Hi dad its me theres no future press here i dont have one single dollar. If there is a smuggler who got 10 women at a fair yesterday without any problems. But. Just saw it shatters any illusions are my sure. But your own child would rather go join the terrorists than stay with you to a list and even thinks its cool for the liquid and i spent some time i thought i was young i guess and wanted a bit of revolution islam was sort of. My. This film tells the story of a father i accompanied over a period of 4 years and his daughter. For all of the footage its clear to was the shes not only some little girl who was groomed me behind the law allowed it unfold around her was my name from the results of the perpetrator on. The story of 2 vastly different worlds. It was the get out of there as quickly as you can of. The story of life and death the sad driving im waiting please dad please. In march 2015 mike messings world was turned upside down his daughter had suddenly disappeared without a trace he then started receiving messages on his phone from a stranger. The job was a mere 3 months i couldnt understand what he was telling me a walk. But when i saw that tiny Profile Photo of him and clicked on it looked horrible was all your. Concern and saw that flag. That was like final. His daughter leonora was 15 years old at the time her parents had separated some years earlier mike who runs a bakery in a small town in eastern germany had recently remarried was that the reason for leonoras disappearance and she felt like a 3rd wheel mike didnt know. To those around her she had seemed like a typical teenager interested in boys and Beauty Products desperate for clues to help make sense of it all mike searched leonoras room he found her diary and was confronted with a parallel existence one dominated by islam and in which his daughter was wearing a headscarf. He found photos on her computer which showed her hidden transformation. Mike hadnt noticed a thing and blamed himself. For to keep coming back to yourself and ask why for what process or for why more for for what is or. Young girls in germany have been systematically recruited supporters are searching social media for potential targets like event and often go as are often married off while theyre still minus and push to produce new fighters if they fall out of favor they become slaves so why are girls and young women from across europe choosing to go and live in this darkness had seen. For an agonizing 12 days mike heard nothing from leonora then finally he received the voice message little did the father know that soon he would be keeping his phone by his side at all times it would become the sole source of contact with his daughter. Hi dad im trying to send you a voice memo that reaches you quickly. Im doing really well we have a really big apartment here. That to this has recreated everything in purple of course we have you know we dont have couches here but these pillows you sit on. Im also send you photos of the president he gave me gold. Leonora was talking about how wedding aged just 15 she married an Islamic State fighter this is the official wedding photo she was one of the mans 3 wives mikes layo was now living in another world in syria in the midst of a civil war. The previous world had been biking by a village of 200 people in the hearts mountains region of eastern germany. At this point mike approached me. Im a journalist and already had years of on the ground experience covering is. And had been to syria and iraq often we immediately had a good report but at that 1st meeting in 2015 we had little idea of how often we would speak and meet over the next years and every time we met one big question loomed why. Can she shut us out she left us without any opportunity to be part of her life. She was a girl who went voluntarily to syria go. And welcome to the talk show 2 and a half years after the u. S. Withdrawal iraq is at risk of being plunged into chaos also here are a mass safe distance we might pinch ourselves as to the pace at which a few 1000 jihadists a terrorizing an entire country signing their militias are over running around one 3rd of iraq and syria and setting up a ruthless regime of terror. I. Am somewhere in this self declared caliphate was later nora gushing with pride over her husband. Who went by the name of me heard. Me heard yes it was born martin lemke and was a welder in a mine in germany before joining us where he reportedly came to hold a senior position in i s intelligence a fellow german i asked recruit would later testify that instead of torturing people himself had others do it for him leonora was getting acquainted with her new home rocca the capital of the i asked color foot she texted her dad about what shed seen. Us. The roundabout was right outside leonoras home. I s. Used such violent images as propaganda on the internet in order to recruit new people and intimidate opponents. In the weeks after leonora disappeared the police were informed and visited mikes home where they seized his daughters computer. But there was little they could do. You know mike is heading to berlin to a Counseling Center called high out arabic for life it was set up to help families whose children have signed up to islamist groups. There he met dozens of families in a similarly desperate situation the centers director cloudier dunn she advised parents to talk to their children about everyday things in the hope that theyll get homesick. A fetus is and the crucial thing is that you realize youre not alone because youre not the only idiot in germany whose daughters runaway nor appeared unaware of exactly what kind of place she was