Drs. Irmtrud Wojak & Ilona Ziok: Keeping Fritz Bauer’s Legacy Alive
Saturday September 23, 2023
Dr. Irmtrud Wojak is the managing director of the 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.
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.
Wie ich zur deutschen Sprache gekommen bin | How I came to the German Language
Born in Berkeley, CA, in 1940, Travis studied French and German at Berkeley High School and later added Italian at UC Berkeley. He spent his Junior year at the interpreters' school with these trilingual studies in Geneva, where his Swiss roommate taught him some Swiss German. Travis married Phyllis in 1962 in Berkeley and graduated one year later. He joined the Army to avoid being drafted for Viet Nam, and went to “Intelligence School.” In 1964, he was transferred to Munich where he and Phyllis spent 22 months, living in an apartment and wearing civilian clothes to his office, becoming immersed in the German language and culture.