Jewish Studies Program, German Studies Program, Bard Translation and Translatability Initiative, and Literature Program Present

Who Was Fritz Kittel

Esther Dischereit
Eminent German Poet, Essayist, and Activist

In 2023, Esther Dischereit created an exhibition in cooperation with Deutsche Bahn to honor the railroad worker Fritz Kittel. In 1944 and 1945, he hid her mother Hella and sister Hannelore, who as Jews were persecuted by the Gestapo and threatened with death in Germany under National Socialism. They were liberated by U.S. troops in 1945. Dischereit began to search for the family of the rescuer and found them in 2019. Fritz Kittel had not told his own family about his courageous act throughout his life. Esther Dischereit's literary response in 17 text pieces includes other found objects from the lives of her mother, sister, and Fritz Kittel, and they offer a dialogue with those who are now the daughters and sons or grandchildren. False information given at a registration office, illegal names and addresses ... What do we read when we read these documents?What do we see when we look at these photos?

Esther Dischereit lives in Berlin, writes prose, poems, essays and radio works. Recent publications: Hab keine Angst! Erzähl alles. Das Attentat von Halle und die Stimmen der Überlebenden (Ed., 2020). Sometimes a Single Leaf (2020), Flowers for Otello On the Crimes that Came out of Jena (2022) – both transl. by Iain Galbraith. Wer war Fritz Kittel, Exhibition 2023: Berlin / Frankfurt am Main / Chemnitz / Nürnberg.

Maggie Hough studies Classics, German, philosophy and theater at Bard College.

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For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail twild@bard.edu.

Time: 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm EDT/GMT-4

Location: Olin Humanities, Room 102

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