The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center will be presenting the premiere of a new Readers Theater piece as part of its annual remembrance of Kristallnacht. On Sunday November 4, the drama Witness will be presented at 4 PM in the auditorium of the Jewish Community Center in Maitland.
Witness tells the story of Kristallnacht – the night of November 9 and 10, 1938 – through the eyes and words of characters who were swept up in the chaos of that night. According to the play’s author, Susan Mitchell, the events of Kristallnacht are central to understanding how and why the Holocaust happened.
“When you study the days and hours before this assault on Jewish communities, you can’t help concluding that the world knew exactly what was happening in The Third Reich,” she says. “The aftermath makes it even clearer that other nations could have— and should have – stopped Hitler before those millions of lives were lost.”
The drama is co-written by Jack Lowe, who says that the research in creating the play led him to a new understanding of the horror of the early days of the Third Reich. “The diaries and letters about that night are remarkable,” he says. ”These accounts provide a chilling report on the impact of Kristallnacht. Through them, we find the human voice of victims, perpetrators, and bystanders who were part of that historic event.”
