>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington, D.C.
>> Gail Shirazi: Hello.
I'm Gail Shirazi of the Israel
Judaica section here at the Library.
Welcome to LC and to
our program today
on the Judische Kulturbund Project.
Excuse my pronunciation.
And I'm going to just briefly
talk about some upcoming programs.
Our next one is on the 17th of
November here in the [inaudible],
and it's award winning
Israeli author
and illustrator, Alona Frankel.
You may know her from
Once Upon a Potty.
But she's also done
her memoirs called --
she's written a book called Girl, My
Childhood and the Second World War.
She was a hidden child
at a very young age.
And these events, the series of
three events that I'm having are
in commemoration of Kristallnacht,
the Night of the Broken Glass
that happened November
9 and 10, 1938.
Today's event is cosponsored by
the Motion Picture Broadcasting
and Recorded Sound
Division, European Division
and the Hebrew language table
here at the Library of Congress
in cooperation with the
[inaudible] Institute
and the [inaudible] Chair Forum
at George Washington University.
I would like to thank all the
participating organizations.
I would also like to thank Audrey
Fisher in the Public Affairs Office
and Galina Keverovsky [assumed
spelling] at the IJ section.
And of course, our
presenters and formers.
Project Director, Gail
Prensky, and the performers,
soprano Sarah Baumgarten,
and our pianist,
Patrick O'Donnell right there.
Sarah was actually Patrick's
student at the Peabody Institute
of Johns Hopkins University,
and both are education directors
and music collaborators
of the project.
The enthusiasm and passion
commitment of those involved
in the project was just amazing.
Gail Prensky's energy and leadership
has moved the project forward
to promote arts even in the
face of tierney and adversity.
And I like the quote
from her website.
Power of music, resiliency
of the human spirit,
and the will to survive.
It gives me great personal
and professional pleasure
to introduce Gail Prensky who
will introduce Sarah and Patrick.
Thank you for giving of your talents
and your time for this event.
And we'll have a period of
Q and A following the event.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Gail Prensky: It
is such a pleasure
to be here and thank you, Gail.
She's been a champion of the project
and really, really worked hard
to bring us here and I also
want to thank the people
from the IT Department and
the Webcasting Department
to make sure all of
this works for us,
so I can't blame technology
if I goof up for sure.
And a special hello to everyone
that's watching this on the webcast,
the artists and scholars and
friends all over the world.
Before I start the presentation
about the Judische Kulturband
Project, I just wanted to explain
that today is a special
format, that Sarah
and Patrick will perform
a few pieces.
One before I start the presentation,
one in the middle and
one to close it.
So Sarah's going to come up here
and talk about the first piece
that they're going to perform
which is an aria Mein Herr Marquis,
and after she performs --
they perform, I will begin.
So come on over, Sarah.
[ Applause ]
>> Sarah Baumgarten:
So just to explain
about the aria before we begin.
Mein Herr Marquis is from
the opera Die Flledermaus
by Johann Strauss, and
that means the bat.
It was performed by the aria in 1935
and in this aria the chambermaid,
Adele, is pretending to
be a world famous actress.
She is showing off her dainty
hands and feet and perfect figure
to her marquis to convince
him that she isn't the maid,
that she actually is
and reminds him of.
And meanwhile, her
master, [inaudible],
is the one dressed
up as the marquis.
So it's all very confusing.
Both are longing to be someone
they're not, which I'm sure the Jews
in Germany at that
time could relate to
and which is why I suspect they put
on this opera that year to comment
on the political happenings
going on around them but also
to allow the performers and the
audience a chance to pretend
that things were still all right for
them and with a little bit of humor.
[ Singing ]
[ Applause ]
>> Gail Prensky: Wow.
So as I was saying, I am so
pleased to be here today to share
with you this presentation about
the Judische Kulturbund Porject.
It's a project I founded years
ago to tell the story of artists
and musicians responding to
oppression in the most powerful ways
through their art and music.
And I really love telling
this story.
About 15 years ago, I learned
about the story of Jewish musicians
and performing artists in Berlin
in 1933 when they were fired
from their jobs in places
like the [inaudible],
the Berlin Philharmonic,
and the state opera.
They were fired because
they were Jews.
A small group of Jewish artists met,
and what they decided in response
to their being fired
was extraordinary.
Led by Kurt Singer, the artistic
director, they would propose
to the Nazi that they organize
their own cultural association
for Jews only.
They would be self-sustaining
through membership subscriptions.
