Bela Winkens’ "Letter to the Mother": Moving Book Presentation in Sulzbach-Rosenberg
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A Voice from Memory: Bela Winkens’ "Letter to the Mother"
On October 22, 2026, the Literature House Oberpfalz in Sulzbach-Rosenberg will dedicate itself to an extraordinary autobiographical testimony: "Letter to the Mother" by Bela Winkens leads us into the story of a Holocaust survivor who writes to her mother, murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Kristine Listau and Jörg Sundermeier will present this literarily powerful text, thus opening a space for memory, grief, and historical responsibility.
A Letter Against Silence
The center of the book is a paradoxical closeness: Bela Winkens writes to a mother she never truly got to know. From this void develops a linguistically concentrated narrative about childhood, loss, and the lifelong search for an interlocutor. The narrative of the letter connects personal memory with the question of how literature preserves experiences that escape any simple representation.
Memory Literature with Historical Depth
Winkens survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp at the age of four. In her text, she recounts memories of this time and her later dealing with pain and grief. The book presentation classifies "Letter to the Mother" as a testimony of memory literature: not as a distant chronicle, but as an intimate form of self-understanding, in which language becomes a possibility for continuing to live.
Literary Mediation at the Literature House Oberpfalz
Kristine Listau and Jörg Sundermeier will present the volume published by Verbrecher Verlag. Sundermeier is closely connected with contemporary literature as a publisher and literary mediator; Listau works as a publisher and literary mediator. Together, they will make the linguistic artistry and cultural-historical significance of Winkens’ memoirs tangible.
The text was created back in 1996 but was only published in the fall of 2025. This temporal distance gives the book a special tension: between lived history, later writing, and today’s reading, a literary dialogue about testimony, memory culture, and the responsibility of storytelling emerges.
An Evening Between Reading and Historical Responsibility
The book presentation takes place as part of the Weeks Against Antisemitism. The event evening is aimed at all those interested in autobiographical literature, Holocaust testimonies, contemporary German literature, and the cultural power of memory. The reading atmosphere in the Literature House Oberpfalz creates a concentrated setting for an author encounter about the text and its mediation.
Visitors can expect a literary experience of great emotional intensity: a confrontation with a lost mother, a survived childhood, and the question of how memory becomes language and from language historical responsibility.
Conclusion: Literature as Living Memory
"Letter to the Mother" promises an evening that goes far beyond a conventional book presentation. Bela Winkens’ memoirs connect personal linguistic artistry with a central chapter of European history. Those who wish to not only read memory literature but experience it in its concentrated, communal mediation will find in the Literature House Oberpfalz an impactful place of encounter.
Official Channels of Bela Winkens:
- Instagram: no official profile found
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmbergSulzbacherLand/
- Website: no official profile found
- Publisher: https://www.verbrecherverlag.de/
