The Qasus do not normally cry, but this felt nothing like normal. Like hundreds of thousands before them and untold more to come, the Iraqi family had just completed a disorienting dash across Europe and found refuge in Germany.

Settling down in the city of Heidelberg, the parents comforted their four children as the reality of what they had just endured struck like a thunderclap and the tears flowed freely. They were tears of trauma, loss — and flickering hope.

"We used to have a home. A fine life. We used to have money and never needed anyone," said the mother, Bessi Qasim, who uses her father's surname. Dabbing at her eyes, the 42-year-old homemaker said her job now was to make a new home.

"I just want my children to be happy and see them growing up. I want to be able to replace the bad memories with new good ones."

In this Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015 photo, Yazidi refugee Samir Qasu, 45, right, from Sinjar, Iraq, and his wife Bessi, 42, cry while embracing their children, Dunia, 13, and Dildar, 10, shortly after arriving on a vessel from the Turkish coast to the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos. The Oasus, left the Turkish coast before dawn on Dec. 3 bound for the island of Lesbos, the first port of EU call for nearly 400,000 asylum seekers this year. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Those bad memories include at least three brushes with death: with murderous invaders, the fear of drowning, a daughter's cancer.

Had they not left Iraq so quickly, the Qasus might well be dead or abducted now. They are Yazidis, a religiously distinctive ethnic group within Iraq that has been singled out for persecution by Islamic State miltants, who have slain thousands, particularly in and around Sinjar, where the Qasus are from.

The Qasus escaped as IS forces seized the city on Aug. 3, 2014. All six — Bessi, husband Samir, daughters Delphine and Dunia, sons Dilshad and Dildar — climbed aboard a truck heading north for the Turkish border. They soon heard word of wholesale slaughter, rapes and kidnappings back home as thousands behind them retreated without food or water to Mount Sinjar.

"We took nothing with us. I didn't need to see IS to know how horrifying they are," said Samir, 45, who abandoned his convenience store in Sinjar. He said cousins who stayed behind have vanished.

For 15 months, the Qasus existed on the fringe of Turkish society. As a refugee, Samir was barred from working legally and said his children faced intimidation at school because of their Yazidi identity.

"We had a miserable life," said Samir, who kept his family out of Turkish refugee camps and rented an apartment, but struggled to pay bills by working illegally part-time in construction jobs. "I reached a point where I couldn't take it anymore. We had no dignity. I just wanted my children to live in a safe, peaceful place."

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The smuggler in Istanbul demanded $10,000 for the six of them to join 26 others on a cabin cruiser designed to carry perhaps a quarter that many. They left the Turkish coast before dawn on Dec. 3 bound for the island of Lesbos, the first port of EU call for nearly 400,000 asylum seekers this year. Scores have drowned as boats, typically helmed by novice refugees, are swamped or overturned.

Samir paid in part with money provided by his brother, who had already made it to Sweden. The boat appeared more substantial than the typical rigid inflatables that smugglers deploy as one-use throwaway items. That didn't stop the engine of the overloaded boat from breaking down midway, leaving the Qasus to bob helplessly on the choppy Aegean.

"I was 95 percent certain that death would take us," said Samir, who said he prayed for God to claim him and save his loved ones.

Greek rescue officials spotted their dying craft and towed them close to shore, where aid workers waded knee-deep to carry the Qasu family the final few meters into Europe. This was the moment The Associated Press met the Qasu family: struggling to remove their knotted life vests and caressing each other with shaking hands, emotions overwhelming them.

An AP photographer spent that week following the Qasus as they nimbly hopped from border to border. Their rapid progress reflects Europe's concession that German-bound asylum seekers should not be left pointlessly stranded for days outdoors in the bleak Balkans winter.

Within two days, the Qasus had traveled by midnight ferry from Lesbos to Athens and then by bus to Greece's northern border with Macedonia. They slept chiefly on trains, buses and benches while passing through registration centers in four Balkan countries, getting their first proper sleep in a bed in a massive tent holding hundreds of asylum seekers near the Austrian city of Salzburg on Dec. 7.

In this Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015 photo, Yazidi refugee Samir Qasu, 45, from Sinjar, Iraq, and his wife Bessi, 42, their two daughters Delphine, 18, Dunia 13, and their two sons Dilshad, 17, and Dildar, 10, walk toward a gathering point to board a bus to a registration center, after arriving on a vessel from the Turkish coast to the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos. The Qasus, left the Turkish coast before dawn on Dec. 3 bound for the island of Lesbos, the first port of EU call for nearly 400,000 asylum seekers this year. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Life has been a German whirlwind since then: ID photographs and fingerprints, housing in a former development for U.S. Army families that now holds 5,500 refugee applicants, distributions of free food and clothing — and most importantly for the Qasus, the most thorough medical check in years for 13-year-old Dunia.

In February 2012, Turkish doctors performed a life-saving liver transplant on the girl, removing a cancerous section and replacing it with a liver portion donated by her mother. The liver is the only human organ able to regenerate in this way, but Dunia remains vulnerable to infections and must take daily injections to block antibodies from attacking her mother's donated tissue. Underscoring her vulnerability, she wore a surgical mask throughout December's odyssey from Turkey to Heidelberg.

"I want to be cured and grow up. I love Germany and the people here," Dunia said.

Samir said the German doctors at the Heidelberg camp "have been so kind to us. As soon as they learned about her situation, they went through all the proper procedures to check her and told us that she is fine."

Dildar, 10, now dreams of becoming a soccer star in Germany. As he kicks a ball outside with siblings Dilshad, 17, and Delphine, 18, their talk turns to the possibility of school in January and of using one of their first German words: "Danke" — thank you.