Kurt Singer delivered their proposal
to Joseph Gerble's
[assumed spelling] office
of propaganda and enlightenment.
Surprisingly, the Nazis
approved the proposal.
The Kulturbund understood that
the Nazis would oversee their
organization and approve
of all their activities.
And so in 1933, the
Kulturbund Deutscher Juden,
the Jewish Cultural League
of German Jews, was born.
And in 1936, the Nazis told the
Kulturbund to remove Deutscher,
German, from the organization's
name.
And so they became known
as the Judische Kulturbund,
the Jewish Cultural Association.
Now, I just showed you a
series of these pictures.
They were actually
painted by a young woman,
a teenager named Charlotte
Solomon who is
from a prominent Jewish family
in Berlin, and her stepmother,
Paula Lindberg, was an opera
singer in the Kulturbund.
They sent her -- her father
and stepmother sent her
to southern France where her
grandfather lived to hide
between 1940 and '43 when she
painted hundreds of paintings
about her life in Berlin.
And some of them were
of the Kulturbund.
Charlotte and her unborn child
were perished in Auschwitz in 1943.
When the Kulturbund started in
1933, it opened in Berlin then soon
after opened in 42
theaters around Germany.
The Kulturbund performed operas,
[inaudible], symphonies
and cabarets.
Some of the finest
musicians in German remember.
To give you an idea of the
size of the organization,
they hired about 2000 artists.
Hannah is one of them.
And their membership swelled
to about 70,000 people.
At its height in 1937,
there were 18,500 members
in the Berlin Kulturbund alone.
More than ten percent of
the Jewish population there.
Since I learned the story, I
am still amazed by the idea
of artists responding to
their expulsion from jobs
in their homeland by organizing
as they did and then perplexed
by the Nazi's sanctioning
their plan.
On the one hand, the formation
of the Kulturbund was an act
of defiance by the Jewish artists.
And for some of the artists,
they thought that they were
safe performing in a haven away
from the darkness covering
outside the theater.
For the Nazis, we believe
that the Kulturbund was used
as a propaganda tool to tell the
world the Jews are doing fine
and perhaps it was a way for
the Nazis to contain the Jews.
It was certainly the beginning
of marginalizing, repressing
and ultimately squeezing
them out of society.
For the Kulturbund,
did it ultimately prevent some
artists from leaving sooner?
Did it provide them with
a false sense of security?
Or did it succeed in defying
the Nazis and provide a way
for many artists to survive?
Maybe the Kulturbund
were all of these things.
I started this project to
capture these Kulturbund artists'
experiences and issues
and to explore how the
Kulturbund is relevant today.
My first task was to interview as
many survivors as I could locate.
I filmed 15 interviews.
Most of these subjects
have since died.
One of those I interviewed
attended a Kulturbund performance.
She remembers seeing
Barbara Seville.
I interviewed performers, an
actor, a dancer choreographer,
Hannah, and several musicians.
And I interviewed a seamstress
who altered the same costumes over
and over again for
many performances.
These interviews were very moving
as the subjects described their
memories living in Germany,
their experiences in the Kulturbund
and the performances
in which they played.
A common theme for all of them,
which Gail had said before,
the power of music, the resiliency
of the human spirit and
the will to survive.
So Hannah was a choreographer
and a dancer
in the Berlin Kulturbund
in 1938 and '39.
She and her parents fled Germany
for New York before the Nazis
stopped giving out Visas.
After settling in America,
Hannah founded the Hannah Koner
[assumed spelling] Dance Studio
in Long Island.
Hannah passed away last
year at the age of 95.
Her legacy continues
through her children
and proteges in the U.S. and abroad.
So to start her story,
I wanted to share
with you a film interview excerpt.
>> As the years went on, the world
of the Jews became [inaudible]
and really there was no
way that anY Jew will end
up in Berlin [inaudible] for
the whole country was able to go
to any theater or to any movie.
No television was here and radio
was only what the Nazis chose
to present.
So our world was totally
void of entertainment
and the Kulturbund was
this in its best form.
I would like to nowadays
tell people that if something
like this would happen in
this country, God forbid,
I'd imagine that all the top
artists of Lincoln Center,
the Metropolitan Opera House,
movies, books, if everyone who is
of Jewish religion or had one
Jewish grandparent would be totally
prohibited to [inaudible]
their profession.
And those people pulled themselves
together and formed the Kulturbund.
>> Gail Prensky: Artists
of the Kulturbund
like Hannah impacted not just
German and Jewish culture
but culture in other lands.
