Michael Slade's AND A CHILD SHALL LEAD Opens Tonight in NYC

Out of the eerily emptied Terezin Ghetto established by the Nazis near Prague as a "Jewish City" - which was in reality a way station to the death camps - a remarkable discovery was made at the close of World War II. The children of Terezin, in the face of unspeakable horror and at constant risk of execution, built a thriving world of creativity and beauty.Words on a page can have deep meaning, but actually meeting people about whom those words were written can create memories that last a lifetime. Terezin's prisoners included more than 15,000 children. Fewer than 100 survived. The cast met one of them, along with another survivor at SelfHelp Community Services , and toured the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.

In And a Child Shall Lead written by Michael Slade, the recovered diaries, poems, stories - even an underground children's newspaper - have been woven together into a fast-paced drama exploring the experience of children caught up into the insanity of war. The lessons learned in Terezin are remarkably timely in today's world where ISIS marches across the Middle East murdering Christian youths and child soldiers are forced to fight in Africa.

This universality is one reason why Director Mimi Stuart and Producer Jason Shela deliberately choose a highly multi-ethnic cast for this new production of And Child Shall Lead Them, which will play this weekend, December 18-21 at the Roy Arias Theater. Tickets are available by calling 212-860-7101."As even those who were children during the Holocaust are lost to us due to old age, capturing their voices is more important now than ever. 'Never Again' loses its meaning if the humanity of the Nazis' victims fades away into statistics," says Director Mimi Stuart. "This production of And a Child Shall Lead is one push to keep memory alive and connect the next generation with the one which is passing away."

Terezin's prisoners included more than 15,000 children. Fewer than 100 survived.

Says Producer Jason Grant Shela, "It is a privilege to cast and produce And a Child Shall Lead which is a master piece of Holocaust era drama. Only a remnant of my own family who left Eastern Europe before 1939 survived, so this production is dedicated to those martyrs who were lost but never forgotten."

In addition to the production at the Roy Arias Theater, Stuart and Shela hope to bring the play to non-profits and synagogues to raise both awareness and funds. Their plan for And a Child Shall Lead is for the production to further Holocaust education and also fight current child exploitation and oppression.

Despite living in one of the most tragic moments in human history, the children of Terezin pushed back the darkness with their creativity and found beauty even on the way to concentration camps. The producers hope this retelling of their story will inspire our own children, and the whole family, to live with similar courage and passion.