Achter de Façade

Posted by Maite

‘Achter de façade’ is een voorstelling die de verhalen van de mensen vertelt die tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog in Kamp Westerbork verbleven. Het doorgangskamp op de Drentse hei was van 1942 tot 1945 het vertrekpunt voor meer dan 107.000 Joden, Sinti en Roma die vanuit hier naar de vernietigingskampen in het Oosten werden gedeporteerd. Slechts 5000 mensen hebben dit kunnen navertellen.

Kamp Westerbork was bijzonder vanwege de schijnwerkelijkheid die er werd gecreëerd: hoewel de bewoners van het kamp in sommige opzichten een ‘normaal’ leven leken te kunnen voortzetten, was het leven er ook getekend door angst en de onzekerheid van het naderende transport. Te midden van dit rookgordijn, klonk muziek. ‘Achter de façade’ reflecteert op deze dualiteit en laat enkele verhalen van Westerbork herleven. 

Na de eerdere Theater na de Dam voorstellingen ‘Het zijn onze jongens’ en ‘Vrij en Vast’ werkt de vooropleiding van Garage TDI dit jaar in het kader van Theatre of Remembrance met een grotere groep jonge spelers en in samenwerking met het Noord Nederlands Orkest (NNO). De voorstelling is het resultaat van een intensief onderzoeksproces, waarbij de makers samen met de spelers de verhalen van de kampbewoners zorgvuldig hebben bestudeerd. Deze samenwerking tussen jonge theatermakers en professionele musici brengt enkele verhalen van de slachtoffers en de gebeurtenissen in het kamp tot leven op de historische locatie zelf.

Zoals Onder Water

Posted by Maite

Met welke gedachte of vraag begint het gevoel dat er iets niet klopt? Wat is het moment waarop je deze gedachte omzet in een daad? 

In deze voorstelling gaan we op zoek naar wat verzet is, hoe klein dit kan blijven of hoe groot het kan groeien. En wat als je alleen toekijkt? 

We gaan met nabestaanden in gesprek over wat Amsterdamse vrouwen deden die in verzet kwamen tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Welke schakels er nodig waren om met gebundelde kracht één kind in veiligheid te brengen? We kijken naar de positie van vrouwen toen, wat hun beperkingen waren en ook hoe vrouwen gebruik konden maken van het feit dat ze vaak werden onderschat.

Welke moed en angst schuilt er in ons zelf om te voelen dat iets niet klopt en iets te zeggen of te doen als dat nodig is?

Photograph by Hilde Harshagen; Model Abigail Lamptey

Petit déjeuner a l’atelier

Posted by Danielle

Seven young people gather in studio Marcel Hastir, the place where a boycott on the 20th train convoy was planned during World War II. Accompanied by the jazz of Holocaust survivor Simon Gronowski, the youngsters stage their dreams and nightmares about freedom, imprisonment, not belonging, and portray the story of young Simon, who jumped off the train to Auschwitz and was able to escape imprisonment and death.

N. 860 10

Posted by Danielle

Youngsters from Bratislava tell the story of three women that survived labour camps. In these stories we uncover inhumane conditions and the struggle for life of mother, daughter and sister during the second World War. The stories of three women whose will to live was greater than anything else…

Safe space

Posted by Danielle

Where do you feel yourself protected? With whom? In the wild or in a sealed space? What things surrounds you? Where is your home?

17 teenagers from Budapest researched what safety means to them. The starting points were personal memories of five ladies who survived the holocaust. Through those conversations, the youngsters ended up questioning their contemporary mental environment. 

We are memory 2024

Posted by Danielle

Each edition of ‘We Are Memory’ by Memory of Nations Theatre in Prague showcases diverse art genres, from drama via dance to fine art. This year’s performance is a collaboration with students from Charles University’s Department of Art Education, blending visual installations, video art, acting, and dance.

The venue, Fair Trade Palace (Headquarters National Gallery in Prague), holds poignant historical significance as a Nazi assembly point for victims before deportations to concentration camps. Students encountered powerful stories of individuals whose life experiences offer insights into dark chapters of history. Some of them have integrated visual arts into their professional lives, such as academic painter Helga Hošková-Weissová (1929) and graphic designer Jana Dubová (1926). This duo is complemented by a doctor of natural sciences Michaela Vidláková (1936), Czech historian Toman Brod (1929) and the renowned dance choreographer and former artistic director of legendary Laterna Magika Theatre, Zdeněk Prokeš (1956). When meeting with the students, all of these survivors mentioned how lucky they were to have stayed with their mother, to have found love, to have survived, and this inspired us to name the performance „Luck“, emphasizing that not everyone had it.

