A Year 12 “Customer Service and Hospitality” class from Lycée & UFA Oberlin in Strasbourg is working on the Suitcase Project with their teacher, Fazia Dergam.

Francine Mayran, an artist and psychiatrist, begins by asking, “What can you learn from a suitcase?” It quickly becomes clear that for many students in this diverse class, a suitcase is not just associated with luxury holidays but also evokes the necessity of some journeys and the concepts of displacement, flight, farewell, and pain.

Francine brings an old bag filled with various objects. Each student selects one of these items, some of which are antique and international, and imagines the story the object might tell.

A cinnamon tin reminds one girl of her grandmother in Sri Lanka, who uses it to bake her beloved cakes. A jar of honey makes a boy think of medicine taken by a soldier on the front lines for a sore throat, grateful to have such a remedy. Candles symbolize nights around the campfire in a home country, where grandparents would tell stories. A perfume bottle stirs memories of a brother who never returned…

It becomes clear how fiction and reality intertwine, yet each student shares only what they choose to reveal, what they can bear to share.

Francine then introduces her own suitcase. One student asks if her family is Jewish. The atmosphere shifts.

It is only through Francine’s storytelling that the tension eases. The students come to understand that heritage is deeply personal, shaping individuals across generations and connecting them to their histories in profound ways.