Tyrol Easter Festival | Let's break out!

Let’s Break Out! tells the life story of Leokadia Justman, who had close ties to Tyrol. Her impressive literary memoirs, written as early as 1945, were published in German in early 2025. Leokadia, born into a Jewish family in 1922, escaped the Warsaw Ghetto with her parents. She fled with her father Jakob to Seefeld and Innsbruck, where the two worked under false identities but were eventually betrayed and imprisoned. Jakob was murdered in the Reichenau camp in 1944; Leokadia managed to escape from the police prison—which had been partially destroyed by bombs—in January 1945. She survived the war and the Holocaust and later emigrated to New York. Her testimony challenges us once again today, particularly in light of democracy, human rights, and current political events. This collaborative project uses the medium of theater and music to address the vital imperative never to forget and to resist the beginnings of such atrocities. The staged musical reading, featuring members of the acting ensemble of the Tyrolean State Theater and musicians led by Timna Brauer, marks the beginning of a series of joint events in various locations that bring Justman’s life and work to life and ensure we never forget them again.