The performance is produced with the support of the State Culture Fund of the Czech Republic, the Holocaust Victim Endowment Fund, Prague City Hall, Theater Na de Dam, National Gallery in Prague, Art re Use, Charles University – Department of Art Education. 

The unforgettable story

Posted by Danielle

We would like to invite you to the performance of a group acting within the Theatre of Remembrance project – a series of etudes based on conversations between young people involved in the project and senior citizens – witnesses of the Second World War.

The stories of Mrs. Ela, Mrs. Basia, Mr. Bolesław and Mr. Eugeniusz – personal, moving, unusual, sometimes surprising – were an inspiration and starting point for the group to reflect and find analogies between the past and present times. What kind of world do we want to live in and what kind we don’t want to live in? What problems do young people think are important in today’s world? What do we have to face up to so that what the witnesses of history experienced never happens?

This will be a showing of the movie of last years performance that will be accessable online.

Shelters and escapes

Posted by Danielle

How we can deal with the history through the 2nd World War? How we can get in touch with stories of our grandparents? Do we know enough about history? In ‘Shelters and escapes’ youngsters from Slovakia tell five stories, chosen from the online archive of Post Bellum. Five stories that are connected with their hometown, Nitra. The protagonists lived here or were hidden here. The performers imagine their lifes and feelings. What did they think when they were the same age as the performing youngsters are now?

What about tomorrow?

Posted by Danielle

The performance ‘What about tomorrow?’ will compare two different times, two ways of being young and waiting for the future, with fears, hopes, uncertainties and dreams.

“And what about tomorrow?” asks a boy in 1943, leaving his city under the bombs as a refugee.

“And what about tomorrow?” a girl asks herself in 2023, while tomorrow has become today, the bombs are still ringing and great is the uncertainty about the future.

The characteristics of these different times emerge both in the interviews with witnesses and in the dreams of today’s young people.

What was and what could be the reaction to the war, or to other collective events that upset daily life, subvert habits and priorities? There’s a sense of helplessness but also new resources, inventions and unexpected situations.

Tomorrow will come, dreaming it better will help build it.

Road 19

Posted by Danielle

We Are Memory: Road 19 is a play directed by Tamara Pomoriški, Art Director of the Memory of Nations Theatre, which is produced annually in cooperation with Theater Na de Dam in the Netherlands. This year marks the fifth edition of the performance. Each edition has its own theme and unique environment. This year, it is the Romani Holocaust, which is interpreted through the artistic medium of dance and motion theatre.

The true stories of witnesses are told by 14 final-year students from the Prague Conservatoire, and their artistic medium is solely dance and the voice of the performer Ridina Ahmed. The artists decided to present the bitter subject of the Romani Holocaust in a gallery exhibition hall open to the public. Thus, the dancers themselves become exhibits, bidding viewers to give thought on their own perception of racism and the extent to which this issue is still current in society. The abstract sounds and environment do not distract the viewers’ attention, allowing them to consider whether they, too, might not be dividing society into “us” and “them”.

The script draws directly from the testimonies of historical witnesses. In previous years, young people welcomed the witnesses in Post Bellum’s offices. For this year, on 19 November the students headed outside of Prague for the first time. Their meetings were hosted by the Museum of Romani Culture in Brno and the Holocaust Memorial in Hodonín u Kunštátu. The students also explored the institutions’ exhibitions, which present this tragic aspect of our modern history. In Brno, the students met with Rudolf Murka (1959) and Antonín Lagryn (1947). Both of them are second-generation witnesses – their parents survived the concentration camps in Auschwitz and Ravensbrück. Mr Murka’s mother found asylum in Slovakia, which saved her from being deported. The memorial in Hodonín u Kunštátu commemorates the time when whole Romani families were interned there. Day-to-day operations of the camp were also observed by then-10-year-old František Němec (1932). Even 80 years later, he still has vivid memories of the humiliating arrival process, the inhuman work conditions, and the typhus epidemic that decimated the inhabitants of the camp, especially the children.