I want to share some of
these artists with you.
I will also share video
excerpts of contemporary concerts
that represent some of the
music the Kulturbund artists
remember performing.
I also want to add that for
each piece shared with you,
these music compositions tell
stories and represent themes
such as freedom, defiance
and resiliency.
I can only guess that the
Kulturbund selected them
because of their significance,
their meaning.
Arence [assumed spelling]
Leonard was an actor
who joined the Berlin
Kulturbund in 1933.
Soon after Arence joined
the Kulturbund,
he performed in their first
production in October,
1933 in the theater on
[inaudible] in Berlin.
It was a play called Nathan the Wise
written by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.
Nathan the Wise is a story about
religious tolerance among Muslims,
Christians and Jews in Jerusalem
during the 12th century's
third crusade.
When the Nazis saw the
performance, they shut it down,
never allowing the
Kulturbund to perform it again.
In 1936, Arence left for New York
where he met William
Morris, the agent.
Then he moved to Hollywood where
he acted and became a photographer,
devleoping the first screen tests.
His first client was Tony Curtis.
His last performance in
2004, a year before he died,
was a German Israeli
co-production called Walk on Water.
He called me when he got the part.
He was so excited about the
opportunity to be in a movie again.
"Imagine the irony, he said, I am
playing, wait, a Nazi perpetrator."
And we laughed.
Yuri Tepletts [assumed spelling]
was a flutist joining the Frankfurt
Kulturbund in 1934.
One of the first performances
in which he played was
Mendelson's violin concerto.
It was a special piece because
the German orchestras no longer
played Mendelson.
The reason was that
the orchestra's --
the reason that the orchestra
did not play Mendelson is
because the Nazis believed
he was a Jew.
While Mendelson's family were
Jewish, he was baptized Christian.
It did not matter his
blood line was Jewish.
I'm going to share
with you now an excerpt
of Mendelson's violin concerto,
and [inaudible] is on violin
and Curt Mazer [assumed
spelling] is conducting.
[ Music ]
In 1936, Yuri left
for Palestine along
with conductor William Steinberg and
others from the Frankfurt Kulturbund
to help start the Bronislaw
Hooverman's Palestine Symphony
Orchestra, which is today
the Israeli Philharmonic.
Margalite Waxman [assumed
spelling] was the daughter
of the founding artistic director
of the Kulturbund Kurt Singer.
She attended many of her father's
concerts and remembers in '36
when the Kulturbund began
performing Yiddish plays and music.
This was an extraordinary event.
Up until that time, the Kulturbund
played music by the great composers
of Europe, Bach, Beethoven, Bram,
Schubert, [inaudible] and Mozart.
But in '36, the Nazis
instructed the Kulturbund
that they could no longer
play music -- I'm sorry --
perform music or dramas
composed by Austrians or Germans.
The play only works by
Jewish or foreign composers.
Beethoven, Mozart and
Haydn were out.
Moller and Mendelson were in.
They needed to expand
their repertoire
so they started researching and
learning about Yiddish music
and dramas about which
they knew little.
One such piece was a
liturgical song, [inaudible].
[Inaudible] performing [inaudible]
in Amsterdam's Portuguese --
Amsterdam's Portuguese Synagog.
[ Music ]
Wasn't it great?
Margalite's father, Kurt Singer,
was passionate about the Kulturbund.
In fact, he believed that he
and the Kulturbund were special
and protected by the Nazis.
In 1938, he left Berlin for
the Netherlands and then went
on to the United States to visit
his sister and lecturer at Harvard.
Singer was also lecturing in New
York's Young Hebrew Association
and was given an offer
for a permanent post
at Yale, which he turned down.
He couldn't shake his
commitment to the Kulturbund
and wanted to return to Berlin.
The actor, Aaron Flenard
[assumed spelling],
visited him in New York
telling Singer about [inaudible]
and begged him to stay in the U.S.
Singer told his friend he must go
back, "to rescue what
could be rescued."
On his way to Germany,
Singer stopped
in Holland to see his friends.
They persuaded him not
to return to Germany.
He realized that Kulturbund
could not survive,
and he decided to stay in Amsterdam.
After the Nazi's occupation in
Holland, Singer tried to return
to the U.S., but he
couldn't get a Visa.
Eventually, he was
sent to [inaudible]
where he died from illness.
Margalite, her mother and
sister immigrated to Jerusalem.
Singer's grandchildren and great
grandchildren lived there today.
