Nothing personal, it’s just war
performance, 43 min
object: military radio parts created by Telefunken for the Luftwaffe, metal, plaster, wood, glass, 30x40 cm
sound: Stories of Ukrainian girls aged 14-17 who were deported under the OST plan for forced labor to Germany during World
War II and worked in factories and companies engaged in the production of weapons
sound by Daria Veshtak (sirakusy)
realized within Check.Peace project, curator Kateryna Tarabukina, supported by Vitsche e.V., Prague Civil Society Centre,
Platform TU Mariupol
Kulturbrauerei, Berlin, Germany
performance screening, exhibition «Check.Peace», curator Kateryna Tarabukina, Monitor Ukraine #13 program, Theater
Magdeburg, Germany
2023-2024
The performance explores the history of forced labour during the Second World War at Kulturbrauerei in Berlin. Through archival research, the artist discovered that Ukrainian women who were deported to Germany under the OST forced labour programme were assigned to work for Telefunken, whose production facilities were located in the basement of the former brewery, now a cultural centre. During the war, Telefunken was involved in the production of military radios and communication equipment.
For those who were deported and forced to work, there was no separation between personal life and the machinery of war. After the war, many returned home only to face suspicion and persecution, and some were sent to labour camps in Siberia. They became caught between two systems of violence, first exploited as forced labourers by Nazi Germany and later treated as enemies by the Soviet regime. Their labour became part of a system in which human lives were reduced to a workforce — “nothing personal, it’s just war.”
The work addresses the collective memory of Ukrainians and asks why events that profoundly affected Ukrainian lives during and after the Second World War remain largely absent from Berlin’s public space. Although a large number of people deported to Germany as forced labourers came from territories that are now part of Ukraine, their specific history is still often absorbed into a broader Soviet, russian-centered narrative. There is no memorial at the site dedicated specifically to the Ukrainian women who were forced to work there.
The performance is conceived as a temporary monument and an act of remembrance within the city. It asks how an absent history can be made visible in public space, and how new forms of commemoration can be introduced into places that already have an established historical narrative.
This question is particularly relevant in Berlin, where public space and existing monuments are subject to strict heritage protection regulations. Rather than altering an existing monument or permanently intervening in the site, the performance introduces another layer of memory through sound, presence, and action.
During the performance, the artist assembles fragments of a military radio by unwinding copper wire from a radio component dating from the 1940s. This physical action takes place alongside the testimonies of Ukrainian women, including 14-17 y.o. girls, and industrial sounds, connecting the material history of the object with the voices of those who were forced to work within the wartime production system.
photo Roman Overko