There are a few more intensely recurring quotes that have defined many of the attitudes of people after all the apocalypses of the 20th century than the paraphrase of Wittgenstein's: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” A sentence misused, exploited, misrepresented, abused, misunderstood, and often absurdly taken out of context; after all, Wittgenstein is not suggesting to refrain from speaking, he is simply articulating a state of specific experience beyond the possibility of its intelligibility. Operation B is the name of a specific historical event (1952-1953) in which one self-privileging political party (the Communist Party), strongly inspired and actively driven by the example of dealing with the class enemy applied in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, decided to get rid of our own, Slovak "class enemies". Whether we admit it or not, it has become one of the many historical grievances and wounds that have scarred the soul of Slovakia in the last century. Hundreds of families (over several generations) unfairly and forcibly deprived of housing, work and ultimately personal history and therefore identity, another huge group of innocent people deprived of the ability to speak, share and communicate this horrific experience.

 

This original Slovak play was based on Marianna Oravcova's publication - Operation B, published by the Nation's Memory Institute.

 

Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes, no interval