Ruth Maier, Gunvor Hofmo og Karen Schou. Foto: HL-Senteret

 

Markering av Krystallnatten 

og Ruth Maiers fødselsdag – 100 år

 

Tid: Mandag 9.november 2020 klokken 20.00 til 21.00

Sted: Kulturkirken Jakob

 

Her kan du lytte til poet Gunnar Wærness egen opplesning av sitt dikt gunvor hofmo en gang til-  Bestillingverket til Ruth Maiers 100 års dag- urfremført 9. 11. 2020_

 

Og her som tekstformat:

Bestillingsverk til Ruth Maiers 100 års dag av poet Gunnar Wærness

 

Tekst om minnemarkeringen i Norsk Shakespearetidsskrift:

Helende requiem for Ruth Maier | Norsk Shakespearetidsskrift 

 

Og her kan du også lese én av talene til Ruth under natten:

Ruth Maier . Tale ved rabbiner og religionshistoriker Lynn Claire Feinberg

Om minnemarkeringen

I disse dager, før Oslo stenges ned, ønsker vi varmt velkommen til en samling i Kulturkirken Jakob mandag 9. November 2020 klokken 20.00. Grunnet restriksjoner innført nasjonalt og lokalt, vil arrangementet finne sted med et svært redusert antall publikummer gjennom påmelding. Arrangementet er fullbooket.

 

Ruth Maier var en østerrisk-jødisk flyktning født 10.november 1920 i Wien. Som datter av Irma Maier og Ludwig Maier, vokste hun opp i intellektuell og kulturinteressert, assimilert jødisk familie. Hun kom til Norge i 1939, tok artium og studerte på Kunst- og Håndverksskolen. Hun skrev dikt og malte akvareller. Ruth Maiers vennskap med dikteren Gunvor Hofmo, ble beskrevet som at de var sjelevenner. Ruth Maier ble deportert 26.november og ble drept 1.desember 1942 i konsentrasjonsleiren Auschwitz. Ruth Maiers dagbøker ble tatt vare på av Gunvor Hofmo som forsøkte å få dem utgitt, men ble refusert. Jan Erik Vold fikk utgitt dagbøkene i 2007. Og siden har de blitt oversatt til flere språk. Arkivet etter Maier ble i 2014 inkludert i Norges dokumentarv og dermed i UNESCOs verdensarv.

Scenekunstprosjektet Nattens Lys – en våkenattsmesse- hadde premiere i Kulturkirken Jakob i 2015. Det kjennes derfor som et naturlig sted for dette litteraturarrangementet, der vi samler ulike stemmer og perspektiver der Gunvor Hofmo og Ruth Maier vil danne prisme for arrangementet.

Forfatter og poet Gunnar Wærness skriver et bestillingsverk for anledningen, og religionshistoriker og rabbiner Lynn Claire Feinberg vil dele sine tanker. Parallelt med vår stund i Oslo, vil scenograf og kunstner, Selma Lindgren, gå i Ruth Maiers fotspor i Wien denne høstkvelden – vandre mellom hennes hjem.

 

Medvirkende:

Utøvere. Liv Kristin Holmberg og Christina Lindgren

Religionshistoriker og rabbiner Lynn Claire Feinberg

Poet Gunnar Wærness

Scenograf og kunstner Selma Lindgren

Stefan Thorsson, komponist av våkenattsmessen Lidelsens Jubel.

Prest og operasanger Mathias Gillebo

 

Arrangementet skjer i samarbeid med Kirkelig Kulturverksted / Kulturkirken Jakob.

Støttet av Norsk Kulturråd.

Første foto: Før arrangementet. Skulpturen med plass til 100 lys, bordet og 100 glassbeholdere. Etter arrangementet. Skulpturen med 100 tente lys. Kostymene minnet om liturgisk messehagl, med pålimte trykte dikt av Gunvor Hofmo. På grunn av forskrifter om sosial distansering på grunn av covid 19, ble publikum sittende langs sidene av kirkerommet, med en avstand på en meter mellom setene. Under arrangementet i Kulturkirken Jakob besøkte kunstner og scenograf, Selma Maria Lindgren, de tre adressene der Ruth Maier hadde bodd og tent lys: Peter-Jordan-Straße 96, Gersthofer Straße 75-77 og Oberen Donaustraße 43. Selmas gange gjennom de tomme gatene i Wien, ble overført via Zoom og projisert på veggen til Kulturkirken Jakob under det times arrangementet. På grunn av regelverk var antall publikum som var tillatt i rommet begrenset til 40 personer.

 

Glimt fra minnemarkering

 

Her anmeldelse ved Elin Lindberg i Norsk Teater- og Shakespeare Tidsskrift, publisert 10.november 2020:

Healing requiem for Ruth Maier

Ingress: Today it is 100 years since Ruth Maier was born. Nattens Lys (The Night’s Light) and Kulturkirken Jakob, by Liv Kristin Holmberg and Christina Lindgren, organized a dignified and important theater event to mark the Kristallnacht and Ruth Maier’s 100th birthday.

