Saturday, September 23, 2023

Discussion with the founder and director of the Fritz Bauer Forum in Bochum, Germany. The discussion is in English.

Dr. Irmtrud Wojak is the managing director of Buxus Stiftung GmbH and initiator of the Fritz Bauer Forum in Bochum. She is a historian, author, and curator. Her research focuses on contemporary legal history, exile, and cultures of remembrance.

In 2004 she curated the first major exhibition on the Auschwitz trial, and in 2009 she published the authoritative Fritz Bauer biography. In 2008, she completed her habilitation at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover. Dr. Wojak was deputy director at the Fritz Bauer Institute in Frankfurt/Main until 2005. She was head of the Historical Department of the International Tracing Service (Bad Arolsen) 2007/08 and founding director of the “NS Documentation Center” Munich 2009-2011.

Filmmaker Ilona Ziok was born in Poland and lived in England, Germany, and France. She studied directing film & theater, history of art- and media, political science & Slavic languages in Frankfurt, New York, and Moscow. She obtained her doctorate in 1989 in Moscow with a dissertation on VIKTOR ROZOV’s dramaturgy in theater and film. She was an editor for Hesse TV and an event manager for venues such as the Ufa Factory Cinema. In 1990, she founded her own production company.  Ilona lives in Berlin and works as a writer, director, and producer.

Fritz Bauer (1903-1968) was the lead prosecutor of the world-famous Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials. He also played an essential part in the abduction and extradition of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Dr. Wojak will discuss her connections to Fritz Bauer as well as her ongoing efforts to continue his work. See below the film trailer from our screening of Fritz Bauer – Tod auf Raten | Death by Installments, a documentary by Ilona Ziok.

If you would like to view our archive video of the presentation, contact Dr. Marion Gerlind for access.