Report from Voices after Auschwitz

Report from the Group Analytic Conference Voices after Auschwitz: 17/18/19 October 2019, Berlin

As I announced the conference “Voices after Auschwitz” a few times on this list, I guess I should try to give you some kind of report from my side (one of the four organisers) after arriving home without too many difficulties (there was a strike) and a good sleep last night

First to give you the scope: It was the 5th conference “Voices after Auschwitz”; 4 held before in Israel since 2012, and the first one in Germany, in Berlin. That alone was a huge challenge for especially our Jewish Israeli colleagues – and it became worse because of the attack in Halle on Yom Kippur. We as organisers did, what was possible: Informing the local police station about our conference, making them aware of a possible threat. And of course we and everybody knew about how limited this effort was. It was the attempt to find a way (and a hopefully adequate reaction) somewhere between denial and exaggeration.

This topic was an issue mainly at the beginning of the conference – then it went a bit into the background, staying there and giving a constant undercurrent during the whole event.

We had 95 participants (this was the highest number we have ever had) – roughly 1/3 from Israel and 2/3 from Germany and other countries, among them 2 child survivors.

The proportion in Israel was usually the other way round: 2/3 Israelis and 1/3 from abroad. That’s also probably due to the easier accessibility.

On the three days of the conference we had 5 small groups and 3 large groups.

On the first and on the last day there was a film. On Thursday we showed a German film (The Invisibles) about German Jews, who had survived by hiding in Berlin. It was a semi-documentary with interviews of the survivors and fictional scenes. Some of you might have seen it on TV or in the cinema.

The second film was a documentary from Israel about second generation children of survivors of the camps – describing in a very open and thorough way the pains of their childhood being brought up by these severely damaged persons. It was very hard to watch.

The performance on the second day was given by an actor, Daniel Langbein, who is the grandson of Hermann Langbein, an Austrian resistance fighter. Hermann Langbein in 1983 gave a TV interview about his time in Auschwitz, describing meticulously what was done there by the “doctors”. This interview was shown on stage and the actor/his grandson “doubled” him, speaking the same words in the same rhythm and the same movements – impressive!

All this material (i.e. the emotions and memories it elicited) was dealt with in the small and large groups. This time there was more space for differentiating the overall picture, digging deep into issues of love and hate – walking on the fine line to let unfold  a variety of associations without blurring the profound differences (Earl perhaps would say something like working somewhere between massification and aggregation). Another main topic was the difference between protection (when being and feeling so vulnerable) that often is not possible, and about taking care of each other – which we tried to do as much a possible (and also failed sometimes).

About caring: For the people in the synagogue in Halle there was some kind of debriefing organised with the help of John Schlapobersky – but that was planned for Sunday, i.e., outside the conference (time, persons involved).

There was a “Tisch” on Friday evening – led by an orthodox Jewish Israeli participant. She did it wonderfully. I think it was very special to have this Jewish custom in this house (which already in Nazi time was a prominent meeting point) in Berlin – special for the Jewish colleagues and in a different way for the Non-Jewish attendants, who probably hadn’t the possibility before to be present at such kind of ceremony (I hadn’t).

There is so much more to say (also about more down to earth issues such as the party on Friday night with nice music and the possibility to dance – and about the excellent the food we enjoyed all three days) – I will stop here.

Regine Scholz
regine.scholz@regine-scholz.de