Drama retells 13-year-old girl's Auschwitz survival
The story of a 13-year-old girl who escaped death at Auschwitz by lying about her age is being retold as a drama.Milton Keynes-based theatre company Voices of the Holocaust is depicting the life of Hungarian survivor Susan Pollack, who was sent to the notorious Nazi camp in 1944 in German-occupied Poland.A prisoner on the railway platform whispered to Susan that she should pretend to be 15, which meant she was chosen for labour instead of being sent to the gas chambers.Eighty years after Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated, artistic director of Voices, Cate Hollis, said it was "apparent that survivor testimony was the strongest approach to help young people connect".
More than 30,000 people, including thousands of school children, have watched the play - entitled Kindness - and learned about Susan's story.On arriving at Auschwitz, she was separated from her family, with her mother being sent straight to the gas chambers."There were no hugs, no kisses, no embrace. My mum was just pushed away with the other women and children. The dehumanisation began immediately. I didn't cry, it was as though I'd lost all my emotions," Ms Pollack previously said.The girl was moved to Guben in Germany to work as a slave in an armaments factory, before being freed by the British Army on 15 April 1945.After World War Two ended, she discovered more than 50 of her relatives had been killed, with only her brother surviving.
"The vast majority of pupils will never go to a place like Auschwitz to feel what the biggest graveyard on the planet is like, but this piece of theatre can bring that to every single young person," said Ms Hollis.She founded Voices of the Holocaust, external to create "best practise theatre designed as a springboard for Holocaust education".She said as Holocaust survivors grew older, "they're all acutely aware they don't have a great deal longer to ensure the Holocaust is learned about, and learned from".
Susan's story is not the first to be retold by Voices, which has been dramatising the experiences of Holocaust survivors since 2012.The company is working towards a new production featuring the life of Harry Olmer, 97, who survived concentration camps in Plaszow and Buchenwald.Harry was one of 732 children taken in by the UK after the war, since most of his family had been killed."One thousand were permitted entry, but so few children survived that they were unable to reach the quota," said Ms Hollis."Harry recuperated at Windermere until going on to make a life for himself in the UK. His story is critically important and must never be forgotten."'Kindness' is being performed at JFS Theatre in Kenton, Harrow, London on Monday at 19:30 GMT, to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
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