Hoor de vrouwen zingen

HEAR THE WOMEN SINGING is a musical theater documentary about courage, humor and the power of music in time of war, based on the testimonies of Lotty Veffer, diary excerpts by David Koker and cabaret texts by Hetty Voûte and Gisela Söhnlein, who were imprisoned in Camp Vught.

Hetty and Gisela are students who are arrested during their resistance work. Via Haaren camp, they are transferred to Vught camp. In the women’s barracks, they write cabaret lyrics and perform as the duo “Pooh & Piglet.

“fashion brings us this year a blue-gray stripe, preferably crinkled and crushed”

Lotty is working as a diamond cutter when she and her family are taken away from Amsterdam with the intention of being put to work in the SS model camp. However, the diamond-cutting camp never materialized. She was, however, put to work in the Philips Kommando.

“We always thought: it can’t last that long, this war. you had to live like that, otherwise it wouldn’t work.”

David is a history student who watches camp life from the Jewish men’s barracks and describes it in his diary. To do so, he uses tissue paper, which he manages to smuggle out to his friend Karel van het Reve.

“Packets are technical tools for living, but letters are like life itself”

Compiled and performed by: Jetta Starreveld, Mirjam van Dam, Monique de Adelhart Toorop and Harpert Michielsen. Direction: Eva Bauknecht Production: Lisa Luijten Visuals: Martijn Grootendorst Technology: Louis Ter Burg Embroidery handkerchief: Marcella van Oost Photography: Candide Rietdijk Graphic design: Westudio.