THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
18 Friday, September 2, 1983
4 Plays Included in Theatre of the Holocaust'
Israeli Medical
Student Claims
Jesus Was MD
By LEA D. FIELD
TEL AVIV (JNI)
Yoram Zandhouse, a
fourth-year Israeli medical
student met with Pope John
Paul in the Vatican last
month and presented the
Pope with a copy of his book
on Jesus who, according to
research by the Israeli stu-
dent, was a doctor whose
work provides an excellent
example of medicine.
Zandhouse's audience
with the Pope, conducted in
English since the Sabra
does not speak the native
tongue of his Polish-born
parents, was slated during a
conference in Rome of the
WorldOrganization of Med-
ical Students.
Since the first gathering
of the Jewish Holocaust
survivors in Israel and then
in Washington just re-
cently, a fresh outpouring of
memories, evaluations and
psychological analyses
have again been focused on
the ever-burning question
"How could this awful thing
have happened?"
For years, writers, poets,
biographers, historians,—as
well as artists, dramatists
and filth makers have
sought to explain and pre-.
sent the story of the
Holocaust — that is, all ex-
cept the theater.
Robert Skloot, a professor
of theater and drama at the
.
University of Wisconsin -
Madison and in Israel, at
the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem and at the Tel
Aviv University, has re-
cently edited a book in
which he seeks to identify
and present four plays as
samples of the "Theatre of
the Holocaust" (University
of Wisconsin Press).
They are deeply mov-
ing, forceful and remark=
able in their main overall
theme — that of trying to
survive under extreme
brutal pressures and
human degradation.
Each play represents a
different attempt to deal
with the Holocaust ex-
perience. All raise pro-
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found moral issues — in-
dividual choice in ex-
treme situations.
Of the four, I found the
first, "Resort 76," . the most
dramatic and the one most
likely to be produced. Writ-
ten by Shimon Wincelberg,
it depicts the life of Jewish
slaves laborers in .Lodz, Po-
land. They work and live in
a collapsing basement fac-
tory under unspeakable
conditions. All endure ex-
treme cold and hunger in an
atmosphere of fear, anxiety
and, at times, black humor.
Each of the five char-
acters is involved in his own
problem. Engineer Blaus-
tein and his pregnant wife,
his sister Onya who urges
him to flee with her to the
partisans; the German
Krause suddenly coming to
grips with the awful-reality
of his "Vaterland"; the boy
Beryl and his teacher
Schneur, a shohet. But the
theme of the play centers
around a cat which is
thought to be valuable
enough to be exchanged for
bread and a better job.
Should the cat be ex-
changed, eaten or set free?
It is left to Schneur to
deliver to Beryl, as the
Germans are coning for
him, the play's. most
dramatic moral message:
Beryl — want to eat, I
want to be
warm, I want to
kill, I want to be
like them."
Schnur — "Like them?
Without the
knowledge of
being made
in His image?
Living for no
higher
pleasure
than the
of
smell
•
blood?"
Beryl — "Why not? What
makes us better
than they?"
Over three generations of service, value,
confidence & professionalism
LAWRENCE M ALLAN
President
Schnur — "Because you is very avant garde and al-
are ‘a man! A legorical in style.
The play centers around
man, and not
discussions of food by camp
an animal."
inmates with obsessive
- The final symbolic ac- visions of having plenty to
tion of the play is the re- eat. When they are .faced
lease of the cat so as "to with the choice of can-
tell the other animals nibalism or annihilation,
what it was like to be a Tabori seeks to explore the
Jew."
The second play, "Throne questions of good and evil, of
of Straw" by Harold and faith, and loss of faith.
Although Robert Skloot
Edith Lieberman, focuses considers George Tabori a '
on the Jewish historical skillful and creative playw-
character of Mordecai right, the play is distasteful,
Chaim Rumkowski, the ac- gruesome and confusing
tual Jewish administrator with its many, many scenes.
of the Ghetto Council in I cannot recommend this
Lodz, Poland. 'With his play, even as a reading.
Jewish police force, Rum-
kowski is expected to carry
The fourth play, "Who
out all German orders. This Will Carry the Word" by
play deals with the most u p- Charlotte Delbo, was
setting and unhappy subject written in 1966 and first
in all Holocaust literature performed in 1973. Miss
Jews who - betray other Delbo, herself a survivor,
Jews.
has attempted to de-
It is Rumkowski who scribe life in the concen-
makes a "deal with the tration camp at the time it
German commandant was lived. Her concern is
Biebow, a former indus- with those who will re-
trialist, to turn Lodz into a main alive to report the
productive factory town, Holocaust experience
thereby putting the Jews to and who, having endured
work. At first, he is heralded
it, can report it.
as a saint. But soon, he must
The play takes place in -
decide who shall be de- the women's barracks with
ported and who shall stay.
a cast of 23. Costumes and
The Wolfe family, as well
staging are drab and the
as others, seek to cajole, group has no individuality.
bribe and flatter him so as We feel, rather than see, the
to hope for immunity and SS guards as the group lines
safety.
up for inspection. Their
His main objective is to main discussion is the in-
save a remnant for survi- evitability of certain death
val and although he reg- and how soon will it come.
Several chose to hasten it
ularly speaks to God and
assures Him he is doing by walking to the electrified •
His work, he gradually barbed-wire fence but al-
goes from saint to villain ways, as the group dwin-
and becomes as hard- dles, they urge One another
hearted as the Nazis. All to stay alive.
"There must be one who
the while, he endeavors
to extract a promise from returns, one who will talk
Biebow that come what and who will tell and who
may, he will be saved — will make known the his-
tory of this time.
he will be the survivor.
At the liberation, only
However, in the end,
- vive to tell their
when all are being deported two sur
and even his wife and story to the world. Will •
former friends openly show they listen? Will they be-
their scorn and disgust of lieve?
Miss Delbo has written a
him, he can no longer abide
what he has become and fol- finely-drawn picture of
women bonded together in a
lows them into the trains.
Although the figure of desperate attempt to sur-
Rumkowski is . real the vive in a sensitive, compas-
Liebermans acknowledge sionate - and poetic manner,
that this play is not a work with restraint, yet firm
, of history. They have dedication to cry out and tell
endeavored to portray the all of us that this is how it
events and characters of the was..
This-is the first study and
Lodz Ghetto during the
anthology
devoted exclu-
years of the Holocaust.
The play offers much sively to Holocaust drama.
potential for staging. Yan- Robert Skloot has rendered
kele is the narrator and a great service to the public
from time to time turns the in bringing these plays to-
audience into participants gether in one volume.
Students of modern
in the Brecht manner. It
should make for interesting drama and of Jewish cul-
ture and anyone interested
theater.
in the Holocaust will find
The play "Cannibals" this book of immeasurable
by George Tabori deals value.
with the decision to be-
The four plays are di-
have morally under ex-
treme stress and then to verse in style and artistic
confront the conse- approach but all have in
quences of that behavior. common one theme: How
Tabori's father perished does one survive under
at Auschwitz and mindful of extreme oppression and
that pain, his play centers enormous degradation
around the sons of parents and what are the options
who have perished, two sur- of resisting evil?
Skloot further helps the
vivors and a Nazi guard.
The play is unusual and reader with an explanatory
daring, highly theatrical historical introduction and
and utterly non-realistic. It many notes along the way.
.
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