UC Irvine UC Irvine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Survival Anxieties, Traumatic Performance and Stages of Memory: Witnessing Loss in the Final Days of Holocaust Survivors Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9t5574d6 Author Rotstein, Allison Mikel Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Survival Anxieties, Traumatic Performance and Stages of Memory: Witnessing Loss in the Final Days of Holocaust Survivors DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Drama by Allison Mikel Rotstein Dissertation Committee: Professor Anthony Kubiak, Chair Professor Julie Burelle Professor Ketu Katrak Professor Bryan Reynolds Professor Gabriele Schwab 2016 Copyright © 2016 Allison Mikel Rotstein DEDICATION To my parents. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...................................................................................................iv CURRICULUM VITAE.......................................................................................................v ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION.............................................................................vi INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................1 I. A MEDITATION ON HOLOCAUST MEMORY AND INHERITED LOSS.................18 II. STAGES OF THERESIENSTADT: THE STAKES OF HOLOCAUST REPRESENTATION IN CONTEMPORARY DRAMA.......................................................................................58 III. CABARET PERFORMANCE IN HOLOCAUST DRAMA.......................................99 IV. MEMORIAL PERFORMANCE: THE SITE OF MEMORY.......................................128 CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................168 NOTES...............................................................................................................................173 WORKS CITED.................................................................................................................184 iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was made possible by funding from the University of California, Irvine and the Doctoral Program in Drama and Theatre in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Thank you to my dissertation committee for their time and knowledge. A special thank you to my chair, Professor Anthony Kubiak, for his wisdom and guidance. Thank you to Leslie Lauterbach for her friendship and generosity, to Vanessa Bland for her gentle words of encouragement, and to my parents for their endless support. I am deeply grateful. iv CURRICULUM VITAE Allison Mikel Rotstein 2016 Ph.D. Drama, Dramaturgy Emphasis. University of California, Irvine. 2009 B.A. Drama, Honors in Dramatic Literature, History, and Theory. University of California, Irvine. FIELD OF STUDY Dramatic Literature, Holocaust Studies, Theater and Performance Studies, Trauma Theory v ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Survival Anxieties, Traumatic Performance and Stages of Memory: Witnessing Loss in the Final Days of Holocaust Survivors By Allison Mikel Rotstein Doctor of Philosophy in Drama University of California, Irvine, 2016 Professor Anthony Kubiak, Chair This project is about the multilayered landscape of Holocaust performance. It addresses the performance of memory, loss, memorial and theatrical representation as an inquiry into the nature of the Holocaust’s traumatic legacy and its ongoing importance in defining Jewish community and identity in the twenty-first century. The project particularly focuses on how loss manifests itself in various performances of memory that seek to address the event’s irrecoverable experiences. As such, it looks at performance in its many facets, covering the terrain of psychological performance regarding memory, trauma, mourning and witnessing, historical and contemporary theatrical performances, and the physical space of memorialization. The project’s discussion of Holocaust loss follows the trajectory set out in its title as it moves from the “survival anxieties” surrounding Holocaust memory and its legacy, to “traumatic performance” in an analysis of historical Holocaust theater and contemporary Holocaust drama, and the “stages of memory” existing in both the physical arena of Holocaust memory and the temporal stages marking its passing. It also addresses the loss of the final generation of Holocaust survivors and vi aims to begin a conversation around the inheritance of a legacy of loss, particularly as experienced by third generation descendants, or grandchildren, of the survivor era who witness this loss as they come of age. The project’s central analysis lies in the study of theater and performance during the Holocaust and contemporary dramatic texts that speak to the act of Holocaust performance and the difficulty of portraying an event so steeped in its traumatic aftermath. Therefore, the testimonies, plays and memorial sites discussed all rely on forms of layered performance and concealment to talk about the loss they represent. In itself, the project inherently conceals the experience it seeks to document, as proven by my performance of sifting through the materials I discuss, making its framework integral to its performance of analysis and how it contains the unnameable quality of the loss it examines. The project ultimately moves towards a conscious understanding of the implications of Holocaust loss on its descendant generations and the anxieties that accompany searches into its memories and experiences. vii INTRODUCTION This project is about the multilayered landscape of Holocaust performance. It addresses the performance of memory, loss, memorial and theatrical representation as an inquiry into the nature of the Holocaust’s traumatic legacy and its ongoing importance in defining Jewish community and identity in the twenty-first century. It has been more than seventy years since the Holocaust came to an end, but the thematic popularity of the Holocaust still maintains a strength in its call for remembrance, and it is the continuing attempts to document the event that fuel this project. At its core lies the loss of the Holocaust experience as embodied by the last living Holocaust survivors, and the ways in which we perform Holocaust loss and remembrance. I refer here to loss as it pertains to the testimonies that will soon cease and the absence of this generation of survivors that have long served as a link to the experience. It denotes an impending absence of experience, which widens the already existing gap between present conceptions of the Holocaust and the Holocaust as a historical event. The project particularly focuses on how loss manifests itself in various performances of memory that seek to address the event’s irrecoverable experiences. As such, it looks at performance in its many facets, covering the terrain of psychological performance regarding memory, trauma, mourning and witnessing, historical and contemporary theatrical performances, and the physical space of memorialization. While these areas of focus may seem fairly disparate, they all share a common link in their layered approach to Holocaust memory and loss, which lies at the base of Holocaust representation as it strives to arrive at the root of its trauma. 1 Over thirty years ago Holocaust survivor and scholar Primo Levi expressed a concern for the increasing difficulty survivors faced in relaying their experiences to younger generations: “For us [survivors] to speak with the young becomes ever more difficult. We see it as a duty and, at the same time, as a risk: the risk of appearing anachronistic, of not being listened to.”1 The Holocaust has featured prominently in academic studies, arts and entertainment for decades and, contrary to Levi’s proposed risk, scholars and artists continue to turn to the Holocaust to tell its story and uncover new ones. As we witness the loss of the last survivors, Levi’s concern is taken up by younger generations who see it as their duty to listen, record and remember. Research for this project began from a place of concern for this final loss of survivors and, as its title suggests, it addresses various areas of performance with an overall consideration for how we continue to witness Holocaust loss with the disappearance of survivors. It is a loss denoted by the transition into an era where survivors will no longer be able to share their experiences firsthand, which marks a definitive break with the event into an era of pure Holocaust representation. The transition is the ultimate manifestation of the post-Holocaust era, leaving behind the generation who spurred communities and nations worldwide to carry on its memory through memorializing its history and paying homage to its victims. This transition is a historical inevitability and can be witnessed across numerous communities descending from histories of ancestral trauma, yet, as the memory of the Holocaust has become so deeply rooted in contemporary constructions of Jewish identity and community, it raises the important questions of how the Holocaust will be received once its last living links to the event are gone. The passing of survivors, therefore, represents not just a loss of a generation, but the loss of the loss. Exactly what that loss is, though, remains elusive as it points to the trauma of the event and the altering of its legacy, but 2 never quite