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Project Team | Project Resources | Board Members | Support & Sponsorship |
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This is the remarkable and little-known story of the Kulturbund deutsche Juden (The Cultural Association of German Jews), the Jewish arts organization smiled upon briefly by the Nazis until it was finally disbanded in 1941 and its members shipped to the camps. The Kulturbund was a mind-rending paradox. Proposed by Jewish performers as a response to their exclusion from German cultural life, Goebbels latched onto it as a propaganda ploy for foreign consumption (you see we really aren’t treating the Jews so badly after all). Shamelessly exploited by the Ministry of Propaganda, it nevertheless became spiritual refuge to some of the finest musicians and music in Europe, a beacon of artistic light in the gathering European gloom. The Nazis managed public information about the Kulturbund. Still photographs were taken, no recorded film or music allowed. Memorabilia from Kulturbund survivors exist, as does one strategic NY Times review of one Kulturbund program. Between 2002-2004, we filmed rare interviews with 15 people associated to the Kulturbund — those who performed as actors and musicians and those who attended the performances. Five of those interviewed have since passed away. The Project Plans are in place for both a documentary film and a live stage production (in Berlin, Germany). In concert with these tent pole events are plans for educational, symphonic, and cross-disciplinary multi-media programs. The film will tell the Kulturbund story through both the words of former Kulturbund members, as captured in recently filmed interviews, and—more dramatically and accessibly—through the documenting of a live, multi-media stage production. Through the eyes of the young actors and musicians who portray the Kulturbund artists, the story of the Kulturbund comes alive and gains relevance in our world that continues to struggle with oppression. |
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Gail Prensky The Jüdische Kulturbund 4000 Cathedral Avenue, NW 202.333.8624 |
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Copyright © 2010 The Jüdische Kulturbund Project |
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