April 13, 2025, Bielefeld: Piscator: Political Theater in Exile
Erwin Piscator during a rehearsal for his summer theater in Lake Placid. Marlon Brando stands in the center of the picture in a white T-shirt. (Lahr von Leïtis Archive)
Sunday, April 13, 2025 at 3.30 pm
Ravensberger Spinnerei
Ravensberger Park 1 | 33607 Bielefeld | Germany
Erwin und Maria Piscator: Politisches Theater im Exil
Opening of the exhibition as part of the ceremony to mark the 120th anniversary of the Volksbühne Bielefeld e.V. (closed event)
Duration of the exhibition: until May 16, 2025
Open during the public opening hours of the Volkshochschule Bielefeld
Admission: Free
Curated by Michael Lahr von Leïtis, the exhibition documents the innovative work of Erwin Piscator, the founder of political and epic theater, through letters, photographs, posters and program slips.
After sensational productions in 1920s Berlin, Piscator went to the Soviet Union in the early 1930s to make a film. After the Nazis seized power, he found exile in New York. There he founded the Dramatic Workshop at the New School. A whole generation of famous American actors and playwrights – including Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando, Judith Malina, Tony Randall, Elaine Stritch and Tennessee Williams – were influenced by Piscator’s school. In 1951, under pressure from McCarthy’s anti-Communist smear campaign, he returned to Germany.
Piscator was not only a great theater artist, but he made his mark in dark times through his life: his passion for militant art forms that challenged the status quo was not slowed by political persecution from the Nazis. Bertolt Brecht once said, “Piscator is the greatest theater man of all time. He will leave a legacy that we should use.”
Presented by the Volksbühne Bielefeld e.V. in cooperation with Elysium between two continents and The Lahr von Leïtis Academy & Archive
May 7, 2025, Berlin: Art and Resistance in the Everyday Horror
Norbert Troller, Terezin: Children’s outing under supervision, 1942. Archive of the Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin
Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at 6.00 pm
Österreichisches Kulturforum Berlin
Stauffenbergstraße 1 | 10785 Berlin | Germany
Art and Resistance in Everyday Horror
Jewish Voices from the Theresienstadt Ghetto
Closed event for pupils from various Berlin grammar schools
Hatred of Jews was the driving force behind the systematic disenfranchisement, persecution and murder of Jews by the Nazis and their allies. Six million Jews did not survive the hatred of the Nazis and their collaborators. And those who did survive are forever scarred by it.
In the concentration and extermination camps, the Jews were systematically dehumanized and degraded by the Nazis. In Theresienstadt, which was both a ghetto and a concentration camp, the imprisoned Jewish artists countered the Nazis’ hatred of Jews with their artistic ingenuity. They countered the anti-Semitic ideology of the Nazis with their creative energy. The texts by artists from Theresienstadt can encourage us to raise our voices against the hatred of Jews that has been spreading rapidly in public spaces and on social media since October 7, 2023. Because “Never again” is now.
About the event:
Talk with Shoah survivor Michaela Vidláková, moderated by Dr. Ruth Kinet, Claims Conference
Michaela Vidláková survived Theresienstadt. She was born in Prague in 1936 and was deported to Theresienstadt with her parents shortly before her 6th birthday. Shortly after her arrival there, she fell seriously ill and spent a year in the children’s hospital ward. There she met a Jewish orphan boy of the same age from Berlin, who taught her German. On May 8, 1945, she and the other survivors were liberated by the Soviet army in Theresienstadt. Ms. Vidláková will travel from Prague to report on the Shoah and her survival as a contemporary witness.
Reading of texts by the artists Alice Herz-Sommer, Paul Aron Sandfort, Leo Strauss, Viktor Ullmann, and Ilse Weber, who were interned in Theresienstadt, performed by the Bavarian state actress Christine Ostermayer and the founding director of Elysium, Gregorij von Leïtis.
