Let's Break Out! The Play

Leokadia Justmans’ (1922–2022) incredible story of survival takes the stage. Her fate as a Polish Jew is the focus of a dramatization commissioned specifically for the Tyrolean State Theater. Leokadia, who instinctively knows when to trust her gut, and her best friend, the “fantastic” Marysia, escaped the Warsaw Ghetto, made their way to Innsbruck, worked under false identities, were betrayed, and were eventually imprisoned. A spectacular escape from the Innsbruck police prison, with helpers who risked their lives in the process, is the climax of this still far too little-known “undercover” heroine’s journey during World War II in Tyrol. This female perspective on the brutal persecution reads like a gripping crime thriller, allowing us to experience the world of all the characters involved in an unvarnished and deeply passionate way. This first literary account by a Holocaust survivor in Innsbruck forms the basis for a moving, sensational stage adventure that, following in the footsteps of *The Diary of Anne Frank*, represents another important feminist voice of that era. It leaves us breathless—especially today—when it comes to democracy and human rights.

When you look back someday, 
remember the gray, bleak postwar period, 
the emotional lethargy,
and remember those words, 
that faith in life is the greatest strength,
which, even in moments of defeat and failure, 
can provide support and become the sum of 
what we commonly call “happiness.”
L. Justman, Insb. November 26, 1945 

 

In collaboration with the University of Innsbruck