Wolfratshausen: International artists and district schools remember the burning of books
Created: 06/01/2022, 12:21 p.m
At the end of the three-hour commemorative evening, all those involved sang “Joy, beautiful god spark”.
© Peter Herrmann
Wolfratshausen – In 1933, the National Socialists burned books by authors who were critical of the regime.
The fact that writers are still being persecuted in many countries today was shown by an event organized by the citizens of the Waldram bathhouse and the historical association.
When the elementary school student Lotta Fischer started the evening on the violin with the song "Maikäfer flieg", soap bubbles rose in the air and radio announcer Jürgen Jung sang the sentence "Ukrainerland has burned down", many of the around 400 visitors took this as a sign for (for the time being ) shattered dreams of peace.
In view of the tight programme, bathhouse chairwoman Sybille Krafft did not bother with lengthy historical and political considerations, but initially left the stage to the Geretsried secondary school.
Geretsrieder Realschule sings Ukraine cry for help "You raise me up"
The choir class led by Gabriele Rau energetically interpreted the Ukraine call for help "You raise me up" and then raised peace tablets.
A great template for the refugee teacher Oksana Semenova and her daughter Darina: After the mother had read an excerpt from the work of the well-known Ukrainian writer Oksana Sabuschko, her daughter played two folk songs on the bandura – a Ukrainian lute zither.
The patron Wolfgang Heubisch also liked that.
The vice-president of the Bavarian state parliament came on stage to read the German translation of a text by Sabuschko.
The tenth class of the Wolfratshausen Isar-Loisach-Realschule then presented the PEN writers' association, founded in England in 1921, with video recordings.
As part of the “Writers in Exile” program, the organization awards grants so that persecuted authors can live and write abroad.
This includes Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu from Eritrea.
In her short article she reported on her painful prison stays in the African state, which has only been independent since 1993.
The situation in North Korea is no less depressing. It ranks 180th and last in a list of press freedoms published by the Association of Journalists.
Jae-Hyun Yo reports on the escape of North Korean artist Sun Mu
Jae-Hyun Yo, a friend of the North Korean artist Sun Mu who is now living in Bairawies, reported on his escape from the dictatorship.
After a dance contribution from the seventh grade of the Wolfratshauser middle school and an interview with the Iranian exile author Ayeda Alavie conducted by Pauline Bittner, the organizers allowed the visitors a half-hour break to process what they had heard and seen.
The Syrian Peace Choir, founded by refugees in Munich in 2017, then led to the Kurdistan crisis region.
The writer couple Anisa Jafari Mehr and Jihar Jahan Fard recalled the air raids by the Turkish occupiers and the many hardships.
Writing books helps them process what they have experienced.
"The death of language would be the death of feelings," Fard insisted.
The Afghan photographer Roya Heydari causes a stir with her pictures.
Since there was no exit permit from her exile in Paris, Badehaus Vice President Jonathan Coenen explained her photos.
This was followed by combative speeches by the Turkish author Nazli Karabiyikoglu, who witnessed the violent crackdown on protests in Istanbul's Gezi Park in 2013, and a video clip by the Belarusian writer Volha Hapeyeva.
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In between, young people from the vocational high school in Bad Tölz showed a multimedia performance on the subject of persecution, and Geretsried high school students presented an online interview with the Syrian rapper Amer Wakka.
The English reading by the Ugandan author Stella Nyanzi, who, in the style of a poetry slammer, denounced the grievances in her home country, went well with this.
"Many things are better here in Germany, but I miss life in Africa," she admitted.
After the visitors had learned so much about suffering, injustice and displacement, the Syrian Peace Choir came to an encouraging conclusion.
Together with the audience and everyone involved, the musicians sang the European anthem “Joy, Beautiful Gods Sparks”.
The proceeds from the sale of tickets, food and drinks go to the Badehaus memorial site at Waldramer Kolpingplatz.
Peter Herrmann