Sidy Thal

On 26 November 1938, two hand grenades exploded in the auditorium of the Timișoara theatre during a performance by the Bukovinian Jewish singer Sidy Thal and her ensemble. It was an antisemitic attack, carried out by the Iron Guard, a far-right nationalist movement; four people were killed and seventy injured. The event is little known in Timișoara, European Capital of Culture 2023. The playwright Thomas Perle and the director Clemens Bechtel researched it with the help of Maria Mădălina Irimia of the "Wilhelm Filderman" Centre for the Study of the History of the Jews in Romania, and built a documentary play from what they found. What is true? What actually happened? This is an attempt to reconstruct the attack and the moment when antisemitism and fascism became part of everyday life in a multicultural society, a moment that led on to the horror of the Second World War and the Shoah. The project is part of the national cultural programme Timișoara - European Capital of Culture 2023 and is funded through the OverBorder Culture+ programme run by the Culture and Arts Centre of Timiș County, with funds allocated from the state budget through the budget of the Ministry of Culture. It is organised in partnership with the Department for Interethnic Relations of the Government of Romania.