Today, we are remembering
November 10, 1938, the second day
of Kristallnacht, the
Night of Broken Glass.
Terror swept through Germany setting
synagogues on fire, killing hundreds
of Jews, closing the businesses
and schools and sending tens
of thousands of Jews
to concentration camps.
But imagine, three days after
Kristallnacht on November 13,
the Kulturbund reopened
its theaters.
Max Ehrlich and Willie Rosen
resurrected the cabaret
and comedy review they had
been running since October.
This must have been an
exhilarating and uplifting event
for the Jewish performers
and audience.
Willie Rosen said, "One takes a
thin comedian and a fat comic.
One adds a few pounds."
I need to go back one.
Okay. "One takes a thin
comedian and a fat comic.
One adds a few pounds of sex appeal.
One adds a few comprehensible
melodies
which the audience can
sing after the show.
One adds a few old jokes from
which you cut off the beards.
One takes a lot of new jokes
and some ornaments, red,
green and blue lights,
blend them all together
and the review is done."
Hence, they named the cabaret
and the comedy review
Gemischtes Kompolt,
which means mixed fruit cocktail.
Now, Sarah and Patrick will do
another performance for you,
and this will be what
good would the moon be.
I don't know how you're going
to say it in the other language,
but it is a cabaret
song written by one
of Germany's great
20th century composers,
Kurt Vile who was a target of the
Nazis early on fleeing Germany
in March, 1933 for Paris.
Come on up.
>> Sarah Baumbarten: So Kurt
Vile's [inaudible] premiered
on Broadway in 1947.
Therefore, it was not
performed by the Kulturbund.
However, Vile's music was well
represented on their many programs.
The aria, What Good Would the
Moon Be, addresses the importance
of love over material things.
After all, love is what
makes life worthwhile.
In our context, this aria helps
us to realize that without love,
the Judischle Kulturbund
would not have even existed.
Because so many had a
love of music and followed
through with keeping it accessible,
hundreds, perhaps thousands
of people were able to trudge
through the years leading
up to the Holocaust with
hope instead of with fear.
So enjoy What Good
Would the Moon Be.
[ Singing ]
[ Applause ]
>> Gail Prensky: Henry Meyer
played violin and viola
for the Kulturbund
between 1939 and 1941.
Henry met the conductor of the
Berlin Kulturbund, Rudolf Schwartz,
at a bus stop in Berlin one
day and was invited to audition
for the Kulturbund orchestra.
Only 16 years old, he was
the youngest performer
of the Berlin Kulturbund.
Carl Nielsen's Inextinguishable
Symphony was the last performance
of Kulturbund conducted
by Rudolf Schwartz.
Nielsen wrote in his notes that
the symphony applies to that
which is inextinguishable
and the will to live,
which made it appropriate for the
Kulturbund to play the symphony
on the day the organization
closed on September 11, 1941.
This is an excerpt of
the symphony conducted
by Simon Rattle [assumed
spelling] who was the protégé
of Rudolf Schwartz when they worked
together in Birmingham, England.
[ Music ]
When the Kulturbund closed,
Henry like others who stayed
with the orchestra until the
end was sent to the camps.
He barely survived Auschwitz.
He came to the U.S. where
he became a professor
at the Cincinnati Conservatory
of Music,
and was the founding member
of [inaudible] Quartet.
While the Kulturbund is a unique and
little known story about thousands
of artists from one country
who organized in response
to the Nazi's oppression, repression
and near extinction, today's artists
around the world also respond to
their oppression through their art.
Malika Serabi [assumed
spelling] is one
of those artists who lives in India.
She is an actor, a dancer,
an activist, what she likes
to call herself an artivist.
Malika is a champion, working
with those cast aside
called The Untouchables,
and fights for the rights of the
underdog through her performance,
art and other activities for which
she has won many honors in India.
Here is a sample of an interview
that I did with Malika in 2014.
>> I just have continued
[inaudible] or just
to say we do not accept
what is happening.
And the early Jewish artists
during the Nazi regimen
with which this project
started were doing that.
They were saying there
is a beauty in music
that goes beyond the [inaudible]
of the world around us.
Beyond that the artists in
many different regimens,
are actually using their art to
protest against the government
in much more open ways,
and I think many
of us feel isolated from each other.
We don't know who it is in
Afghanistan was doing similar work
or who it is in Nigeria
who is doing similar work.
And I think that this project
can bring those together
in one platform.
We will be creating a sorority
or fraternity of people
who know are not alone, and I think
that's why this is so important.
