PRODUCTION SPONSOR nov dec 19 5 2015 THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY STUDY GUIDE Adapted from the Wiesenthal Study Guide of Off-Broadway Across America ©Katharine Farmer 2014 DARYL ROTH KARYL LYNN BURNS CATHERINE ADLER SUZY & BURTON FARBMAN ANNE & MICHAEL TOWBES present Written by and starring Tom Dugan Scenic Design Costume Design Lighting Design Sound Design BEOWULF BORITT ALEX JAEGER JOEL E. SILVER SHANE RETTIG Production Stage Manager Production Manager KATHERINE BARRETT MIND THE GAP, INC. Tour General Management Tour Brand Management Associate Producers DR THEATRICAL MANAGEMENT DR ADVERTISING DAVID BRYANT • JEFF ROSEN Directed By JENNY SULLIVAN THE CAST Simon Wiesenthal – Tom Dugan 1 THEATRE ETIQUETTE “The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it’s so accidental. It’s so much like life.” – Arthur Miller Arrive Early: Latecomers may not be admitted to a performance. Please ensure you arrive with enough time to find your seat before the performance starts. Cell Phones and Other Electronic Devices: Please TURN OFF your cell phones/iPods/gaming systems/cameras. We have seen an increase in texting, surfing, and gaming during performances, which is very distracting for the performers and other audience members. The use of cameras and recording devices is strictly prohibited. Talking During the Performance: You can be heard (even when whispering!) by the actors onstage and the audience around you. Disruptive patrons will be removed from the theatre. Please wait to share your thoughts and opinions with others until after the performance. Food/Drinks: Food and hot drinks are not allowed in the theatre. Where there is an intermission, concessions may be open for purchase of snacks and drinks. There is complimentary water in the lobby. Dress: There is no dress code at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, but we respectfully request that patrons refrain from wearing hats in the theatre. We also strive to be a scent-free environment, and thank all patrons for their cooperation. Leaving During the Performance: If an audience member leaves the theatre during a performance, they will be readmitted at the discretion of our Front of House staff. Should they be readmitted, they will not be ushered back to their original seat, but placed in a vacant seat at the back of the auditorium. Being Asked to Leave: The theatre staff has, and will exercise, the right to ask any member of the audience to leave the performance if that person is being disruptive. Inappropriate and disruptive behaviour includes, but is not limited to: talking, using electronic devices, cameras, laser pointers, or other light- or sound-emitting devices, and deliberately interfering with an actor or the performance (tripping, throwing items on or near the stage, etc.). Talkbacks: All Tuesday evening performances and final matinees at MTC feature a talkback with members of the cast following the show. While watching the performance, make a mental note of questions to ask the actors. Questions can be about the story, the interpretation, life in the theatre, etc. Enjoy the show: Laugh, applaud, cheer and respond to the performance appropriately. Make sure to thank all the artists for their hard work with applause during the curtain call. 2 Introduction “If we do not honestly try to understand how it happened then, it will happen now.” – Simon Wiesenthal Why teach about the Holocaust? For some, the Holocaust is still in loving memory. We have interviews with, books written by and photos taken of Holocaust survivors. They are real people with real stories – and these real memories need to be preserved if we ever want to prevent such and atrocious act against humanity happening again. This couldn’t be more important in a world fraught with political turmoil. Genocide is a worldwide issue, it has happened since and it can be prevented. As Francis Bacon famously said, “knowledge is power”. We can preserve the memory of the Holocaust, remember the dead, move forward and learn from what previous generations have taught us. Teaching the Holocaust gives students the awareness of discrimination, racism and exposes the dangers of remaining silent and apathetic to the oppression of others. Holocaust education also teaches about the use and abuse of power and the responsibilities individuals, organizations and nations have when confronted with human rights violations and policies of genocide. Although it is important to be sensitive, students should understand the scale of the Holocaust to understand the ramifications of prejudice. The Holocaust was a crime of yesterday, but denial is the crime of today. Sadly, there are some that deny that the holocaust ever happened. Students must be exposed to some of the documentation that remains to reveal what went on in the concentration camps. This study guide aims to individualise the history of the Holocaust with the use of personal stories. In particular, the story of Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor who dedicated his life after liberation to bringing Nazi war criminals to justice. The schools would fail through their silence, the Church through its forgiveness, and the home through the denial and silence of the parents. The new generation has to hear what the older generation refuses to tell it – Simon Wiesenthal in his book “The Sunflower”. 