FERIEN AM WALDSEE

The Schlachtensee Concert Choir, conducted by Thomas Henning, will accompany the reading with songs from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Kaspar von Erffa will host and direct the evening.

In *Ferien am Waldsee*, the Hungarian-Swiss art collector, art dealer, and co-founder of Art Basel, Carl Laszlo, processed his experiences in various concentration camps. Although the author strove for a deliberately objective account of daily life in the camps, the text nevertheless offers deep insights into his inner world. As a survivor, Laszlo consciously chose a radically hedonistic, ecstatic lifestyle after the war—one filled with intoxication, pleasure, and the visual arts.

The “Waldsee,” to which the book’s title refers, was a cruel invention of the Waffen-SS. Jews deported from Budapest were forced in Auschwitz to write postcards to their relatives back home. These postcards stated that the senders had arrived safely at the supposed Waldsee. The fictional Waldsee served solely to appease the public and prepare the ground for further deportations.

The artificially created Waldsee in Berlin-Zehlendorf was also once intended to attract affluent real estate clients from Berlin. In 1922, the building now known as Haus am Waldsee was built as a residence for the Jewish Knobloch family, who were eventually forced to flee Nazi persecution. During the Nazi era, perpetrators lived in the house before it was repurposed as a venue for contemporary art shortly after the end of the war.