Read the Signs

An Evening to Mark the 70th Anniversary of the Night of Murdered Poets – Reading (in German and Yiddish) (video recording available, in Yiddish, English and German)

The 12 August 2022 marks the 70th anniversary of the “Night of Murdered Poets,” the climax of the Stalinist persecution of Jewish intellectuals. The murder of Dovid Bergelson, Peretz Markish, Itsik Fefer, Dovid Hofshteyn, Leyb Kvitko and others marked the death of the most important Soviet Yiddish literary figures. Most of them came from the area of modern-day Ukraine and they formed the Kyiv Group. In the 1920s, many of them were temporarily in exile in Berlin. At the instigation of the Soviet government, they founded the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee during the Second World War. When this was dissolved by Stalin in 1948, its members were persecuted, arrested and in some cases murdered after show trials.

recording available

Map with all buildings that belong to the Jewish Museum Berlin. The W. M. Blumenthal Academy is marked in green

Where

W. M. Blumenthal Academy,
Klaus Mangold Auditorium
Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin (Opposite the Museum)

Where, when, what?

This literary evening with Lena Gorelik, Olga Grjasnowa, Lana Lux and Sasha Marianna Salzmann is dedicated to these poets and the Yiddish culture they built up and represented both inside and outside the Soviet Union. Tal Hever-Chybowski will read from the Yiddish texts.

The evening of readings will conclude a one-day symposium which the Summer Program for Yiddish Language and Literature and the JMB are dedicating to the murdered Soviet Yiddish writers.
More information on the symposium on our website

Video Recordings of the Symposium and the Reading

(3 items)

Panel 1, The Night of the Murdered Poets – History and Legacies, video recording from 14 Aug 2022; Jewish Museum Berlin.
Panel 2, The interdisciplinary cooperation project The Short Life of Soviet Yiddish Literature and the Night of the Murdered Poets, video recording from 14 Aug 2022 in German; Jewish Museum Berlin.
Reading with Lena Gorelik, Olga Grjasnowa, Tal Hever-Chybowski, Lana Lux and Sasha Marianna Salzmann, video recording from 14 Aug 2022 in Yiddish and German; Jewish Museum Berlin.

Where, when, what?

When Sun 14 Aug 2022, 7 pm
Where W. M. Blumenthal Academy,
Klaus Mangold Auditorium
Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin
(Opposite the Museum)
See location on map

Entry fee
6 €, reduced rate 3 €
Tickets If there are no tickets left for this event, it is, however, still worthwhile to ask at the box office on the evening of the event. Unclaimed tickets are given to people from the waiting list approximately 15 minutes before the event starts.

Corona rulesAll guests to live events are required to follow the current hygiene regulations of the Jewish Museum Berlin.

LanguageThe event will be conducted in German and Yiddish.