Major German theaters have launched a memorial platform to honor artists who were persecuted during the Nazi era. Participants in the “Silenced Voices” project include the Hamburg State Opera, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Stuttgart State Opera, the Semperoper, and the Staatsschauspiel Dresden. The project is sponsored by the city of Bayreuth, home of the Richard Wagner Festival. The project originated with the exhibition “Silenced Voices,” which was on display in six German cities between 2006 and 2012. Since 2012, it has been permanently installed on the Grüner Hügel in Bayreuth, below the Festspielhaus. Prominent figures from the current cultural scene, such as conductor Christian Thielemann and Hamburg’s artistic director Tobias Kratzer, narrate the biographies of those affected, as explained by the organizers in Bayreuth. The fates of 300 artists and theater staff members who were forced out of the German opera world between 1933 and 1945—and who were often later murdered—have been documented. They were predominantly Jewish, but also included people who resisted the Nazi regime. “We are committed to ensuring that the memory of the injustices that occurred back then is kept alive today and in the future,” wrote the artistic directors of the participating theaters. The project to come to terms with the past is an “essential task that we are undertaking, both on-site and in the digital realm,” said Bayreuth’s mayor, Andreas Zippel (SPD). “We are giving the ‘silenced voices’ a voice once again.” Copyright 2026, dpa (www.dpa.de). All rights reserved“Keeping the Memory Alive”