Songs from the Theresienstadt ghetto, performed by mezzo-soprano Neelam Brader and pianist Masha Yulin.
About Theresienstadt:
Terezín played a special role in the Nazi extermination machinery. It was originally established as a collection and transit camp for the Jews living in the so-called “Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.” After leading representatives of ministries and high officials of the NSDAP and the SS had discussed the organizational implementation of the murder of 11 million Jews at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, the Nazis converted Theresienstadt into an “old age ghetto”. From then on, many prominent and elderly German Jews and highly decorated Jewish veterans of the First World War were also deported there.
Theresienstadt was intended as a distraction from the efficiently organized murder machinery of the Nazis. Between June 1943 and April 1945, the Nazi leadership presented Terezin to several delegations of the International Red Cross. The prisoners in Theresienstadt were temporarily allowed to be artistically active and to organize readings, concerts, plays and cabaret performances as part of their so-called “leisure activities.” But behind this façade, the Nazis and their collaborators continued to implement their murderous plans unabated: of the 141,000 Jews deported to Theresienstadt, only around 16,800 survived. 33,500 died in Theresienstadt of hunger and disease, malnutrition and poor hygiene. 88,000 Jews were deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Majdanek and Sobibor.
Presented by the Austrian Cultural Forum Berlin, the Jewish Claims Conference, the Leo Baeck Institute New York │ Berlin, the Czech Centre Berlin and the Czech Embassy Berlin in cooperation with Elysium – between two continents, and The Lahr von Leïtis Academy & Archive
May 8, 2025, Berlin: Out through the Barbed Wire, Out Into Freedom
Barrack’s courtyard in Terezin through barbed wire, @ picture alliance / Imagno / Votava
Thursday, May 8 at 7.00 pm
Austrian Cultural Forum Berlin
Stauffenbergstraße 1 | 10785 Berlin | Germany
„Out through Barbed Wire, Out Into Freedom“
Jewish Voices from the Theresienstadt Ghetto
Admission: free
Reservations are required and can be made here
The Second World War ended 80 years ago, on May 8, 1945. Also on May 8, 1945, the Theresienstadt ghetto and concentration camp was liberated by the Red Army.
Theresienstadt played a special role in the Nazi extermination machinery. It was originally set up as a collection and transit camp for Jews living in the so-called “Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.” After leading representatives of ministries and high officials of the NSDAP and the SS had discussed the organizational implementation of the murder of 11 million Jews at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, the Nazis converted Theresienstadt into an “old age ghetto”. From then on, it was mainly prominent and elderly Jews and highly decorated Jewish veterans of the First World War who were deported there.
Terezin was intended to distract attention from the Nazis’ efficiently organized murder machinery. In June 1943, Adolf Eichmann, the organizer of the so-called “Final Solution”, presented Theresienstadt to a delegation from the International Red Cross. The prisoners in Theresienstadt were temporarily allowed to be artistically active and to organize readings, concerts, plays and cabaret performances as part of their so-called “leisure activities.” Through music and literature, the artists in Terezín encouraged their fellow prisoners, gave them comfort – at least for a moment – and gave them hope. In their thoughts, in their imagination, they overcame the walls of the ghetto, got “out through the barbed wire, out into freedom…”
But behind this façade, the Nazis and their collaborators continued to implement their murderous plans unabated: of the 141,000 Jews deported to Theresienstadt, only around 16,800 survived. 33,500 died in Theresienstadt of hunger and disease, malnutrition and poor hygiene. 88,000 Jews were deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Majdanek and Sobibor.
About the event:
Talk with Shoah survivor Michaela Vidláková, moderated by Michael Lahr von Leïtis.
Michaela Vidláková survived Theresienstadt. She was born in Prague in 1936 and was deported to Theresienstadt with her parents shortly before her 6th birthday. Shortly after her arrival there, she fell seriously ill and spent a year in the children’s hospital ward. There she met a Jewish orphan boy of the same age from Berlin, who taught her German. On May 8, 1945, she and the other survivors were liberated by the Soviet army in Theresienstadt. Ms. Vidláková will travel from Prague to report on the Shoah and her survival as a contemporary witness.
Reading of texts by the artists Alice Herz-Sommer, Paul Aron Sandfort, Leo Strauss, Viktor Ullmann, and Ilse Weber, who were interned in Theresienstadt, performed by the Bavarian state actress Christine Ostermayer and the founding director of Elysium, Gregorij von Leïtis.
Songs from the Theresienstadt ghetto, performed by mezzo-soprano Neelam Brader and pianist Masha Yulin.
About Theresienstadt:
Terezín played a special role in the Nazi extermination machinery. It was originally established as a collection and transit camp for the Jews living in the so-called “Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.” After leading representatives of ministries and high officials of the NSDAP and the SS had discussed the organizational implementation of the murder of 11 million Jews at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, the Nazis converted Theresienstadt into an “old age ghetto”. From then on, many prominent and elderly German Jews and highly decorated Jewish veterans of the First World War were also deported there.
Theresienstadt was intended as a distraction from the efficiently organized murder machinery of the Nazis. Between June 1943 and April 1945, the Nazi leadership presented Terezin to several delegations of the International Red Cross. The prisoners in Theresienstadt were temporarily allowed to be artistically active and to organize readings, concerts, plays and cabaret performances as part of their so-called “leisure activities.” But behind this façade, the Nazis and their collaborators continued to implement their murderous plans unabated: of the 141,000 Jews deported to Theresienstadt, only around 16,800 survived. 33,500 died in Theresienstadt of hunger and disease, malnutrition and poor hygiene. 88,000 Jews were deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Majdanek and Sobibor.
Presented by the Austrian Cultural Forum Berlin, the Jewish Claims Conference, the Leo Baeck Institute New York │ Berlin, the Czech Centre Berlin and the Czech Embassy Berlin in cooperation with Elysium – between two continents, and The Lahr von Leïtis Academy & Archive
June 3, 2025, Munich: The Gospel According to Kafka
Franz Kafka, drawing by Rüdiger von Voss, 2010
Tuesday, June 3, 2025 at 7.30 pm
Künstlerhaus München
Festsaal
Lenbachplatz 8 | 80333 München | Germany
The Gospel According to Kafka
On the 101st anniversary of Franz Kafka’s Death
Admission: € 30 / reduced € 20 / for young adults up to 30 years old € 10
Tickest can be bought here
Narrators: Christine Ostermayer and Gregorij von Leïtis
Piano: Gottlieb Wallisch
Soprano: Darynn Zimmer
Concept & Introduction: Michael Lahr von Leïtis
Dystopian, gloomy, hopeless – the writings of Franz Kafka (1883 – 1924) deal with fear, failure and futile struggle. As a master of the absurd, he describes the most fantastic events with crystal clarity and sobriety and takes the reader to the limits of human thought. The great upheavals of the 20th century are expressed in Kafka’s work in an almost visionary way. His name became synonymous with modern existence: today we call a situation that defies the interpretations of politics, psychology, and sociology “Kafkaesque”. But in this threatening universe there are small traces of light, tiny hints of a last hope despite all the nihilism and gloom.
Part dramatic reading, part concert, “The Gospel According to Kafka” searches for these encouraging signs in Kafka’s work. Kafka’s own texts are complemented by compositions by Antonin Dvořák, Joseph Bohuslav Foerster, Pavel Haas, Leos Janácek, Bohuslav Martinu, Viteslav Novák, Erwin Schulhoff, Bedřich Smetana, Josef Suk and Viktor Ullmann, as well as Kafka settings by Max Brod and Stefan Heucke.
Presented by the Künstlerhaus München in cooperation with Elysium – between two continents and The Lahr von Leitis Academy & Archive