now living in me and i asked in rocca laws and punishment what draconian. Listening to western music was punished with a whipping me leonora and her fellow wives managed to have their own little parties in secret. Leonora soon began to lose faith and i ass she found her husband disgusting i asked brutal and was unhappy to be one of 3 wives at the time or not now after around 2 months she seemed to realize for the 1st time that this wasnt everything she hoped for. And got out of the she admitted as much i said she wanted to come home. And wanted us to help her. In your work and then it helps if you know people who know other people and. The people mike was referring to was our team we knew the other people smugglers some of whom had close ties to i. A. S. But 1st we want unsure whether journalists would get involved in such a way but after a lengthy discussions we decided we would but under the condition that mike alone would take all decisions our team would accompany him merely as observers a meeting was arranged in turkey when mike arrived we were already there. Smuggling people out of i asked territory was extremely dangerous especially when a woman was involved. Mike met the smuggler in a hotel in southern turkey. We kept our distance while listening in mike did the negotiating. Stuff and. I met with this was a smartly dressed guy. He said he had links to the nusra front. So basically. I just. Like us by this or mike from the hamlet of bach was having a cup of tea with 2 guys from alqaeda i kind of think of the smoking around 100 cigarettes. When this. Credibly tense or just when youre talking through interpreters. The smugglers set out a complex secret operation involving 3 cars and forged documents. Mike was tempted to give them the go ahead straight away i want my kid back. It was kind of that means that afterwards i face prosecution for giving money to a terrorist organization id be happy to go to jail as long as my child is back home but can deal with that go ahead somewhere in syria a group of men set out for rucka they had already smuggled people out of what was now the capital of i asked. That plan to get leonora was potentially a matter of life or death. Because rocca the heart of i ask was teeming with militias patrolling the city seemingly at every street corner. Shops with a knock i asked her country calling her she was up to it just said in her typically casual way sure no problem. Leonora sent her father a Current Location and photos of the surrounding area if a court doing best buy ins she could be sentenced to death. The what of that was the plan. To pick up alone or in a car where she would travel with a cover family as their daughter that. There were repeated problems toward an aging a pick up with each failure the danger rose. Dad where are they im waiting and nobodys here pleased to have to leave it to people. Around a dozen such attempts failed to work out. I was there was an hour or an hour and a half each day that were just crushing your nerves having to get the questions rightly repeating answers correctly it was nerve wracking youre so wound up sorry to put into words. But they decided not to give up. Boom. Boom boom boom boom boom the bowl. The thought of that was the last thing we heard or read from her directly. Then silence for days there wasnt a single word from leonora instead they heard from her husband me had. Gotten broke we were really afraid for layoff i was calm kind of meddling and then we didnt hear anything nothing for over a week we want to go on that one issue. Event the 2nd wife of martin alias nihad got in touch. Back in brighton about how mike and the rest of the family needed time before they could start believing the news. Slowly it sank in that leonora was dead that she had been killed in a civil war that wasnt hers. 3 weeks after the news of her death we visited mike for the 1st time with a camera and again. He told us he was trying to somehow get through the days that he hadnt made it through a 90 yet without rhyme. I think in this thought your child is doing. You know you phrased you failed to get her out of that situation of divorce or. The event did bomford on a planned history 3 we were preparing her but will be saying farewell to a child. Or more well well have a place we can go which is symbolically her last resting place and board a ship and. We took stock of the last few months going over everything again and again. The family organized a Memorial Service so that everyone could say goodbye then suddenly a message arrived. But was it really her my couldnt be sure so he asked questions to which only leonora would know the answers what had best childhood friends home looked like inside the names of her grandfathers ponies. The answers were correct leonora was alive. Even if she was still living under a terrorist regime islamiah arabic for Islamic State. And he was a taller man or woman young or old and. Even slightly toying with the idea of going off to sit in. Because i thought i should be aware of what theyre doing and. As i ask what theyre making their family go through now. For leonoras family that held continue every day every week every month mike was haunted by the question of how his daughter was and whether he would ever see her again. Winter 20152016 in syria people were being killed on a daily basis on all sides. Have. Mancow minister can offer right now there is nothing we can do just wait for the un because an issue of that we were getting experienced in this. Not giving up is the most important thing. Sometimes you have lows. You have to carry on. But mike was permanently on edge the constant flow of messages in use was like being on a hamster wheel that never stopped spinning. Leonora contacted him reported that her husband me had now had a slave a woman he bought. Some money had came home yesterday sometime after midnight and said so i bought myself a slave for 100. 