3 The Play “Wiesenthal” is a full-length, one-man play that chronicles the life of the Austrian-Jewish Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal, who became internationally famous after World War II for his relentless pursuit of tracking down and bringing to justice nearly 1,100 fugitive Nazi war criminals. Written by and starring Tom Dugan, “Wiesenthal” is set on the day of the famed Nazi hunter’s retirement while packing up his files, Wiesenthal, nicknamed “The Jewish James Bond,” recounts how, after cheating death at the hands of Hitler’s dreaded S.S., he dedicated his life to the pursuit of notorious Nazi villains, including Franz Stangl, the Treblinka death camp commandant; Karl Silberbauer, the S.S. officer who imprisoned Anne Frank; Franz Murer, “The Butcher of Wilna”; and the infamous “Architect of the Holocaust” Adolph Eichmann. With warmth, wit and surprising humor, veteran actor and playwright Tom Dugan, the son of a decorated WWII veteran, portrays the aging Wiesenthal as he welcomes his final group of students to The Jewish Documentation Center in Vienna, Austria. ‘Wiesenthal’, formerly entitled ‘Nazi Hunter – Simon Wiesenthal’, is an extremely popular touring production about one man’s fight against Holocaust amnesia, and is an important theatrical event not to be missed. Tom Dugan playing Simon Wiesenthal Simon Wiesenthal 4 Who Was Simon Wiesenthal? Simon Wiesenthal was a survivor of the Nazi death camps, and after the liberation of concentration camps at the end of the Second World War, dedicated his life to documenting the crimes of the Holocaust and bringing the perpetrators to justice. Nicknamed the “Jewish James Bond”, Wiesenthal, with the cooperation of the Israeli, Austrian, and former West German governments discovered nearly 1,100 Nazi war criminals. Two of these criminals include Adolf Eichmann, the administrator for the slaughter of the Jews, and Erich Rajakowitsch, in charge of the death transports in Holland. Wiesenthal founded and was head of the Jewish Documentation Center in Vienna, where most of this research was undertaken. He has written his memoirs in “The Murderers Among Us” and other books including “Sunflower” and “Sails of Hope”. Wiesenthal was born on December 31, 1908 in Buczacz, Ukraine. For a brief time after the death of Wiesenthal’s father in World War One, Wiesenthal and his mother lived Simon Wiesenthal and his wife Cyla, 1936 in Vienna, Austria, until she remarried and the family moved back to Ukraine. Wiesenthal gained a degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Prague in 1932. He then began working in an architectural office in Lvov Ukraine and married Cyla Mueller in 1936. They lived happily together until 1939 when Germany and Russia signed a ‘non-aggressive’ pact and agreed to partition Poland between them. The Russian army soon occupied Lvov and began the Red Purge of Jewish merchants, factory owners and other professionals. The NKVD arrested his stepfather, who later died in prison, his brother was shot, and eventually Wiesenthal was forced to close his business. In fear, Wiesenthal managed to save his wife, mother and himself from deportation to Siberia by bringing a NKVD commissar. It was a very dangerous time to be a Jew. After an initial detention at the Janowska concentration camp, Wiesenthal and his wife were sent to do forced labor in the Ostbahn Works, a repair shop for the Lvov Eastern railway. In August 1942 his mother was sent to Belzec death camp. By September, most of Simon and Cyla’s relatives were dead. A total of 89 members of both families had perished. To save his wife, Wiesenthal made a deal with the Polish underground to take his wife to Warsaw with false papers, as she could easily pass as an Aryan due to her blonde hair. Cyla, under the false identity of Irene Kowalska, lived in Poland for two years until she was eventually deported to the Rhineland and was forced to work as a laborer. Wiesenthal managed to escape the Ostbahn camp with the help of deputy director. In June 1944 he was then recaptured and sent back to Janowska, where he almost certainly would have been killed had the German eastern front not collapsed after the advance of the Red 5 Army. With only 34 living prisoners out of an original 149,000, the 200 guards joined the general retreat westward. Very few survived the westward trek through Plaszow, Gross Rosen and Buchenwald, which ended at Mauthausen in upper Austria. Weighing only 100 pounds, Wiesenthal was barely alive when Mauthausen was liberated by the 11th Armored Division of the Third U.S Army on May 5, 1945.