>> Gail Prensky: We want to explore
how artists today might connect
to the Kulturbund and the issues
they face, the choice to stay
or leave their homeland and what the
ramifications of their choice means.
We also want to look at
the issue of identity
and the power of music and art.
We have talked with 34 artists from
22 countries including Afghanistan,
Argentina, [inaudible], Cambodia,
Chile, Congo DRC, India, Iran, Mali,
Niger, North Korea,
Pakistan, Shrilanka,
Sweden, Uganda and Ukraine.
While the Nazis did not
allow the Kulturbund
to film their performances
or record their music,
today we have the advantage
of technology and social media
that break down the barriers
despite dictator's efforts to squash
or quash their attempts to let
the outside world know about them.
I'd like to share with you examples
of our collaborating
artists stories.
This is Minera Hashami
[assumed spelling].
She's a performing artist from
Afghanistan now exiled in Sweden
as is one of her brothers
sand his family.
Her parents, two sisters and
another brother live in Berlin.
She and her family fled in 2012
after years of threats and abuse
by the community, one, for being
[inaudible], two for being women
who worked outsidse the home and
three, working as performing artists
which is akin to those in
Afghanistan as being prostitutes.
Minera's mother encouraged
her daughters
to continue their art and work.
Her father and brothers follow
Minera's mother's lead defending
Minera and her two sisters.
As a result, the family
was assaulted many times.
Their lives were threatened
so they chose to flee.
Minera is an accomplished
actor, director and playwright.
Her two sisters are actors.
One brother is a filmmaker,
the other a musician.
Today, Minera travels to perform
her one person play called Sitahara,
The Stars, which she wrote
after she moved to Sweden.
It is a story about three women
and their sufferings in Afghanistan
from 130 years ago to now.
This is Arnchorn Pon
[assumed spelling]
who is an a musician
living in Cambodia.
Arn came from a family who
opened an opera company.
When the Khmer Rouge
took power in the 1970's,
they targeted artists
sending them to the camps
and killing many of them.
Arn was sent to a camp where
he learned how to play music.
He says music saved his life.
While in the camp, he was made to
play for the Khmer Rouge guards
and while victims were
being tortured and killed.
He eventually was given a rifle
like many boys sent into the jungle
to kill the Khmer Rouge
at the Thai border.
He fled escaping to a refugee
camp where he met an American man.
The man took Arn back to New
Hampshire and adopted him.
After a full education, Arn started
Cambodia Living Arts to support
and educate Cambodians,
teaching them music
and giving them a better life.
He now lives in Cambodia.
Tin Lin was born and raised
in Burma, now Myanmar,
where his father owned a saw mill.
Tin Lin began painting as a boy,
attending [inaudible] University
where he studied law and supported
himself as a comedian and actor.
One of thousands of Burmese
arrested, Tin Lin was thrown
into prison for protesting
against the repressive government.
He was political prisoner
from 1998 until 2004.
While confined often in solitary
confinement in the Mandolay prison,
Tin Lin persuaded guards with whom
he became friendly to purchase
and smuggle in paints for him.
He used items in the prison like
bowls, syringes, cigarette lighters
in the absence of brushes to make
paintings and monoprints of cotton,
prison uniforms like this.
Working at night and for two hours
at a time while friendly guards were
on duty, he used bars of soap
and sculpted images of cellmates
and painted the prison surroundings
and the suffering faces
of fellow prisoners.
Tin Lin successfully arranged to
smuggle more than 300 paintings
and sculptures out of the
prison, which were later deposited
in the International Institute
of Social History in Amsterdam.
On 12/12/2012, Tin Lin was one
of 80 artists from 24 countries
who participated in the first
annual [inaudible] in Indian.
Tin Lin's multimedia artwork
called The Special Court,
was installed in Mandolay Hall in
the Jewish quarter of [inaudible].
The installation based on
Tin Lin's written story
about his sentencing
in the Mandolay prison.
In July, 2013, Tin Lin returned
with his family to live in Burma
to take advantage of the
new reforms in his country.
He is currently working on a show of
hands capturing in plaster the hands
of thousands of former
political prisoners in Burma.
So far, he has completed
more than 400.
The show of hands represents how
Burma was once broken and now
in the process of healing, and
it is also about the process
of engaging the community through
performance and public art.
This was Johan Belmar
[assumed spelling].
He's a visual artist
working in mixed media.
He was born in Chile and now lives
here in Tacoma Park, Maryland.
