‘Kindertransport’ comes to stage at LTCC

Three generations of women explore the far reaching ripples of the Holocaust in Diane Samuels’ play “Kindertransport,” opening at Lake Tahoe Community College’s Duke Theatre Nov. 13.

Kindertransport was the name of a rescue effort that brought thousands of Jewish children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany between 1938 and the outbreak of war in 1939. Almost 10,000 children were sent by their parents to safety.

Performances are Nov.13 at 8pm, Nov. 18-20 at 8pm and Nov. 14 and Nov. 21 at 2pm.

Juliette Hill as Eva (on floor) and Pam Taylor as Lil in "Kindertransport" at LTCC.

In the play “Kindertransport” 9-year-old Eva ends up in Manchester, England. When Eva’s parents fail to escape Germany, her attachment to her foster mother increases, and a new identity starts to form. The child changes her name to Evelyn and begins the process of denial of her German and Jewish roots. More than 30 years later, when her daughter discovers some old letters in the attic, Evelyn is forced to confront the truth about her past. Combining theatricalism and naturalism, past and present are intertwined throughout the play as themes of mother-daughter relationships, survivor guilt, and loss of identity are explored.

A special commemoration of Kristallnacht will be held at the opening night performance, Nov. 13, prior to the show. Rabbi Jonathan Freirich from Temple Bat Yam in South Lake Tahoe will preside. Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, was a series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on Nov. 9–10, 1938.

“Kindertransport” opens the week of the 72 anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Tickets for “Kindertransport” are $10 general admission, $7 for seniors, $5 for children under 13 and students with a current student body card.

The first Kindertransport arrived in Harwich, Great Britain, on Dec. 2, 1938, bringing about 200 children from a Jewish orphanage in Berlin that had been destroyed during Kristallnacht. In all, the rescue operation brought about 10,000 children, approximately 7,500 of them Jewish, from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland to Great Britain.

It was assumed at the time that when the crisis was over, the children would return to their families, or parents would eventually join their children in their new country. Most of these children would never see their parents again because they were murdered during the Holocaust.

After the war, many children became citizens of Great Britain, or emigrated to Israel, the United States, Canada, and Australia.