00 so i was like 100. 00 is nothing its how can somebody do that comes from a human being its you say is hes 30 years old and has 2 children so i dont know what to say. Just so sorry for her her arms are blue no idea there is not true to her well at all shes really starting from must fix their reports of mass executions of women and girls being right and sold into prostitution and of children being forcibly recruited for fighting for the title it seems the displacement of the zs is deliberate people who are not children slave to driven out of their villages with no water or food. To die 1st thought was this poor woman of the last years 2 kids i think im pleased mercy of a dangerous man. How can a person change like that because the question keeps bothering me mr shifty that hes grown up here and probably happily he went to kindergarten and high school a normal civilized person wouldnt buy himself a slave and. Im so shocked. I want to help her its like i want her to at least have a few ok days thats hard. To say sorry my god. The woman was called la mia she wouldnt be an issue for leonora for very long because soon after this photo was used to offer her for sale back to her yes the family. One year later in 2016 i drove to Northern Iraq is. Free territory. I had found refuge in a displaced persons camp here been looking for her for months. I cautiously stepped into the room lami i was still severely traumatised. Me and we communicated with the help of an interpreter. Nobody could say how many men had literally owned her she was barely able to talk after a while i showed her a photo of leonoras husband. Did he buy her. A live look at it. Does she remember his name. With us how did he treat or on the. On that. You kissed me. And we then left alone for the entire time we were there her children likewise barely said a word llambias husband was still missing she was living in her brother in laws tent. The family had to raise 24000. 00 to secure her release money they didnt have. Me and would spend another 3 years in this kurdish tent city since 2019 she and her children have been living in safety in canada and weve been told shes doing a little better. Suddenly last night fighters began advancing on the terrace militias unofficial capital back out for. Air raids on rocca in the autumn of 2017. A short time later leonora left rocca and i asked lost control over the city. When mike heard the news he feared the worst for his daughter as so often before. Is it still youre sitting here you cant do anything. You feel completely powerless. To try to distract yourself and not think about it too much and if through fear that will because theres nothing you can do. The most you just have to accept things as they come. In the. Meanwhile leonora was carrying on with her life she posted m o g celebrating her 1st week of pregnancy. While leonora was still somewhere in syria i traveled to the liberated city of raka now little more than a wasteland of ruins and rubble i found the apartment where she used to live. It up in the mouth when she posted photos from morocco back then i spent ages searching the internet to find out exactly which building she was in. This was what was left of the stairwell leading to her apartment. Leonora spent several months here and evidently made herself at home while just out on the streets people were being locked in cages and i. R. S. Was publicly torturing and murdering. Leonora and other i asked deaver to use one now on the run and being hunted down by the International Coalition led by the united states. 2017. She was probably somewhere in the vicinity of the Euphrates River in eastern syria. While my continued to keep his bakery running leonora was trying to find a people smuggler to get her to turkey and out of the war. Theres the smuggler who got 10 women out of her yesterday without any problems. Ok ok use that chance get out of there as quickly as you can. Come and then the day actually arrived when they said they were setting off was. Coming right out its me oh im at the wing point and praying to allah that was each other soon ok the spaniards and a few minutes time ill be offline. Mind telling me. Like im pretty anxious of you but i guess it has to work out. Good or. Bad stay strong dont cry. Dont come and then there were no more messages that maybe they really had set out. And then our smuggler of choice contacted me. And he started this horrible. I was really nasty he says well game is the wrong word in the things he said there are loads of checkpoints were having to bribe so many people so we need more money you can write back a 100 times i havent got any more he happens to know. So i built up this unbelievable pressure so what can you do. Whatever you want around in circles going out. Your mind. Be focused and you know. That even drinking helps you know. Your complete wreck because you know the next message they send could be. Well i think good as it was going to say. Im in the to meet the eventually they had me so desperate that i said fine im actually going to have to transfer the 8000. 01 so that they at least stay alive. But they werent even able to tell me where to wire it to those of the moons i do not know whether you realize these guys really have to be nuts and youre just helpless. If it was. It was so tough thought those few days were worse than the 4 years before that. Its difficult to describe because in your mind youre up on the ladder and the newest as above you vegas is just too much its not possible to do because not reach a point where you just cant take it anymore i cant do this to anyone anymore. Its so bad that you want to give up and give yourself up because you want an end to this misery and if im no longer alive then ok maybe leo will also die but then my family will have peace. And the about is the point you reach so i actually block out the number i just couldnt go on fix. Look at fix the focus. Of what i told myself i wouldnt cry today i was well. It was one of my darkest hours because the northeastern. He severed contacts knowing leonora might die. The mental strain from mike and his family back home and cry its simply too big. Trust in the next day or the day after i dont remember exactly leo contacted me it didnt work out we didnt even leave but thats the mystery how do you not just keep. Well over. In autumn 2018 leonora was still on the run with her husband. With the war still raging around them she had a 2nd child maria also born prematurely. Rapes artillery and ground offensives had seen Islamic State reduced to islamic village. Hi dad its me. Were in the last well its left were surrounded were on the only street that Islamic State still controls itself are things. I do nasal or living on top of each other starving children are freezing to death. Or going to get out theres no future for us here we dont have one single dollar. And seeing as we have absolutely nothing and often have nothing to eat weve decided to give ourselves up. For the soon to be. With the friends were going to i knew it meant that radio syria was back on the air. After 4 years you build up your own protective armor. It was a voice message from martine limca. Didnt sound too happy. Least talk to the government im willing to do anything and i was never a soldier i never killed anyone im willing to pass on any information i have. No there are trials in germany and im willing to help the government is a serious issue and its important for us that the women and children arrive home in good health. I dont want to stay in a jail here in syria things like i have no problem going to jail in germany in serving my sentence there. Im really afraid so. I dont want to get beaten up the whole time i have a heart condition and picked up an ammonia here were all really sick. So the same men who tried to ruin your life 4 years ago are suddenly saying poor me. And please dont tell anyone about this message if someone here finds out that we want to get out we might end up getting killed in the recent version of the movie to go. Take along plenty to drink just get out of there and take care yourself of. Any 21000 more than 40000 people in the last enclave i ask surrendered. In germany all mike could do was wait for leonora to make it out on january 31st 2019 that wait was finally over. Hi dad its me just want to say that ive left i asked were all really happy that we made it. A had was picked up by the americans but all fine theyve been really really good to us. Even though i got up as usual at 130 quarter to 2 the same as usual check my phone and saw it mr holder calls and whats up messages the friends had recognized the young woman in this video footage as leonora Agency Reporters had met her in the desert. And because i want my old life a long time ago and now i know that to take. After me its all but i was on my way to work. Well we come and then it finally went click. And you go back over the last 4 years you get incredible amount of images going through your mind i thought if you need a lot of things you suppressed negative stuff to do i thought of it and you cry a little bit as well of course in the end its only then that you realize how much pressure youve been under because it became your daily life so you didnt really even register at all and you would suddenly be fired you feel yourself getting lighter and lighter and free and i got out of my car and i thought yes awesome its over. They cant even anymore. Leonora was detained in this camp a tent city outside al hole in the Northern Syria together with 70000 others and a fierce debate erupted in germany over whether the country should take back those who had gone to join is. Didnt they pose a threat. We returned to syria in march 2900 it had been 4 years since leonora had run away from home i wanted to finally meet her. Many many times from her online chats the shooting the ones she last posted you sometimes get the impression that despite how long its been and how much older shes become she still has this 90 about 30 and you wonder how thats possible. To feel you can imagine if its not shes not 19 and shes been through such a loss shes been in a war been bombed out of her home seen all this awful violence and are still so naive and really interesting to see how she is in person that really good instrument of hope like denying people the food while i was about to meet leonora mike in germany was looking forward to his daughter finally returning home although he did have doubts as far as alys im not really sure who ill be welcoming our. 4 years of bias and propaganda have to have a new. Earth and for that she was really young when she left she was seduced sure before but she was happy to be seduced on the phone thats also part of the truth of order to. Leonora a willing accomplice. Had she now realized what she had done to her family and to people in syria and ultimately to herself too i wanted to know everything including what it was her converting to islam and britain to more than in the face and i ended up in this Facebook Group that