Night of the Museums 2026

On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Edgar Hilsenrath, on Saturday, May 23, 2026, many spectators were able to attend a theatrical reading of "Night" by Edgar Hilsenrath at the Shoah Memorial, performed by Bastien Bouillon, actor and accompanied by Louise Bouillon Holt, musician and actress, Azeddine Benamara, musician and Tristan Chevalier, musician.

Photo credits: © Yonathan Kellerman / Shoah Memorial

'Night' is the starting point of Edgar Hilsenrath’s (1926-2018) work, which draws on his own history and the Ukrainian ghetto where he spent four years, between 1941 and 1945. In a mechanical, concise, hallucinated and almost cinematic style, the novel tells the story of Ranek who, over the days, tries to survive in the ghetto of Prokov.

The characters are reduced to shadows... as if they had neither soul nor body. Yet, in this permanent fog, elements of life abound: hunger, cold, scenes of hasty love or childbirth in the middle of the ghetto show that humanity remains.

Censored in Germany for twenty years, "Night" is now considered the masterpiece of the German Jewish writer.

Discover the interview of the artists