“I Am Alive – How Children Survived a Century of Wars”
It was a photograph, in 1919, that led to the founding of Save the Children. The picture—of a starving child in Vienna—so horrified British activist Eglantyne Jebb that she organized a mass campaign to raise funds for the suffering "children of the enemy". A century later, Save the Children in Germany pays tribute to that child rights revolutionary with an extraordinary book that is both a memorial to her achievements and signpost to the future.
What happened to the innumerable children of war, now grown, whose lives were changed by the help that Save the Children, now the world's largest independent children's rights organization, provided over the course of the past 100 years?
I Am Alive - How Children Survived a Century of Wars
Editor and overall concept:
Martina Dase for Save the Children Deutschland e.V.
Photography: Dominic Nahr
Text by: Bertram Job, based on interviews and reporting by Anna Mayumi Kerber
Design: mischen, Harri Kuhn, Berlin
Project Management: Ineke Sass
ISBN 978-3-7356-0635-8
324 pages
Languages: German/English
Some of the answers are found within the pages of the sophistically-designed photo-book "I Am Alive. How Children Survived a Century of Wars." In an almost cinematic manner, the book tells the individual biographies of survivors, children who lived through some of the past century's most devastating conflicts. From the now-107-year-old Erich Karl from Berlin, survivor of the First World War, to the newborn Rohingya girl Rajiya in Bangladesh, the book collects 11 haunting reports. It shows, first-hand, how war can ravage childhood, but also provides hopes. The help that these children received in their time of need shaped their future lives. Many paid that kindness forward: those who were helped helped others in kind.
Martina Dase of Save the Children Germany conceived, produced and edited "I Am Alive". Swiss photographer Dominic Nahr handled the visual storytelling. In a special touch, guest authors from around the world were given a single photograph and wrote short essays about the person they saw in the image, without knowing the whole story. The estimated list of guest authors included Dr. Gerd Müller, German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, acclaimed violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, vice president of the European Commission Margrethe Vestager, Noble Prize-winning writer Professor Wole Soyinka, Iranian author Amir Hassan Cheheltan, and veteran war reporter Jon Swain.
Thanks to a wave of positive reviews—from German national newsweeklies SPIEGEL and Focus Online, from Switzerland's NZZ to television magazines ttt (ARD), kulturzeit (3sat), twist (arte) and Arts and Culture (Deutsche Welle) all the way to the Dithmarscher Landeszeitung, a local paper in the beautiful town of Heide (pop. 21,000) —the first edition of "I Am Alive" sold out before it ever hit bookstores. The second edition will be published mid-March, by Kerber Verlag, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the start of the Syrian War.
A look inside
Pressinformation
Here you'll find the latest information of the book "I Am Alive" including press releases, images and video material. We would be happy to arrange interviews with the editor, Martina Dase, the photographer, Dominic Nahr, or selected protagonists and guest authors. For questions or a review copy, please contact susanne.sawadogo@savethechildren.de
Press releases
03.03.2021: "All children of war are our concern"
19.11.2020: - I Am Alive - Child-survivors’ stories of war and hope
Guest Authors
Selected Coverage
In November, 2020, Save the Children, together with Dr. Gerd Müller, German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, presented the illustrated book "I Am Alive" at a digital press conference. Participating, via video-link, were photographer Dominic Nahr, the survivors Vichuta Ly from Cambodia, and José David Ríos from Colombia, as well as British war reporter Jon Swain, like the host Dr. Müller, one of the book's guest authors.
Spiegel Online (Germany)
100 Jahre Save the Children »Der Blick trifft direkt ins Herz«
20.11.2020: Seit 100 Jahren unterstützt Save the Children Kinder in Not, zum Beispiel Amal aus Syrien. Ein neuer Bildband der Hilfsorganisation erzählt Lebensgeschichten von Kindern aus zehn Dekaden.
Stern (Germany)
21.22.2019: Seit 100 Jahren schützt „Save the Children“ Kinder in Kriegsgebieten vor Hunger und Gewalt. Zum Jubiläum erzählen sechs Menschen, wie die Hilfsorganisation ihr Leben veränderte. More...
Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland)
10.12.2020: Weltweit leben 426 Millionen Kinder in Konfliktregionen. Ein neues Buch porträtiert Menschen, die als Kind ebenfalls Hunger und Gewalt erlebt haben, und lässt sie erzählen, was das mit ihnen gemacht hat. More...
El País (Spain)
31.12.2019: La Guerra Civil española, las dos guerras mundiales, la de Corea... Save the Children reúne en una colección de fotografías actuales a supervivientes de los conflictos armados más cruentos de las últimas décadas. More...
Deutsche Welle Arts and Culture (Germany)
20.11.2020 Every year since 1959 November the 20th has been world children’s day. It was created by the United Nations in conjunction with the Declaration of Children’s Rights first introduced on that day in 1959. The global charity Save the Children, itself celebrating 100 years since it was founded, has published a book featuring stories of children who grew up in warzones – and were helped by Save the Children. More...
Dominic Nahr
The awardwinning Swiss photographer Dominic Nahr grew up in Hong Kong and lived in East Africa for many years. As an ambassador for Leica, he has been reporting on the world’s trouble spots for over ten years. His coverage of the civil war in southern Sudan, on rebels and child soldiers in the Congo, and on terrorism in Somalia has been published in international magazines such as Time, The New Yorker, DIE ZEIT, and stern. Dominic Nahr studies people with deep empathy; his visual language goes beyond documenting atrocities and catastrophes. In 2017, he founded the photo agency MAPS with colleagues. In the same year, he photographed Save the Children’s relief mission in drought-stricken Somalia for National Geographic and DER SPIEGEL. Dominic Nahr has been working on the Save the Children project I Am Alive since 2018. The organisation exhibited his photographs in 2019 at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, and to representatives of the EU Commission in Brussels.
Martina Dase
‘The thing about people is, we are all interested in the lives of others. When you relate, that’s when you become curious.’ Martina Dase, a journalist, filmmaker, and expert on strategic communication, knows how important visual media are in connecting humanitarian stories with new audiences. As an award-winning television journalist for the broadcasters ARD, arte, and 3sat, Martina developed her own unique cinematic style, and the hallmarks of her artistic stamp are a common thread running through each page of this book. Martina’s desire to not just depict reality, but to help shape a better world led her to non-governmental organisations. She has designed multiple strategic campaigns and flagship projects, including for Greenpeace and Welthungerhilfe, before joining Save the Children Germany in 2016 to lead the communications team. There, she has worked closely with leading German media outlets, covering the humanitarian disaster on location in Somalia, hosted the anniversary celebration to mark one hundred years of Save the Children’s work, and is spearheading debate on the future of development aid. Martina has retained a keen focus on Africa, and her ability to show the humans behind the headlines has shaped all her work.
