Finalist, Sasha Bauer by Sasha Bauer

A new ethnic group of German colonists emerged in the mid-18th century, when Empress Catherine II published ‘Manifesto on Allowing Foreigners to Settle in Russia’ in 1762. But by the beginning of the 20th century, they became hostages of interrelations between Russia (then USSR) and Germany, which were enemies in two world wars. Two months after the start of the Great Patriotic War, the Presidium of the USSR adopted a decree, ‘On the resettlement of Germans living in the Volga region’, as a result of which the entire German population (more than 800,000 Germans) was deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan. Among them was my grandfather, who lost his parents in labour camps. He lived in an orphanage and served in the Russian army, but was not afraid to keep his German surname. This project is a visual statement about my connection with my grandfather through genes and the same name.