Albert Cohen's 'Oh, ihr Menschenbrüder' – Staged Reading

About this event

Albert Cohen's 'Oh, ihr Menschenbrüder' ('O You, Human Brothers') is a short, autobiographical work the French-Swiss writer penned late in life, looking back on a pivotal moment from his childhood in Marseille. On his tenth birthday in 1905, a street vendor publicly mocked him as a 'Jew boy' and a 'colleague of Dreyfus', unleashing a hatred that would haunt Cohen forever. Written decades later with the knowledge of the Shoah, the text is a lament, an indictment, and a desperate appeal for empathy and human dignity. In this staged reading, Freiburg actors Renate Obermaier and Heinzl Spagl interpret Cohen's prose, bringing to life the child's bewilderment and the adult's grief. The performance does not simply narrate the story; it turns it into a shared experience, using voice and presence to underscore the unbroken relevance of the text. The reading is in German, using Ahlrich Meyer's 2024 translation. The event is part of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt's cultural programme and suits anyone with an interest in literature, history, and the ongoing conversation about antisemitism. Expect an evening of quiet intensity, where a single story illuminates larger questions about exclusion, memory, and what it means to remain human in the face of dehumanisation.