Chaya's way
From the longing to leave the shadows behind
Portrait of a Jewish life in today's Germany
A collage of music, puppet theater and texts depicts Chaya's life from her childhood in the 1960s to the present day. Impressive how she is able to detach herself from the fear and hate that stems from her family's Holocaust:
“My parents and grandparents passed on the values and traumas of the past. For them it was only black or white. In order to survive, I had to evolve.
And I started to discover the colors.” Chaya, 2020
Chaya (name changed) is Jewish. She grew up in post-war Germany, her parents and grandparents were victims of Nazi rule. Some survived and passed the trauma on to their children. Chaya has spent her life trying to let go of this legacy and live on without the shadows of the past.
Helena comes from a family in which everyone was an ardent supporter of Hitler. She bears the burden of this origin, knowing how much guilt her family has taken on. She has dedicated her life to anti-fascism and the fight for justice.
The two women have been in dialogue for a long time.
In a dialogue about how the 2nd generation is doing on both sides with the "inheritance".
If I am the daughter of victims, am I also a victim?
If I am the daughter of perpetrators, am I also a perpetrator?
How do we want to live on? What to pass on to our children?
At the beginning of the corona pandemic, the two women began to engage in this dialogue. Many hours of recording material were created. Thanks to their years of work on these topics, their great attention to language and the deep friendship that has developed between them in the meantime, this dialogue goes very far and allows for the unsaid. The special thing about it is that reconciliation is in the foreground, especially from the Jewish side. "I'm only involved in the processing of history if the result is HUMAN at the end"
The figure theater Ekke Neckepen and the musician and composer Karin Christoph accompanied the dialogue between the two women. They bring parts of it to the stage, partly touching, partly philosophical but also playfully showing Chaya's life and the feasibility of reconciliation and perspective.
Karin Christoph: violin, composition
Figure Theater Ekke Neckepen: Christoph Bendikowsky
www.ekke-neckepen.de
