In 2015, the war on terror made its way to Europe when ISIS supporters killed over 100 civilians in the attacks on Paris, and again last month when an airport and metro station in Brussels were the target of multiple explosions.
Germany has since joined the effort against the Islamic State, offering military support in the form of fighter jets, but many passionate German citizens want to join the fight on the ground as well. VICE Germany set out to find the international citizens leaving their homes and families to join Kurdish commandos in the Northern Syrian region of Rojava to help combat one of the most powerful terror organizations in the world.
Videos by VICE
VICE journalist Sebastian Weiss met with the international volunteers trying to halt the advance of the Islamic State and help build a more democratic society in the Syrian villages just 30 miles from the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa. He talks to a Polish mother who left her four children to fight among the YPJ soldiers, a social worker helping rebuild educational infrastructure, and a 25-year-old German commander in the People’s Protection Unit to find out why they each left their homes to fight another nation’s war.