As a young boy, Johan grew up
in Chile under the dictatorship
of Pinochet in the
1970's, 80's and 90's.
His mother worked in a factory.
One day Johan remembers
walking over a bridge
where he saw bodies floating.
As he got older, aware that he
was gay and had a strong design
and artistic talent, he knew he
was going to have to leave Chile
because the penalty for
homosexuality was death.
Expressing one's artistic
ideas was risky.
In 1995, leaving his homeland
and his family, he fled to Spain
where he experienced
freedom for the first time.
Later, Johan came to the
U.S. and became a citizen.
In the last year, Johan
has exhibited his works
at the Addison Ripley Fine Art
in D.C. and the McClain Project
for the Arts in Virginia.
He also traveled to Paris
and [inaudible] as one
of 12 participating artists in
Unesco's light spaces exhibition.
Aldofi [assumed spelling]
is a fashion designer
from Niger Mali now living in Silver
Spring, Maryland and in Paris.
Aldofi was born in Niger and
eventually moved to Mali.
He fled from Mali years ago when
the extremist threatened his life
for supporting the rights and
economic independence of women
and providing them with beauty.
Aldofi is an extraordinary,
talented designer
who combines Mali fabric
design with couture fashions.
His work can be seen
every year in Paris.
He was -- he has a school in Mali
where he educates others in design
and with the assistance of
Unesco and other organization,
Aldofi has started his own
initiative to build a university
of fashion in Niger for which the
government is providing him land.
Kim Yung Seun [assumed spelling].
She is a performing artist from
North Korea now in South Korea.
Yung Seun was a choreographer
and dancer until 1970
when she was married and
started raising children.
This was during the
Kim Il Sung's rule.
One day the authorities arrested
and took away her husband.
A month later, she was taken
to a national security agency
building for interrogation.
There, she was told to
write a notebook everything
about her life and
everyone she knew.
After two months, she and
her family, her parents
and four children were sent
to a concentration camp called
Yodak [assumed spelling].
Her parents died of malnutrition.
One son was shot and
killed trying to escape.
And another son was left on
the ground outside of her home
in the camp, dead from drowning.
After nine years, she and
her two surviving children,
a son and daughter, were released.
She adopted out her teenage daughter
to a farmer for a better life.
Years later, she learned why she
was sent to the concentration camp.
She knew a secret that no one
was to know, which she revealed
in those interrogation notes.
She was friends with an actress
who had become the
mistress of Kim Yun Il.
And who later gave birth to a son
who by the way is today's
North Korean's dictator,
Kim Yun Un's older half brother.
15 years since her release from the
Yoda concentration camp, Yung Seun
and her son escaped, finding
the way to South Korea.
There, she wrote a book and then
choreographed a dance as part
of a theater production of
the Yoda concentration camp.
When I asked Yung Seun now in
her 70's how she can survive
so much pain and loss, she said
that every day she embraces freedom
and every moment of life.
Yung Seun is a human
rights activist fighting
for the rights of North Koreans.
Tarika Kenneth Desiree [assumed
spelling] is a performing artist
living in Uganda.
Today, Ugandans are
experiencing increased oppression
with the parliament passing a law
allowing police more power while
restricting people's rights.
People are not allowed to gather
in public places or express dissent
or criticism of their government.
Police may use firearms to
shoot and kill protestors
and bystanders in demonstrations.
Media outlets are targeted and
closed down and threats are made
against civil society groups
and journalists whose work involve
government policy and human rights,
particularly the rights
of lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender people.
Tarika shared examples of
how the mandate was used
against people where he lives.
In 20 -- I'm sorry, in June, 2010,
Tarika was part of an audience
that was watching some documentary
films in the Witoto [ph] Church
about human rights when police
targeted the church and raided it,
blocking the screening of
the film about the trial
of the prominent leaders
of the defeated Nazis
in Germany after World War II.
In October, 2012, The
State of the Nation,
a production by a local playwright,
John Sigarwa [assumed spelling],
was deemed incisive and
a threat to patriotism.
Because it highlighted
critical issues like corruption
and the governance in Uganda,
the play was banned
immediately after its premiere.
Tarika is a professional dancer and
choreographer as well as founder
of the Yeda Convicts
[ph] Dance Company.
Started in 2006, Yeda
Convicts mission is
to transform society through dance.
Through dance, performances
communicate
and educate the audiences about
the things that affect society
and in Uganda there
is so much to say.
