After the premiere of the play, the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation and the "Social Perspectives against Anti-Semitism" project felt vindicated in their decision to end their cooperation with the production. The Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation was happy to accept the Castle Theatre's invitation to cooperate, as the theatre production was intended to commemorate the Liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and send a message of solidarity to the Jewish community in Germany in the face of current anti-Semitism.
With regard to the perspective already formulated in the application - the desire for peace - and the expansion of the dramaturgical decision to relate the present-day level of the play to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we continuously pointed out that this performance would be told and perceived against the background of current anti-Semitism in Germany and the world. Unfortunately, our fear that the play could be experienced as marginalising and offensive by survivors and their descendants was confirmed. Menachem Rosensaft expressed this experience in an interview with the Jüdische Allgemeine. Our discussions and offers of advice to the theatre were aimed at avoiding such exclusion. It must be clearly stated that our efforts fell on deaf ears. The objections of the Jewish community - formulated back in summer 2024 - remained unanswered, and the counselling offered by the Perspectives against Anti-Semitism project went unanswered. Even in the quoted statement by Andreas Döring, we still see no willingness to engage with the perspectives we have formulated and to face up to the criticism.
The reporting in the Cellesche Zeitung has also contributed to the fact that the public has remained in the dark about the reasons for our criticism. Our statement was not printed. The CZ report "The next scandal" from 8 May states that the foundation took "criticism of the settlement policy" as an opportunity to terminate the cooperation. This is untrue. It is true that interview statements by Mr Natour were the final reason for our decision. It was not about his "criticism of Israel's settlement policy". We quote from our statement of 23 March 2025, which is available to CZ:
"In the interview with Mr Natour, he goes directly from his impressions from the visit to the memorial to the situation of Palestinian society. Without mentioning the reason for the current war, he seems to unilaterally attribute the failure of any peace efforts to Israel's responsibility.
In his interview, Mr Natour does not mention Hamas at all. This creates a false picture of the current situation. We categorically oppose this distortion. Passing over the massacres of 7 October and not condemning the continued terror of Hamas and its allies is unacceptable. In view of 7 October 2023 and the increasingly unrestrained anti-Semitism in Germany since the massacre, this statement - even if it may not have been intended in this way - is unacceptable to us."
The publication of this interview was part of the media coverage of the play, which confirmed our fears. The termination of talks with the Jewish community in Celle, the lack of willingness to engage with the content of the objections we had formulated and to consider the perspectives we had put forward, led to the audience - both in the theatre and in public - being divided into the "overwhelming majority" and the minority, who felt hurt by the play and had to endure the good atmosphere in the KAZETT theatre - clapping and singing - in silence. The play has once again completed the exclusion that many Jewish people and people critical of anti-Semitism experience in Germany too. In this sense, we agree with Menachem Rosensaft's assessment.