"Without you everything is only a shadow"

Carole Schmitt and Ulrich Schmissat, both actors, read the exchange of letters between Käthe Schroder-Aufrichtig and Hans Aufrichtig. It is a great, tragic love story. 

Käthe was born in 1893, the daughter of a Prussian official in Stendal, and by 17 had begun her showbusiness career. In her twenties she met with journalist Hans Aufrichtig and fell in love. Hans was Jewish. In 1927 they married. Käthe embarked on a new venture: as an authoress, responsible for several plays. Meanwhile the Nazis had taken power in Germany and race laws had become effective. Circumstances had become intolerable, and they fled to Italy. They lived, undisturbed, for two years in Rome, until being pursued once again and then sent to separate camps in Italy where internment conditions differed to those elsewhere, and letter contact was permitted. "There are two trees - tall and slim, I call them Kaethchen and Hanschen" wrote Käthe to her husband - poetically, with great despair and deep love. 

Carole Schmitt established this from her aunt, a former friend of Käthe Schroder-Aufrichtig. The letters drew Carole into their spell, not releasing her until producing them at the Reading. She is provided dramatic support from Jan Strathmann. The letters, written in Italian because of censorship, have been translated by Rebecca Schneiders.