You made for mines. Hi dad its me theres no future press here i dont have one single dollar. Is it theres a smuggler who got 10 women at a fair yesterday without any problems. Just so it shatters any illusions you might share with. Your own child would rather go join the terrorists than stay with you. And even think its cool for some coup. Once and then i thought i was young i guess and want to die but ever evolution as mammals sort of in. This film tells the story of a father i accompanied over a period of 4 years and his daughter. For one 3rd of its clear to us that shes not only some little girl who was groomed me to hang in there i loved it unfold around spot sure i was lying on a phone from the results of the perpetrators on. The story of 2 vastly different worlds. It was to 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. Was a mere 3 months i couldnt understand what he was telling me to walk. But when i saw that tiny the Profile Photo and the clicked on it looked horrible for your well deserved and then 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 had 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 is that you keep coming back to yourself and ask why for what prophet or for why or more for for what is or. Young girls in germany have been systematically recruited by a supporters are searching social media for potential targets event after girls 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 scene. For an agonizing 12 days mike heard nothing from leonora then finally he received a 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 is that is decorated 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. Nora 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 is our concern for the mosque and 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 also says to the pace at which a few 1000 jihadists a terrorizing an entire country designing their militias are over running around one 3rd of iraq and syria and setting up a ruthless regime of terror. And somewhere in the south declared caliphates was leonora gushing with pride over her husband. Who went by the name of me heard. Me heard it was born martin lemon and was a welder in a mine in germany before joining us where he reportedly came to hold a senior position in i asked 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 califf it she texted her dad about what shed seen. Us how to ask 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. Yet 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 advised parents to talk to their children about everyday things in the hope that theyll get homesick. The fiftys and the crucial thing is that you realize youre not alone because youre not the only idiot in germany whose daughter is run away 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 the listening to western music was punished with a whipping only laura and her fellow wives manage to have their own little parties in secret. Leonora soon began to lose faith and i asked she found her husband disgusting i asked brutal and was unhappy to be one of 3 wives i thought 5 more not after around 2 months she seemed to realize for the 1st time that this wasnt everything she hoped for. But other than she admitted as much i said she wanted to come home. And wanted us to help her. And it was good 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. At 1st we want unsure whether journalists should 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 to the negotiating. With her. I met with this was a smartly dressed guy. He said he had links to the nusra front. So basically. The highest. Mikos pods or mike from the hamlet of pride and bach was having a cup of tea with 2 guys from alqaeda i think of the smoking around 100 cigarettes. When youre incredibly tense or just like 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 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 or even often i asked her concretely whether 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 this by asked she could be sentenced to death. The what that was the plan. To fake up alone or in a car where she would travel with a cover family as their daughter but. There were repeated problems coordinating a pick up with each failure the danger rose. Where are they im waiting i know it is here please dad please get it to put. Around a dozen such attempts failed to work out. The ever thought 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. From. The bowl. Of us 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 had. Not invoked we were really afraid for lay off with calm kind of madam and then we didnt hear anything nothing for over a week if you want to go on that one issue. Event the 2nd wife of martin alias nihad got in touch. Back in brighton boss 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 the camera again. He told us he was trying to somehow get through the days that he hadnt made it through a 90 at without or trying. Thank you distort your child to stand. Up. And if you fail to shove you failed to get her out of there and she shoved your sword. We have vented bomford on a plant this tree thought we were preparing her but will be saying farewell to a child. When you have a place we can go which is symbolically her last resting place and when. 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 it wasnt 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 that were correct leonora was alive. Even if she was still living under a terrorist regime islamiyah 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 a doctor in the. Desert i should be aware of what theyre doing and. This is as good theyre making their family go through hell. For leonoras family that held continued 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 in winter 20152016 in syria people were being killed on a daily basis on all sides. Have. Mancow minister cannot for right now there is nothing we can do just wait with a gun because an issue of you 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 to me had came home yesterday sometime after midnight and said sorry bought myself a slave for 800. 00 when i was like 100. 00 is nothing its how can somebody do that comes from a human being its shes a has eightys 30 years old and has 2 children so i dont know what to say. Lets just so sorry for her arms her blue no idea what they did not treat her well at all shes really starting from muscle x. There are the hordes of mass executions of women and girls being raped and sold into prostitution and of children being forcibly recruited for fighting for title it seems the displacement of these c. D. s is deliberate people who are not children slave to driven out of their villages with no water or food. Thats what i said i 1st thought was this poor woman of 3 plus years 2 kids at the complete mercy of a dangerous man. How can a person change like that because the question keeps bothering me all the mission shifted that hes grown up here and probably happily he went to kindergarten and high school a normal civilized person wouldnt buy himself a slave. Im so shocked. I want to help her and its like i want her to at least have a few ok days thats had a. Chance im sorry thank 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 family. One year later in 2016 i drove to Northern Iraq is. Free territory. I had found refuge in a displaced persons camp here by being looking for her for months. I cautiously stepped into the room me i was still severely traumatized. 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. How did he buy her. Liver. Does she remember his name. With us how did he treat or on the phone so the. We then left alone for the entire time we were there the 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. It 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 rocker in the autumn of 2017. A short time later leonora left a rocker 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 or 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. What 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 3rd 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 asked was publicly torturing and murdering. Leonora and other i asked divo ts were 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. There is 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 my dad its me leo im at the wing point im praying to allah that was each other soon ok the spaniards and a few minutes time ill be offline a. Month on a choice. Like im pretty anxious of you but i guess it has to work out. How much data stay strong dont cry. Dont come and then there were no more messages that maybe they really had set off. And then our smuggler of choice contacted me. And he started this horrible. Really nasty she says well game is the wrong warning those 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 be on. The ground so i built up this unbelievable pressure so what can you do. You wont go around in circles going out. Your mind. Is focused and you know. That even drinking helps you know. With your complete wreck because you know the next message they send could be. Well i think good as the booth going to. Come in gotten me to the eventually they had me so desperate that i said fine im actually going to have to transfer the 8000. 00 he won so that they at least stay alive. But they werent even able to tell me where to wire it to because of the moves i do not know whether you realize these guys really have to be nuts and youre just helpless. And if it was. Thats all it was so tough i thought those few days were worse than the 4 years before that. Its difficult to describe that with you 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 or it would be me its so bad that you want to give up through i give yourself up and it was all because you want an end to this misery and if i no longer alive then ok maybe leo will also die but then my family will have peace. And they miss the point you reach so i actually block out the number. I just couldnt go on. Who could fix it for. What i should hold myself i wouldnt cry today this is im going to rope. It was one of our darkest hours because the words written. He severed contact knowing leonora might die. The mental strain from mike and his family back home and cry its simply too big. For us going next day or the day after i dont remember exactly leo contacted me it didnt work out we didnt even leave both through this how do you not just keel over. In autumn 2018 leonora was still on the run with her husband me what with the war still raging around them she had a 2nd child maria also born prematurely. Air raids artillery and ground offensives that seem Islamic State reduced to islamic village. Hi dad its me live you were in the last religious left were surrounded were on the only street that Islamic State still controls itself are things. I dont need for living on top of each other starving children are freezing to death. We are there no more going to get out theres no future for us here we dont have one single dollar bag and seeing us we have absolutely nothing and often have nothing to eat weve decided to give ourselves up. Want to go soon will be b. B. With the federal government the radio syria was back on the air if you want. After 4 years you build up your own protective armor. It was a voice message from. Didnt sound too happy. To 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. Its important for us that the wome