Delphine says she hopes to train to become a doctor and continue the cycle of aid to others less fortunate.

"I dream of helping people, the ones who need the most," she said.

The parents watch from a park bench, pleased to be in a land that offers a future now unimaginable where they came from.

"Iraq is destroyed, shattered into millions of pieces," Samir said. "It's no longer my home and no longer a home for my family. ... Home is where your family is safe and happy."

In this Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015 photo, Yazidi refugee Bessi, Qasim, 42, comforts her son Dildar, 10, near the port of Mitylene on the northeast Greek island of Lesbos, as they wait along with the rest of the family until midnight to get on board a ferry traveling to Athens. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015 photo, Yazidi refugee Dunia Qasu, 13, from Sinjar, Iraq, sleeps surrounded by her family as they wait at the port of Mitylene on the northeast Greek island of Lesbos, waiting until midnight to get onboard a ferry traveling to Athens. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015 photo, Yazidi refugee Samir Qasu, 45, center, from Sinjar, Iraq, and his family approach Macedonian army officers as they cross a fence at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni. Within two days of arriving on Lesbos, the Qasus had traveled by midnight ferry from Lesbos to Athens and then by bus to Greece’s northern border with Macedonia. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015 photo, Yazidi refugee Samir Qasu, 45, center, from Sinjar, Iraq, and his daughter Dunia, 13, gestures to a Greek police officer while he and his family and other refugees and migrants wait to be permitted to cross the Greek-Macedonian border, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni. Within two days of arriving on Lesbos, the Qasus had traveled by midnight ferry from Lesbos to Athens and then by bus to Greece’s northern border with Macedonia. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015 photo, Qasu family, a Yazidi refugee family from Sinjar, Iraq, wait at a registration camp near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija to board a train heading to the Serbian border. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015 photo, tents of stranded migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border, as Qasu's family, a Yazidi refugee family from Sinjar, Iraq, are waiting near to be permitted to cross the border to Macedonia, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni. Within two days the Qasus had traveled by midnight ferry from Lesbos to Athens and then by bus to Greece’s northern border with Macedonia. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015 photo, Dildar Qasu, 10, center, a Yazidi refugee from Sinjar, Iraq, and other refugee children from Syria and Afghanistan chase bubbles released by a volunteer, while waiting with their families to be transported by a bus to the train station in Sid where Serbian authorities load trains with refugees to Croatia, in Adasevci, Serbia. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015 photo, Bessi Qasim, 42, a Yazidi refugee from Sinjar, Iraq, kisses her son Dildar, 10, as she and her family rest in a bus waiting to be transported to the train station in Sid where Serbian authorities load trains with refugees to Croatia, in Adasevci, Serbia. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015 photo, Delphine Qasu, 18, a Yazidi refugee from Sinjar, Iraq, and her father Samir, 45, sleep in a bus while waiting with the rest of their family to be transported to the train station in Sid where Serbian authorities load trains with refugees to Croatia, in Adasevci, Serbia. The Qasus slept chiefly on trains, buses and benches while passing through registration centers in four Balkan countries (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Monday, Dec. 7, 2015 photo, Samir Qasu, 45, left, a Yazidi refugee from Sinjar, Iraq, and his son Dilshad, 17, and his wife Bessi, 42, and his daughter Delphine, 18, eat in a restaurant at a gas station during a break while being transported from the Austrian border to Salzburg, in Kammern, Austria. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this late Monday, Dec. 7, 2015 photo, the Qasu family, a Yazidi refugee family from Sinjar, Iraq, laugh with each other while resting on a bed in a shelter in Salzburg, Austria. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015 photo, Delphine Qasu, 18, a Yazidi refugee from Sinjar, Iraq, right, is body searched by a German police officer next to her sister Dunia, 10, and her mother Bessi, 42, shortly after crossing from Austria to Germany, in Freilassing. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015 photo, Delphine Qasu, 18, a Yazi refugee from Sinjar, Iraq, rests her head on her father's shoulder after she and the rest of the family arrived on a train coming from Freilassing, at a resting point in Mannheim, Germany. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015 photo, a German army officer takes a photo of Samir Qasu, 45, a Yazidi refugee from Sinjar, Iraq, as part of his asylum seeking process, at the Central Registration Centre in Patrick Henry Village in Heidelberg, Germany. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015 photo, a German army soldier fills in the details of Qasu family, a Yazidi refugee family from Sinjar, Iraq, as part of their asylum seeking process at the Central Registration Centre in Patrick Henry Village in Heidelberg, Germany. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015 photo, Dilshad Qasu, 17, center, a Yazidi refugee from Sinjar, Iraq, plays football with his sister Delphine, 18, and his brother Dildar, 10, near their new temporary home at Patrick Henry Village, in Heidelberg, Germany. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015 photo, Qasu family, a Yazidi refugee family from Sinjar, Iraq, laugh shortly before posing for a picture outside their new temporary home at Patrick Henry Village, in Heidelberg, Germany. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015 photo, Delphine Qasu, 18, right, a Yazidi refugee from Sinjar, Iraq, is comforted by her brother Dilshad, 17, while crying after talking about their journey to reach Germany, at their new temporary home at Patrick Henry Village, in Heidelberg, Germany. The Qasus do not normally cry, but this felt nothing like normal. Like hundreds of thousands before them and untold more to come, the Iraqi family had just completed a disorienting dash across Europe and found refuge in Germany. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Text from the AP news story, Iraqi family braves perilous journey to new life in Germany by Muhammed Muheisen.

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Muheisen, the Associated Press' chief photographer for the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan, followed the Qasu family from Greece to Germany on Dec. 3-10. Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.

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