A Play Teaching the Holocaust, Tolerance, and Courage
Written by Wendy Kout
About
This one-hour play commissioned and developed by CenterStage Theatre in Rochester, NY, teaches the chronological history of the Holocaust by enacting the actual experiences of Jewish children and teenagers from Europe. Actors portray the Survivors and take us on a perilous journey from innocence through the terrifying rise and rule of bigotry, xenophobia, and violence to the triumph of immigrating to America.
Though the play is about the past, it is relevant and resonant for the present and future. The Survivors inspire us to face today’s personal and worldly challenges, hardships and horrors through resilience, perseverance, hope, humor, compassion and community. The Survivors also remind us that we must always speak up against hatred, that we can never take our democracy for granted, and we must always fight to maintain our dignity and our freedom.
Never Forget! Never Again! Never is Now!
Survivors is not just a history play. It is a warning play. Today, antisemitism, religious hate, racism, hate based on sexual orientation, and hate crimes continue to rise in the world and online. How do we fight the normalization of antisemitism and hatred against marginalized peoples?
Why Holocaust Education is Important
We learn from history or history repeats itself. Each generation must learn from the past to assure a better present and better future. Holocaust education is not required in most states. Generations are growing up never hearing of the Holocaust or learning from it.
Over 10 years ago the Province of British Columbia removed Holocaust education from the curriculum. We are at a point now when we’re facing a generation of students who have had no formal education about the Holocaust. Anti-Semitism, racism, and hate crimes against Jews and ethnic minorities is on the rise. Survivors fills that educational gap and empowers the participants and audiences to take a stand against racial intolerance and the oppression of others in their lives and in their communities.
Why This Play?
Holocaust education teaches history. However, the personal stories of the victims and the survivors humanizes that history for students of all ages. Through the years, thousands have been greatly impacted by meeting survivors and hearing their stories in schools and museums. But as time passes, so do the survivors. Fortunately, their stories can still educate through recorded testimonies, books, articles, exhibits, films and plays.
The play, Survivors, is an hour long, educational and inspiring drama, which enacts the story of the Holocaust through eye-witness testimony of ten survivors. Young and diverse audiences relate to the young and diverse cast, who are guides on the perilous journey of their ever-changing world. The survivors in the play also provide life lessons and encouragement to speak up and act up against hatred and bullying today. Suitable for young adult and adult audiences, this play about the past is a warning and a wakeup call for the present and the future.
Why now:
Now is the time to bring this play to school-aged children. A recent Canadian study done by the Azrieli Foundation, Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Claims Conference has come forward with alarming facts about Canadian’s knowledge of this period in history. The survey found critical gaps regarding awareness of basic historical facts and detailed knowledge of the Holocaust. For example:
62% of millennials did not know that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
22% of millennials haven’t heard or are not sure if they have heard of the Holocaust.
Nearly one-quarter of all Canadians (23 percent) believe that substantially less than six million Jews were killed (two million or fewer) during the Holocaust.
The study showed that while a significant majority of Canadian adults believe that fewer people care about the Holocaust today than they used to, there was a broad- based consensus for providing comprehensive Holocaust education in schools across the country.
