On the south-eastern outskirts of the twin cities of Görlitz-Zgorzelec is a special historical place that was long forgotten and has been brought back to mind for a few years: the former prisoner of war camp Stalag VIII A. 120,000 prisoners of war from various countries such as Poland, France, Belgium and Great Britain , Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union were registered in Stalag VIII A from 1939-1945, an estimated 12,000 did not survive. Many of them were divided into work detachments where hardly work for Görlitz aims.
In memory of everyone who suffered, feared and hoped in this camp, the MEETINGPOINT MEMORY MESSIAEN e.V. has been inviting you to a special concert every year since 2008. The French composer Olivier Messiaen proved that music does not divide but connects and can help overcome pain and misery when he composed his musical masterpiece “Quartet for the End of Time” together with three other prisoners for the first time while he was imprisoned in Stalag VIII A performed on January 15, 1941 in the camp’s theater barracks. Today the quartet is one of the best known and most frequently performed musical works of the 20th century. The MEETINGPOINT MEMORY MESSIAEN e.V. remembers this special event every year on January 15th at the historic location.
The annual performance of this piece has become an inspiring and encouraging ritual at the beginning of the year for several hundred people from the Euroregion. Since 2017, the Görlitz Zgorzelec Messiaen Days have been holding the annual performance of the Quartet in the context of a festival lasting several days.
The festival creates spaces in which we can re-understand the fears and hopes of the prisoners of Stalag VIII A Görlitz (today Zgorzelec), perhaps better understand them, but above all – through our current fears, needs and hopes – can understand, how hope was possible even in this suffering time.
Contact person:
Magdalena Zielińska-König
m.zielinska-koenig@messiaen-tage.eu
03581 66 12 69