We are asked a lot about what the
Judischle Kulturbund Project is
doing with all that we have learned
about the Kulturbund
and today's artists.
Well, I'd love to share
some of what we're doing.
In collaboration with an
extraordinary creative team
and supportive scholars and
advisors, we are producing Playing
for Life, Art Under Tyranny, a
multimedia play we hope to premiere
in D.C. The production brings
together characters based
on the Kulturbund and current
day artists, musicians,
actors and dancers
that magically meet
on stage through time and space.
We have started development
of a dramatic feature film
about the Kulturbund, and we
are calling it Life or Theater,
which is set in Berlin
in the 1930's.
As I speak right now,
our screenwriter is writing
the first draft of the movie
so I don't want to
reveal too much about it.
We are also building
an education program.
We have ideas for working
with teachers and kids
that include connecting
classrooms in the U.S. and abroad
where we explore issues
of oppression
and responses through art and music.
We are also planning with the
[inaudible] Jewish Day School
and the Musicians for World Harmony,
a series of kids music videos.
And we have an idea for a book and
exhibition that features profiles
of our artists and children's
response to the artist's story
through their written
word, visual art and music.
We continue to find new
artists and audiences
who connect with our efforts.
In September, I was in Sweden giving
a presentation at a conference
about culture and freedom
of expression.
While there, for a couple of weeks,
we found Heda [assumed
spelling] Krauss.
She is a Swedish playwright.
He's storytelling to
expose oppression of women
and is working ona performance
right now about the wrongs
of the Roma people which
is an initiative supported
by the Swedish government.
And we interviewed two refugees.
Hollad Herrara [assumed spelling],
a [inaudible] rapper who is working
in Sweden on music programs
for kids in his homeland
and is also planning
a music academy there,
and Assad Budda [assumed
spelling] a [inaudible] historian
and philosopher from Afghanistan who
feels a deep affinity for Judaism,
and was fired from a university
position in Afghanistan for sharing
with his students his connection to
the Jew's history, their struggles,
strong sense of identity and
ability to overcome adversity.
More than 1000 fatwas have
been issued against him,
and his Visa's running out.
He can't return to Afghanistan
because he will be stoned to death.
He told us after our interview,
"Your work is a constellatoin,
drawing stars in the dark sky.
I am darkness and trying to
connect you to the Hazara artists,
the starsof Afghan-Persian
dark history."
Through all of our various
efforts, we will tell you the story
of the Kulturbund and
those of today's artists
and how they responded living
under oppression, spanning the time
from 1933 to the present.
I want to thank you all for allowing
me to share the faces, the music,
the art and the stories of the
artists who define our project.
They motivate me every day.
These artists are brave,
generous and appreciative
of what we were doing
for them on our project.
We are grateful to them for allowing
us to share our stories with you.
Our project's desire is to introduce
you and others to the Kulturbund
and today's artists and
show you how they respond
to oppression through art.
It is our hope that through the
Judische Kulturbund Project's
efforts we will bring a collective
voice for today's artists as well
as bring awareness about what
others are experiencing elsewhere.
We believe these artists are the
best of humanity and encourage all
of us to be tolerant of our
differences, live in peace,
allow us to express ourselves freely
and support healthy discussions
about issues without
threatening our lives.
Now,we will enjoy the last
performance of Sarah and Patrick,
and I believe it is
Ah, I Want to Live?
And once again, just imagine what
it was like for the Kulturbund being
in the theater when
this was performed.
>> Sarah Baumgarten: This last
aria is from the French version
of [inaudible] Romeo and Juliet.
And the French title is [speaking
foreign language], and the English,
like Gail said is Ah,
I Want to Live.
This was performed by
the Judische Kulturbund
in 1934, the entire opera.
The first few words are I
want to live in this dream,
that intoxicates me
to this day still.
In our context, the Judische
Kulturbund was keeping
that dream alive in the
lives of the German Jews
by creating an organization
that allowed Jews to perform
and experience art and
beauty through music
when danger would be
lurking in every corner.
It became a safe haven when
things started to get ugly,
and in this piece, Juliet is
about to attend her birthday ball,
but while she's excited for her
party, she's terrified of the future
and growing up, of possibly
falling in love or being forced
to marry a man that
she doesn't love.
She's afraid to leave her
happy childhood behind
for an uncertain future just as
many Jews in Germany were reluctant
to leave their former lives behind.
This aria also speaks to
the millions of people
around the world today who are
living in oppression who just want
to choose love and happiness.
Enjoy [speaking foreign language].
