Ice-doctrines – Variations on the Nazi Rhetoric – Fifteenth Variation

April 26, and 16–17 May, 2015

Director, visual design: Metanoia Artopédia (Zoltán Perovics)

The performance takes a less conventional approach to the aesthetic representation of the Holocaust by focusing not on the perspective of the victims but on the perpetrators—more precisely, on the perpetrators’ language and mode of thinking. At the center is the linguistic propaganda that the Dresden-based literary scholar, survivor, and eyewitness Victor Klemperer called LTI (Lingua Tertii Imperii – The Language of the Third Reich). This form of language was capable of poisoning the consciousness of ordinary people on a mass scale, turning them into killers or collaborators of killers.

The script of the performance is a particular collage of broadly interpreted historical documents. It includes quotations from survivors’ memoirs (such as Dr. Miklós Nyiszli, Victor Klemperer, and Perla Ovics), but it is based mainly on speeches and statements by the perpetrators—the German and Hungarian figures responsible for the genocide (Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Eichmann, László Endre, Miklós Horthy). The Nazi texts of the 1930s and 1940s are placed alongside—and interwoven with—contemporary far-right statements, including comments from anonymous contributors on blogs and internet forums, as well as remarks by certain present-day public figures.

Contributors: Andrea Erdély Perovics, Ágnes Krasznahorkai, Hermina G. Erdélyi, Ágnes Diószegi, Szilárd Szokol, Zoltán Lengyel, Péter Zoltán Tóth, Péter Varga, Sára Kovács Vecei, Máté Virágh, Zoltán Perovics

Sociological questionnaire: Gyula Lencsés

Cardboard figures prepared by: Attila Etele Kiss

Costumes: Anna Csúri

Sound mixing and live narration: Zoltán Lengyel

Assistant to the director/editor: Andrea Erdély Perovics

Venues: Patyolat, Próbaüzem (1085 Budapest, Baross utca 85.), Grand Café (6720 Szeged, Deák Ferenc u. 18, )

Supporters of the performance: EMMI, Grand Café Szeged, Patyolat // PRÓBAüzem, OFF-Biennále Budapest

Special thanks: to Gyula Lencsés and the staff of the Grand Café for their assistance.