i was young i guess and i wanted to. But ever of aleutian i wasnt take stream stuff. Maybe i was a coward because i ran away from home and thought this is the way to solve all my problems in one go. She told us she had distanced herself from i guess a long time ago but how did she feel about the things she had done had she really thought about the past 4 years had she confronted her deeds. Everything changed their marriage wasnt the same life in general and syria was not for me i was no longer happy with my life. There were also a lot of problems within the family there and i just wanted to go home. When that failed things got worse because i understood that i now had to live there whether i wanted to or not. Because i try to escape once my own husband to mine. This is her husband me her w. R. C. A born martin lemon. German prosecutors are preparing a case against him and her issued an arrest warrant. When we met it seems he was hoping for a pity. From germany. Its tough youre. Under a huge mental strain i mean a one man cell i dont see or hear anything. He told us he only worked in the Technical Department of i s intelligence but he never fought never murdered or tortured anyone nor ordered anyone to he insisted he was merely a peripheral figure despite having had a slave why did you buy a slave. We shouldnt be talking without my lawyer. But i havent done anything bad. She was in very poor health and we helped her. But i never talked to her. But why did you buy a human being with 2 children and it is often the thing is she was doing really badly. And in islam youre rewarded for treating a slave well because leaders have rights. And going to understand he has come to question. Is this woman was really ill but as i said we helped her where we could. And i had no other intentions i already had a big family of course of who wanted to make money by her cheap fatten her up so her. Look if you want to provoke me no thats not true no no i dont need that money just. Bought her an order to trade her. We had money problems all the time. So martin bought her to make money. Not only to make some money but he said that in her up nurse her have her take a shower and give her kids food must make sure that you put some weight so shes worth something. Like that in the car right must. Leonoras account incriminated her husband but what about her own row german prosecutors are looking into pressing charges against leonora whos now 19 like her husband she suspected of having spied for Islamic State intelligence and having supported a terrorist organization. Do you ever work for the secret police or pass on information to your husband. I heard that its just ridiculous. Whether she committed a crime will be decided in the german courts in the eyes of her father she needs to face up to her moral responsibility for having joined a terrorist group. One from the 3rd or was that shes not only some little girl who was groomed and. Used just as much a perpetrator. You just have to face the reality is the spirit of. Leonora seemed carefree as she talked is she naive or traumatized it was hard to tell she doesnt seem to have reflected on how her family were fairing kurdish Intelligence Officers then told us our time was up. To thank you for coming thanks. Leonora gave interviews to other reporters as well and recited passages from the koran. It seems she gave little phone to what impression this would make on people back home in her village. To myself most people will say shes fully veiled and singing muslim songs although its not a song. That has learned nothing be doesnt belong here and see shes dangerous. Perhaps it would be more prudent for leonora to stay in a neighboring village away from the media frenzy expected to descend on pride. And there indeed appears to be a solution mike and cloudier dunster from the Berlin Counseling Center met pastor marcus bloomer who is a friend of mike. Who thought it was. A look. Lets take a little look around the place once the koran off well thats great the pastor knows how people in the area fink and he has experience dealing with individuals whose lives have gone through dramatic changes. The 1st thing we want is for them to have contact with their families and been to undefine me a. Man to give leonora a place where shell feel at home and safe with her children while still being independent. The German Government still has to decide if and when leonora may come home. Real soon. And then offshore and if she does have to go to jail. You mean for a reason. Hes definitely going for a beer and mission its a with me like an oath of allegiance. And. As old as the pyramids. Perhaps in caves. What exactly are we referring to. The 170 stone piles in late constance. Its baffled researchers for years. Can an expedition shed light on this phenomenon tomorrow today. In 30 minutes on d w. N sync overcome boundaries. Changing the world with gas. No words required. By a full body and. With. John doe around the. Arts 21. In 60 minutes on t w. Ws crime fighters are back africas most successful radio drama series continues this season the stories focus on hate speech color of prevention and sustainable charcoal production. All of his those are Available Online and of course you can share and discuss on w. Africas Facebook Page and other social media platforms. Crime fighters tune in now. This is news live from the Prime Minister of greece is the e. U. s a migrant deal with turkey is as good as all of. This is new clashes erupt on the greek Turkish Border as thousands of people make a push to reach europe the e. U. Accuses turkey of using migrants proceeds also coming up this is not the time