The Nazis Double Cross the Red Cross in Stirring Drama
“Way to Heaven”
Repertorio Espanol
138 E. 27th St., New York
Just after D-Day, in June, 1944, Denmark pressured the Nazis into letting them send a team of Red Cross commissioners to one of their largest concentration camps, Theresienstadt, located in what is now the Czech Republic. The Germans had bragged that Theresienstadt, a town they had taken over and walled in, was a settlement village for Jews. Critics charged that it was a concentration camp where tens of thousands of Jews were being murdered as part of the Holocaust. The Nazis then pulled off one of the great ruses in history, convincing the visiting commissioners that all was well. They gave them a tour of the town, the parks, the woods, let them have lunch with the town’s “Mayor” and even hosted a Children’s Opera performance.
The incredible deception is the plot of “Way to Heaven,” by Spanish playwright Juan Mayorga, a haunting, deeply moving and superb drama that opened last week at the Repertorio Espanol, in New York.
The play, performed in English, opens with a monologue by one of the Red Cross officials, a bearded young man in a trench coat, played wonderfully by Shawn Parr, who explains the 1944 visit. He tries again and again to tell the audience why he was unable to discover the truth, and why no one told him the truth, and, hands shaking and body trembling, fails. He becomes more frantic as he goes on, desperate for some forgiveness.
Actors fill in the story that the Red Cross commissioner outlined. The talkative camp commandant, played by the marvelously gifted Francisco Reyes, and the Jewish prisoner who portrays the camp’s drafted “Mayor,” Gershom Gottfried, played with grim solemnity by Mark Farr, anchor the story. The Commandant must carry off the hoax to please his bosses in Berlin; Gottfried must help him do so to keep himself and his fellow Jews alive. The two men spend days with each other inventing an entire day of interviews, lunches and tours for the Red Cross. The workaholic Commandant becomes a swastika clad Hollywood director as he works on his fabulous production. He meticulously cuts the number of people the Red Cross will see from four hundred to one hundred, adds a lunch, creates a kids’ top-spinning game, criticizes the Mayor’s choice for a girl singer for a concert, writes a script and even rehearses jokes. At one point, out of new wrinkles for his production, he moans to the Mayor that “I don’t suppose I could get the Jews to dress up in German army uniforms, could I?” In another moment, he complains that the Jewish prisoner/actors do not look happy enough. “They never smile. Can’t they smile a little?” he pleads.
They don’t smile, but they do co-operate because they need to keep living. The Commandant makes that clear to the Mayor when Gottfried threatens that he and the Jews might shout to the Red Cross that everything they see is a lie and that thousands have been murdered at Theresienstadt.
“Mayor” Gottfried walks on eggshells as he works with the Commandant. The German officer bends over backwards as he continually tries to convince the audience that, despite the war, he is a good guy. He is well-educated, attends the theater, has a library and even reads Spinoza. He is just murdering all these people because there is a war going on, he says.
As they all said…
The story is based on a true event, but the real history is more harrowing than the play. The Germans occupied Denmark shortly after the war started. Most of its 7,500 Jews fled to Sweden, but 456 were caught and sent to Theresienstadt. Denmark insisted that the Germans permit inspectors from the Danish Red Cross to visit Theresienstadt. The Germans, eager to maintain relations with Denmark because of its ball bearing factories, agreed. Nazi officials at the camp quickly deported 7,500 of its 30,000 plus Jews to Auschwitz and then refurbished the town. Streets were swept, buildings painted and parks spruced up. On the day of the Red Cross commissioners’ arrival, officials invited members of the Children’s Musical Opera (from a Prague orphanage) to perform at the camp. The kids delighted the Red Cross visitors. As icing on the cake, a soccer game was held, with prisoners used as cheering crowds. Camp officials told the inspectors that the children’s performance and soccer game were a part of the regular entertainment and sports programs offered at the “settlement village.”
Satisfied and duped, the Red Cross published a report that did not charge the Nazis with any murders or physical abuse. As soon as the Red Cross officials left, of course, the Nazis brought back thousands more Jewish prisoners on trains. The ill-fated camp remained open until October, 1944. Collectively, is housed 154,000 Jewish prisoners; 33,000 of them died (including 120 of the Danes). Another 88,000 were sent from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz, where many of them perished. The camp/town has been the subject of numerous films, documentaries and books since the end of World War II. The Red Cross has always been criticized for allowing itself to be fooled and for its general failure to pursue charges by hundreds of Jews that Theresienstadt and other prisons were death camps.
The Nazis were so pleased with their colossal deception of the Red Cross that they had a Jewish entertainer housed there produce a propaganda film, never shown because the war ended, about the camp.
Matthew Earnest has done a splendid job directing this riveting play about an untold story of the Holocaust, a story that would be fascinating if it was not so heartbreaking.
The play has some problems that Earnest might work on. The set is far too Spartan and needs more props. There is a point in the middle of the play where the conversation between the commandant and the “Mayor” drags a bit. The ending is a bit flat. Even so, “Way to Heaven” is a tough and thought provoking play, a small gem in the new theater season, and should be seen. Does the world need yet another play about the Holocaust? The world needs all the plays about the Holocaust it can watch, especially tour-de-forces like this one.
Produced for the Repertorio Espanol by Equilicua Productions, Puy Navarro, producer. Costume and Sound: Patrick Johnson, Lighting: Derek Wright. Stars: Matthew Earnest (director), Francisco Reyes (Commandant), Mark Farr (Gottfried, )Shawn Parr (Inspector), Samantha Rahn, Beth Baker and Jessica Beaudry (girls), Sal Bardo, John Reese, Trae Hicks, Jonathan Ramos (boys).