Let's break out!

Timna Brauer and her musicians, together with two actors from the ensemble, devote themselves to the incredible survival story of the Polish Jew Leokadia Justman.Born into a Jewish family in 1922,Justmanescaped from the Warsaw Ghetto, came to Innsbruck, worked under false identities, but was then betrayed and imprisoned. Her father Jakob was murdered in the Reichenau camp in 1944, but Leokadia managed to escape from the partially bombed police prison near the train station in January 1945. She survived the war and the Holocaust and later emigrated to New York.

Leokadia wrote down her memories in Polish in Innsbruck in 1945, but it was not until January 2025 that "Brechen wir aus!" (Let's break out!) was published in German. A large cooperative research project by the University of Innsbruck reconstructed Justman's story, made the publication possible, and resulted in an exhibition at the Tiroler Landhaus, among other things. The text itself is not only important because of its numerous and complex cross-references to Tyrolean history, but is also an impressive literary work that challenges us today in terms of democracy and human rights.

This joint project by the Tiroler Landestheater and musik+ with the University of Innsbruck takes up this important issue through the mediums of theater and music. A staged musical reading on February 19, 2026, at the Kammerspiele, bringing together members of the theater ensemble with musicians from musik+, is just the beginning of a series of joint events at various locations that will bring Justman's life and work to life and ensure that we never forget her.

Cooperation between the University of Innsbruck and musik+