‘Writing or Living’ by resistance fighter, writer and Spanish Minister of Culture Jorge Semprún is one of the most powerful accounts of the experience of Nazi concentration camps. To mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp, 33 young people from Bourges, Clichy-sous-Bois, Alès, Paris, Weimar, Erfurt, Berlin and other places in France and Germany spent a year intensively studying this text. The idea and staging are by Hiam Abbass and Jean-Baptiste Sastre.
In April 2025, performances took place on the grounds of the former Buchenwald concentration camp and at the Lichthaus Weimar, followed by performances at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin and the Théâtre du Soleil in Paris. The project was made possible by the Franco-German Youth Office (DFJW) with the prize money from the International Prize of the Peace of Westphalia, which Emmanuel Macron donated to the DFJW, as well as by the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation.
Life is not perfect, we know that.
But it can be a path to perfection.
From L'écriture ou la vie (Writing or Life) by Jorge Semprún (1923–2011), resistance fighter, Buchenwald survivor, writer and Spanish Minister of Culture
We wish you a happy New Year and a healthy and peaceful 2026.
Prof. Dr. Jens-Christian Wagner - Foundation Director
Antje Hitzschke - Adinistrative Director
Dr. Daniel Logemann - Director of the Museum of Forced Labor under National Socialism
Andreas Froese - Director of the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial
