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JET production of "The Diary of Anne Frank"
opens Monday at Dearborn's Henry Ford Museum.
DIANA LIEBERMAN
Staff Writer
ike most Holocaust sur-
vivors, Dr. Fred Lessing has
very few physical artifacts
of the experience.
When he spoke to the cast of the
Jewish Ensemble Theatre's new pro-
duction of The Diary of Anne Frank,
he brought along a limp yellow star,
just over 4 inches wide, preserved in
the pages of a photo album. Also in
the photo album were two recently
recovered pictures of himself as a
bushy-haired boy with wide eyes and
knobby knees, wearing that star, or
one just like it.
He has loaned to Yad Vashem,
Jerusalem's Holocaust museum, his
third memento — a beat-up stuffed
bear that followed him into hiding.
Lessing spoke to JET cast mem-
bers before a rehearsal at the Aaron
DeRoy Theatre in the West
Bloomfield Jewish Community
Center. He wanted to commuincate
what it was like to be a child
hiding in Holland during
the Holocaust.
"I am a child sur-
vivor," said Lessing, who spent the
war hiding in countless places in his
native Holland. "I was 4 when it
started; 9 when it ended. Usually
interest is in the survival part, not
the childhood part. I am interested
in the childhood part."
Lessing, a Birmingham resident,
still shows traces of the hesitant, big-
eyed charm of the 4- to 9-year-old
Dutch boy in the photos, a boy who
hid by himself with one stranger
after another. He said it was that
cuteness, combined with his ability
to be quiet and blend in, as well as a
great deal of luck, which accounted
for his survival.
"What is the meaning of a society
that can purposely murder chil-
dren?" he asked. "Jews were thought
of as vermin; Jewish children were
less than vermin. What does this say
to a child?"
Mary Bremer of Warren, who
plays mother Edith Frank in the JET
production, said speaking with
Lessing and another hidden child on
the day before spurred the cast to
reach new emotional depths. Bremer
acted in Anne Frank 12 years ago
and said she had first dismissed the
4o:
Hidden child of the Holocaust
helps Jewish Ensemble Theatre
actors prepare for their latest roles.
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