Ilka Vierkant

SecondWitness
How can a Holocaust survivor confront the granddaughter of a Nazi perpetrator? In "ZweitZeuge", Jean Vaislic and Ilka Vierkant tread the painful path of this confrontation. Both live in a state of silence - for different reasons. The granddaughter embarks on the process of discovering the hidden stories at the heart of her own family. Grandpa Werner was Reichsbahn director for the eastern territories. Jean Vaislic, who survived Auschwitz among other places, had to lay tracks as a concentration camp inmate in Auschwitz-Birkenau, which Grandpa could have planned. The encounter with Jean in Toulouse became the impetus for the actress, who toured Europe for many years with FAMILIE FLÖZ, to develop a poetic puppet theater evening against forgetting. Inspired by the words of Jean Vaislic: "If I give in to a bad thought, I no longer exist. So when a bad thought overcomes me, I think of flowers."

A German-French and Polish story between the generations.
A play by and with Ilka Vierkant

Presented by Cie VASISTDAS - Fr

Play by Ilka Vierkant
Director Michael Vogel
Artistic collaboration Hauke Diekamp

Light and video installation Reinhard Hubert
Speech coaching Caroline Scholz Ott
Puppet construction Ilka Vierkant and Hajo Schüler
Costume Mascha Schubert

Contemporary witness interview with Jean Vaislic
filmed by Francis Fourcou and Ilka Vierkant

1 hour with approx. 1 hour audience discussion

From 13 years