fervently wished for throughout human history result in refusing to share it with those seeking refuge, defending it instead, so aggressively that it almost looks like a war?”
Go, Went, Gone, is a fictionalized retelling of how the actions of an individual transform and lift up the lives of others. New Sanctuary Volunteers do that work today in New York City.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
We cannot be silent in this moment. We can show up. Here’s how:
https://www.newsanctuarynsc.org/get-involved
Get a copy of the book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/go-went-gone-jenny-erpenbeck/12418234