Upcoming Holocaust Dramas in Anticipation of International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Below, find out more about three upcoming Off-Off Broadway dramas in anticipation of International Holocaust Remembrance Day!

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JANUARY 26 TO 29
La Mama E.T.C.
"GOLGOTHA" BY SHMUEL RAFAEL, PERFORMED BY VICTOR ATTAR
Coinciding with World Holocaust Day (January 27), La Mama presents "Golgotha," written by Shmuel Refael, adapted by Haim Idissis, translated by Howard Rypp, performed by Victor Attar, directed by Geula Jeffet-Attar. The production reveals, with a blend of acting, video and music, the under-recognized experience of Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jews who were sent to Auschwitz Birkenau. Victor Attar plays Albert Salvado, a Holocaust Survivor from Salonica, Greece, who recalls the atrocities of the camps as he prepares for his long awaited dream to come true: the honor of lighting the torch at the annual Holocaust commemoration ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. The Holocaust lives on inside him like the devil playing hide and seek with his soul. His intense guilt and pain make him question not only his right to light the torch but also his identity as a Sephardic Jew.

Actor Victor Attar, born in Baghdad, immigrated to Israel at 14. He was a leading member of Tel Aviv's municipal theater, Hacamery, and later of Jerusalem's repertory, The Kahn Theatre. He wrote and performed the avant-garde play, "The Road" and achieved prominence in New York for his performance in the La MaMa production of Fernando Arrabal's "The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria."

MARCH 9 TO APRIL 1
WORKSHOP THEATER,
"THROUGH THE DARKNESS"
"Through the Darkness" by Alan C. Breindel recounts the unimaginable journeys and true stories of four courageous men and women who left everything behind, including their loved ones, so that they might stay one step ahead of the Holocaust. They are composite characters that playwright Breindel built from interviews with Holocaust survivors. Three of the four characters managed to avoid the horrors of the concentration camps and remained free, even if freedom was no more than the right to die on their own terms. Chaos was inescapable, freedom was motion, and the only safe place was anyplace other than where they were. Each of the characters repeatedly come face to face with seemingly insurmountable obstacles to daily survival and show us that when life is vastly different, life is still livable.

MARCH 23 TO APRIL 9
LA MAMA
"BENGHAZI - BERGEN-BELSEN"
"Benghazi -- Bergen-Belsen" is a play by Lahav Timor, inspired by a novel by Yossi Sucary, translated from Hebrew by Inbal Timor, in which an epic romance retrieves from oblivion the lost story of the Holocaust of North African Jews. Silvana Haggiag is a brilliant and beautiful young woman in her early twenties, dismissive of the patriarchal norms that govern her Jewish community in the Libyan city of Benghazi. When Silvana's family is violently uprooted from its home and homeland, she is taken along with other Libyan Jews through the blazing Sahara Desert and war driven Italy to freezing Germany. In the long and tumultuous journey from her birth town to the German concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen, navigating her family through horror and distress, Silvana is confronted with dire dilemmas and retrieves hidden strengths. Away from her language, detached from any familiar ground, she is forced to cope with the terrors of a cruel and arbitrary humanity, and prevail. Directed by Michal Gamily. The novel by Yossi Sucary won the Brenner Prize and has been acclaimed for its role in dispelling denial about the Libyan Holocaust.

The plight of Middle Eastern Holocaust victims is sure to bring to mind parallels with Syrian refugees of today and the widespread denial which has plagued Sephardic Holocaust survivors generally and which is widely seen in today's global refugee crisis. To emphasize the timelessness of these themes, the play will be staged without obvious references to the European Holocaust: there will be no striped uniforms, yellow stars, swastikas or Nazis in uniform. The chief Nazi figure in the play will be played by an American Korean actor. The part of Silvana's father will be played by Mohamad Bakri, an Arab/Palestinian actor from Israel who is also known for his starring role on "The Night Of," John Turturro's HBO miniseries based on the BBC series "Criminal Justice," created by Peter Moffat.

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