On Thursday 27 January 2022, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, eight theatre projects by young people will be performed in seven European countries at the initiative of Theater Na de Dam. In doing so, Theater Na de Dam and its eight partners are providing extra meaning to this day of remembrance. It is already the sixth edition of this special collaboration, in which more than 100 European young people and their audiences are equally one at the same time.

European theatre programme on 27/1: International Holocaust Remembrance Day
This year, on 27 January 2022, eight performances will play across Europe: in Berlin (Germany), Turin (Italy), Kaunas (Lithuania), Prague (Czech Republic), Budapest (Hungary), Lviv (Ukraine), Warsaw and Goleniow (Poland).

In Turin, for instance, the partners in the performance Due scarpe in due (Two shoes in one) reflect on the loss of people and belongings during wartime by starting from one story about two sisters who had to share one pair of shoes together during the war.

On the same day in Prague, a group of 11 young actors perform We are the Memory 2022 in the churches of St Cyril and Methodius. In it, a group of 11 young actors recall the events surrounding Heydrichiáda, the collective name for a period of severe repression by the German Nazi occupiers during World War II and the courage of those who supported the paratroopers.

A dance-theatre performance is being created in Berlin by long-time partner Academy Bühnenkunstschule &Produktionshaus: Rückwärts, on the theme of looking backwards, remembering and standing still.

‘It is good for everyone to open the shutters and discover other perspectives.’

Artistic director Jaïr Stranders on the European exchange
‘Theatre After Dam has a lot of experience in making stimulating theatre with young people. Not by re-enacting the stories of the eyewitnesses they speak to, but by making a personal story inspired by those stories. We have made school in this. The idea is for Dutch makers, who have experience here with the format of our youth projects, to be paired with makers and young people in those countries. It is also about an exchange of content, to learn from each other and to hear how other countries think about occupation, freedom and remembrance. In Eastern Europe, for instance, people have very different experiences and perspectives than in Western Europe, but theatre is made with the same kind of fascination. I think this exchange has value on many levels. For the makers and for the young people, it is inspiring, but certainly also for the audience. It’s good for everyone to open the shutters and discover other perspectives. World War II was so decisive for the Europe we set out to build after it. A democratic rule of law can slip very quickly and we need to keep each other on our toes in Europe for that.’

Since 2017: Theatre After Dam and International Holocaust Remembrance Day
In 2015, the UN declared 27 January, the liberation date of Auschwitz, as an international day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust. The UN also urged member states to develop educational programmes for young people so that the Holocaust is not forgotten and genocide is prevented in the future.

Since 2017, Theatre After Dam has been marking this day, in collaboration with international partners, through youth projects. In doing so, we commemorate this moment in our recent European history with the awareness that Auschwitz has become a universal symbol of the mass destruction of innocent civilians.

In various locations across Europe, young people aged 12 to 20, accompanied by professional theatre-makers, relate to the history of World War II in their town or village. They investigate and question the meaning of the Second World War for the complicated times they live in today. They do this in the same way Theatre After Dam does every year in the run-up to 4 May with forty groups of young people across the Netherlands. The young people meet and interview eyewitnesses of the Second World War. In this way, history also becomes for a moment a person, a personal memory. The research, reflection and meeting with this older generation form the basis for making a performance.

An international youth day was held on 15 January 2022 (pictured). Through Zoom, the more than 60 participants were able to get to know each other. During this inspiring morning, we discussed stereotypes and created a performance together, among other things.