Review by: Elin Lindberg

Norsk Teater- og Shakespearetidsskrift

Publish Tuesday November 10th 2020

http://shakespearetidsskrift.no/2020/11/helende-requiem-ruth-maier

 

Today, November 10th, it is 100 years since Ruth Maier was born. By remembering her, we maintain our knowledge of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. Her birthday coincides with the November pogrom, the Kristallnacht also called the Night of Broken Glas. On the night between November 9 and 10, 1938, the Nazis carried out extensive violent attacks on Jews in Germany. Ruth Maier came to Norway as a refugee in 1939. She took artium and studied at the School of Arts and Crafts. She wrote poems and painted watercolors. The poet Gunvor Hofmo became her soulmate, their relationship became very important to both of them. Ruth Maier was one of the 532 Jews deported on the ship Donau on November 26th, 1942. She was killed on December 1st, arriving at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Prelude

In Kulturkirken Jakob we are warmly welcomed by the organizers of the theater event. Liv Kristin Holmberg and Christina Lindgren are dressed in a costume reminiscent of the liturgical mass hail. There are white flakes that have prints of, or are attached to, sheets of text. It corresponds well with all the textual material that the religious traditions, Judaism in particular, this theatrical event is associated with. Ruth Maier was also a talented writer, and she is forever associated with one of our greatest poets: Gunvor Hofmo. The actual entrance to Kulturkirken Jakob takes time, although there is a very limited number of audiences who can be together about this celebration right here. Candles are lit and we are once again warmly welcomed by the initiators Holmberg and Lindgren.

Ruth Maiers text

Ruth Maier’s diaries were kept by Gunvor Hofmo after Maier was deported. Hofmo tried to get them published, but was refused. Jan Erik Vold has made a formidable effort by highlighting the authorship of Gunvor Hofmo and also the texts and story of Ruth Maier. He has published the biographical books The Singer of Darkness (Mørkets Sangerske) and Ruth Maier’s Diary. In 2014, Maier’s diaries and letters were included in Norway’s documentary heritage and thus in UNESCO’s world heritage. Holmberg reads an excerpt from Maier’s text. It is from Christmas Eve 1941. At this time Maier is 21 years old. She writes thoughtful. On a train ride, she observes a traumatized, former Finnish soldier. He is in great mental pain. Through the diary text, Maier writes into a community: “I am not only me. To be me, I have to let all the others into my heart”. This makes Meier’s text and the theater event both deeply social and deeply political.

The young woman is walking in Vienna

The next thing that happens in Kulturkirken Jakob this evening is that we are introduced to Selma Maria Lindgren who is an artist and set designer. She is in Vienna, Ruth Maier’s hometown, and this evening walks between Maier’s two homes in this city. We follow the walk on video that is projected on the church wall. This is a good and successful move. Selma Maria Lindgren is about the same age as Ruth Maier was when she was killed, it creates a connection between the two. The fact that a living young woman is following in the footsteps of the dead helps to strengthen hope for a better future, and it seems reassuring.

Post-traumatic growth

Historian of religion and rabbi Lynn Claire Feinberg researches in her PhD project how the Holocaust has affected Jews in Norway, both collectively as an ethnic minority and individually as descendants of Jews. She spoke of an intergenerational trauma, living a life marked by the shadows of Auschwitz. She claims that the traumas that have affected the children and grandchildren of Jews who were killed or were in the concentration camps can also lead to growth. She emphasizes the importance of daring to realise the pain this knowledge entails. With Feinberg everyone rises and participates in a Jewish prayer for Ruth Maier. This physical action helps to bring to life the memory of Maier.

Song and poetry

Mathias Gillebo has participated in several of Holmberg’s theater events. The last time I met him in such a context was in Stamsund Church during the performance We Strangers during Stamsund International Theater Festival. In Kulturkirken Jakob he sings And the night rowes his light boat (Og natta ror sin lette båt) composed by Kjell Mørk Karlsen with lyrics by Åse-Marie Nesse. He also sings, to organ accompaniment, excerpts from O Domina Nostra, Op.55 Mediation on The Black Madonna by Henryk Górecki. Gillebo’s sacred song emphasizes the seriousness of the commemoration.

Gunnar Wærness has written a commissioned poem for the occasion. The work has references to Gunvor Hofmo’s poems, including the very famous I have waked (Jeg har våket) from 1954 «I saw my girlfriend, / the only one, I saw her / go to die». Wærness’ text touches on Maier’s life, it circles around it. Sometimes close, other times with a perspective from a great distance. At some points, the long poem is a little difficult to follow.

100 lights

Through the hour-long theater event, 100 candles are lit in memory of Ruth Maier and the November pogrom. Holmberg, Lindgren and Gillebo carry the lights and put them in front of us in the audience. Later, they are placed on a wooden structure that stands in the centre of the church room. The wooden construction has a simple, but also somewhat sacred charachter. Finally, it is a luminous centerpiece. Selma Maria Lindgren has reached her goal in Vienna, we have followed her where she has walked through the almost deserted streets. She lights a candle in front of Ruth Maier’s last residence. The theater event has been a dignified and friendly moment of remembrance for a young woman who one of many was killed by the Nazis.

(Published 10.11.2020)

Markering av Ruth Maiers 100 år fødselsdag foregikk på flere steder og hos flere arrangører i tiden 8. til 10.november 2020.

Lansering den digitaliserte utgaven av Ruth Maiers dagbøker: https://www.hlsenteret.no/aktuelt/nyheter/arkivet-etter-ruth-maier-digitalt-tilgjengelig-.html

HL-senterest markering av 100 års dagen: https://www.hlsenteret.no/aktuelt/arrangementer/2020/ruth-maier-100-ar.html

Åpningen av Ruth Maiers Plass i Oslo: https://tv.nrk.no/serie/dagsrevyen/202011/NNFA19111020/avspiller

I Wien ble dagen markert ved et arrangement ledet av Selma Maria Lindgren: Dette foregikk som en vandring med stopp på de bostedene som Ruth Maier hadde bodd på. Her ble det lest 12 utdrag fra dagbøkene til Ruth Maier.