[ Singing ]
[ Applause ]
>> Gail Prensky: Yeah, so we're
ready for any questions, discussion
and also you can always find
more information on our website.
So please visit and help us along.
Anybody want to ask
anything talked about?
Yes.
>> That was wonderful.
It seems that the [inaudible]
was well documented
as far as what was [inaudible].
When you got interested in
this, where were you able
to research this organization
and [inaudible]?
Where are the primary
[inaudible] today?
>> Gail Prensky: So the question is
where are primary materials
research available
for the Judische Kulturbund?
And you're right.
There were -- they were
scattered all over.
Like I said, there were 42
theaters around the country.
In Berlin, there was
the Academy [inaudible].
In New York, there was
a Leo Beck Institute,
and at the Holocaust Museum,
they have some material.
The people that I interviewed,
they kept material as well.
The Academy [inaudible] actually did
an exhibit, and they have a catalog
where they have a listing
of all the repertoires
that the Berlin Theater performs.
So that was -- it was
very helpful to us.
But they did not record.
So there are no audio
sound or film recordings.
So that's why I use these
excerpts to show the performance.
[ Inaudible ]
Well, they -- so the question
is is there any effort
to collect the information
from those who still survived?
Most of them have since died,
but the archives, for instance,
in Berlin they have given
material to them and at Leo Beck
and people want my interviews
so eventually I will be
sharing those with the archives.
Yes.
[ Inaudible ]
So is there an official
archives for the --
>> The Kulturbund in general?
>> Gail Prensky: For the Kulturbund?
Right. So the Academy [inaudible]
in Berlin has a Kulturbund archives
as part of their large archives.
And you can search on there, and Leo
Beck, you can search for Kulturbund
and so they do have a portion
of the archives devoted to this.
Anyone else?
Yes?
>> How did you locate the survivors?
>> Gail Prensky: How did
I locate the survivors?
So a few different places.
I put actually an ad in
the [inaudible] Newspaper,
and I got a lot of
response through them.
Arence Leonard heard about
what I was doing in Germany,
and he called me up and then
invited me to Berlin where we went
and I visited with him a number
of times in his apartment.
And word of mouth really.
Oh, and the [inaudible].
They were doing a pilot for
digitizing their archives,
and they gave me a grant and
sent me out there to search,
and I found some people
that way too.
Anyone else?
Yes. Amanda.
[ Inaudible ]
So -- so thanks for asking.
The question is how did Sweden
get involved in our project?
Joann Sherman who is the
producer of Bond Street,
I met her at a conference and
told her about the project,
and I was looking for
a current day artist.
And she told me about Minera Hashami
who I introduced to you earlier,
an Afghan [inaudible]
perofrming artist.
And so I contact -- she gave
me the contact to Minera.
And we did an interview
with Minera and her brother
over Skype while they
were in Sweden,
and then she shared what the story
I wrote and the interview that I did
with her director in Sweden,
and then they came to New Jersey
to show their performance
at the Brunswick Theater.
And we met after that.
And then I was invited to
come, and they are very,
very interested in working with us.
We -- when we were in Sweden, we
met with the CEO of the [inaudible]
who was embracing our efforts,
and they're looking forward
to receiving our script
for the play and to expand
with us our education program,
and we're really excited
to be working with them.
We met with the Kultur
attache at the Swedish Embassy
who was very encouraging.
So we're going to begin
those efforts very soon.
[ Inaudible ]
I brought -- yeah, yeah.
Thanks for that.
Yes. I brought it to them.
[ Inaudible ]
Thank you for asking
about how we get support.
That's great.
So we've gotten some grants.
We got a grant from the
[inaudible] Conference that --
and from private people to help us.
We did a theater workshop
to explore the issue
of connecting the Kulturbund
to current day.
We've gotten a couple of other
grants and individuals give
and we need to raise
a lot more money.
So we are asking everyone to
give support or to let us know
of organizations that
would welcome this.
I think we'll get some
things out of Sweden,
and I think because it's
interdisciplinary there are a lot
of different avenues that
we can go to get the support
because I think this is a universal
story, and I think it will appeal
to a lot of different groups.
So thank you.
>> Gail Shirazi: One last question.
Well, I want to thank you
-- I want to thank Gail,
and I want to thank Sarah
and Patrick for taking us
on this cultural journey
through time, internationally
and hopefully to the future.
So thank you, and I hope to see
you at other programs that we do.
But this was a really
special program.
Thank you very much.
>> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at loc.gov.