"We are still here": memories of the Holocaust
Adult education centre: Reading and discussion on 28 January, 6 pm, TIETZ, Room 4.07
On Sunday, 28 January, from 6 to 8.15 pm, the Chemnitz Adult Education Centre and "Weiterdenken", the Saxon branch of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, invite you to a reading and discussion with the American author and artist Jana Zimmer. The event will take place in course room 4.07 of the TIETZ. Jana Zimmer will present her book "Pralinen aus Tanger - Erinnerungen eines Holocaust-Ersatzkindes über Kunst und Transformation" as well as her artistic work.
Participation is free of charge. Registration is possible by telephone on 0371 488 4343 or online at www.vhs-chemnitz.de/kurs/W2310310.
The publication of the book "Pralinen aus Tanger - Erinnerungen eines Holocaust-Ersatzkindes über Kunst und Transformation" in German is the result of many years of correspondence and mutual trust in reflection, criticism and art. "Extermination through labour has failed. We are still here", wrote Jana Zimmer on 9 September 2007 on a note that she placed under a memorial plaque for the forced labourers of "Freia GmbH" at today's district administration office in Freiberg, Saxony. Her mother was one of the 1000 women prisoners who were deported from the Auschwitz extermination camp to Freiberg in the late summer and autumn of 1944. There, the Jewish girls and women had to perform forced labour under murderous conditions.
But this is not where the story ends. Instead, this "We are still here" is part of an uprising of the "Second Generation Survivor". Jana Zimmer's book tells of the transmission of the trauma of the Shoah across generations. Her life story spans generations and continents and begins in Europe, more precisely in Prague. Her texts, collages and prints are part of the Holocaust memories and their processing.
On this evening, Jana Zimmer will read from her book. In a discussion with the publisher Katrin Krahl from Weiterdenken - Heinrich Böll Stiftung Sachsen e. V., the thoughts of the book will be illuminated. Afterwards, the exhibition "WE ARE STILL HERE" with collages by Jana Zimmer will be officially opened.
The event is a co-operation between Weiterdenken - Heinrich Böll Foundation Saxony e. V. and the Chemnitz Adult Education Centre to mark the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism.