. . . WHO RETURNED MY SOUL
(ABRIDGED VERSION)
A Play in Two Acts
by
Kelly Brock Galloway
167 East Street
Oxford, MI 48307
Phone: (248) 495-0069
The monologues in this play are based on the testimonies of the following Holocaust survivors: Edith Castoriano, Isaac Kline, Joe Dziubak, Joe Birenbaum, Ann Rosenheck, Henry and Sabina Frydman, Jacob “Jack” Gunz, Arno Erban and Emery “Pinkas” Deutsch. I would like to thank the Executive Director of the Holocaust Memorial in Miami, Avi Mizrachi, and the beautiful Katharine Gorsuch who made this project possible. This play is in memory of those lost during the Holocaust and is dedicated to future generations that will not get to hear these stories from the survivors themselves. May you know and never forget.
Cast of Characters
Survivor 2:Edith Castoriano is an elegant, poised and well spoken woman in her 80s.
Survivor 3:Emery “Pinchas” Deutsch loves to make others laugh. He is a gentle man in his 80s.
Survivor 6:Henry Frydman (80s) loves his wife and remembers the war clearly.
Survivor 7:Sabina Frydman (80s) loves her husband and is tenderhearted.
Survivor 9:Isaac Kline(80s) has pain written on his face, and he remains emotionally detached as he speaks.
Survivor 10:Ann Rosenheck is a picturesque grandmother in her 80s. She is strong, wise, yet we see a glimpse of a child.
Historian/s:Between 20 and 80 years old. Remains emotionally detached from other characters.
BLACKOUT-WHEN CLARICE IS CENTER STAGE GO TO SHALOM.
LAST WORD “SHALOM” GO TO EDITH CASTORIANO
HISTORIAN
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. Over the next six years, Hitler would completely transform Germany into a police state and rearm its military, violating the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. Unwilling to join Hitler on his quest for more “living space”, Britain and France threatened to wage war against Germany if Hitler invaded Poland or Romania. In 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, and Britain and France had no choice, but to declare war on Germany. World War II had begun. But damage was already well underway by the time war was officially declared. Anti-Semitism in Germany had reached its peak on November 9, 1938, Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass.” That night approximately 1000 synagogues were burned and seventy-six destroyed. Over 7000 Jewish businesses and homes were looted and about 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. In his quest for the perfect Aryan race, Hitler and the other leaders of the Nazi party planed to exterminate specific groups of people like the Gypsies, Afro-Germans, Jehovah Witnesses, the mentally and physically handicapped and homosexuals. However, the most sought after and persecuted group was the Jewish people.This play is in memory of those lost during the Holocaust and is dedicated to future generations that will not get to hear these stories from the survivors themselves. May you know and never forget.
SURVIVOR 2
Edith Castoriano.
SURVIVOR 3
Emery Deutsch.
SURVIVOR 6
Henry Frydman.
SURVIVOR 7
Sabina Frydman.
SURVIVOR 9
Isaac Kline.
SURVIVOR 10
Ann Rosenheck.
SURVIVOR 2 (As EDITH CASTORIANO)
We were fourth generation French Jews living in Paris. My mother’s grandmother was French, and my family was more French than Jewish as we identified with the French culture more than the Jewish lifestyle. We had our Jewish traditions, but that was the extent of our religious practices. We lived in a large apartment in Paris . . . my four brothers, mother and father. Our family was very close, and I had a very warm childhood. The last vacation we took before the war changed our lives was to Normandy. We stayed in a beautiful house near the beach, and I spent the days swimming and riding a bicycle.
(Pause)
I could never imagine that beautiful beach would become a . . . a bloodbath.
SURVIVOR 6 (As FATHER)
We are not going to be safe here. The Germans will be arriving soon.
SURVIVOR 2
How long will we be gone, Father?
SURVIVOR 6(As FATHER)
We must prepare ourselves for the possibility of never coming back to Paris.
SURVIVOR 2
But Father, we are French. Why would the Germans want to push us out of our own county?
SURVIVOR 6 (As Father)
Because we are also Jewish.
SURVIVOR 2
We left Paris and headed to the southern border of France just outside of Spain. We stayed in a hotel, and the first night things were fine. . . . The second night we heard German boots in the hotel.
SURVIVOR 7 (As MOTHER)
Get up, Edith. We need to get our things together.
SURVIVOR 2
What is happening? Are the Germans here?
SURVIVOR 7 (As Mother) We need to be quiet, dear. Just be a good girl and get dressed . . . This is not a time for tears but for bravery. Stay close to your Father and brothers.
SURVIVOR 2
After three years and nine months we arrived in Peru. I was twelve when we were united with my uncle’s family. I spent the rest of my childhood in Peru, and I met my husband there.
(Pause)
My story is not like others you may have heard. We were not in a concentration camp or tortured like many other Jewish people, but what makes my story so different is that my family stayed together. We all survived and had to start a new life together.
(Pause)
But, I also feel very ashamed when I meet survivors who really did suffer . . . who lost everything and everyone. It is not fair.
(Pause)
I once heard another survivor speak about his experience at a camp, and the most powerful thing he said I would like to share with you. He said, “When someone tells you they are going to kill you, believe them.”
(Pause)
In America our children are so spoiled. We give them everything, and we teach them they can do anything. We teach them not to be afraid, but maybe they should be afraid of some things. Just as I thought, “I’m French, nothing can happen to me,” we as Americans think the same way. But anything can happen to anyone at anytime.
(Pause)
“When someone tells you they are going to kill you, believe them.”
HISTORIAN
Dr. Joseph Mengele was one of the SS physicians in charge of the selection process at Auschwitz-Birkenau. He would determine who would be killed or who would be put into forced labor. The inmates called him “The Angel of Death.” In addition, Mengele performed inhumane experiments on inmates, taking particular interest in dwarfs and twins. These experiments consisted of chemical injections, sterilization, shock treatment and amputation. Most of the victims died due to the side effects of the experiments.
GO TO ISSAC KLINE
SURVIVOR 9 (ISAAC KLINE)
My name is Isaac Kline, and by the time I was fourteen I had died many times. Let me tell you about the first time I died.
(Pause)
I was thirteen years old when the Germans took my family from our home in Logmotz, Hungary and put us in the Uhel ghetto. It was late winter-early spring of 1944. My twin brother and I were born in 1931 in Czechoslovakia. We were the middle children. Today, I can’t remember the names of all my siblings. Maybe I will remember their names someday, but for now . . . they are lost to me.
(Pause)
Uhel was a run-down area. We only had the clothes on our backs. There was very little food or supplies, and we Jews were treated as sub-human, worse than beasts. We were like cattle waiting to be slaughtered. We stayed in the ghetto for three months before going to Auschwitz. That was the first of many deaths.
(Pause)
By mid-spring of that same year the Germans put us all on a train. Hundreds of us. My brother and I lost my parents in the commotion, and we were put into a separate train car from the rest of our family. We were on the train for two weeks. People begged to die, and others called out to God. When the train stopped outside the gates of Auschwitz, and the doors opened, the bodies of the dead fell out of the train car. I could hear bombing in the distance, and the air smelled burnt.
(Pause)
The last time I saw my parents was right before the Germans pushed us on the train. Even after we got out of the cattle cars we did not see them.
(Pause)
Another death.
(Pause)
Dr. Josef Mengele greeted us. He was very clean and dressed in a white coat. He would select who would live and who would die. Because my brother and I were twins we got to live. We lived, if you can call it living, in Section D, and we were subjected to all kinds of experiments . . . injections, skin grafts and experiments that still frighten me today to think about.
(Pause)
Another death.
(Pause)
We wore striped uniforms, were subjected to forced labor, and we ate what the Germans wouldn’t. We ate their garbage.
BEAT VISUAL CUE ISSAC ON EDGE OF LIGHT GO TO DEAD BODIES
As part of my forced labor, I would have to help pull the wagons full of dead people. Everyday there were bodies of people who died from illness or were shot merely for the Nazis’ amusement. Others . . . people who committed suicide on the electrified fence that surrounded the camp. But there were always bodies that needed to be carted away. You could count on that.
(Pause)
Another death.
GO TO ISSAC SPOTLIGHT
(Pause)
In the room where we slept the bunk beds were three high, and they were very crowded. I was always one of the last people to get a spot on one of the bunks . . . usually on the highest level.
GO TO ISSAC KLINE
I would have to climb over people, accidentally stepping on them. Everyone was just skin and bones, so when you were stepped on it was very painful. One night I hurt someone climbing up to my spot on the bunk and the barracks master punished me. The barracks masters were hard-core criminals that the Nazis took from jails and prisons to work in the camp. These barracks masters were worse than the Nazis. As punishment I was to be whipped five times. They would bend me over a chair and tie my arms and legs to the legs of the chair, and I would be hit with a whip or a switch. The first ones are . . . were the most painful, and I had to count out loud.
(Pause)
Another death.
(Pause)
By the end of summer or mid-fall 1944, those of us who were still alive were sent on a death march. We would occasionally stop at abandoned villages and look for food to eat. Once we passed a dead horse, and the people were pulling flesh off the carcass to eat. I chose to eat pig slop instead. (Pause)
Another death.
(Pause)
By May of 1945, we were scheduled for execution. One morning we woke up, and the guards were gone. That morning the allied forces liberated the camp. My brother and I were almost separated when I was taken to a hospital in Lintz, where I stayed for six weeks. We learned that our village in Hungary was destroyed.
(Pause)
Another death.
We were alone, but we had each other. I was not old enough to comprehend the crime that the Nazis were committing. If I was, I probably would have gone mad. It took me a long time to come back to life.
GO TO HISTORIAN
HISTORIAN
About seven hundred prisoners attempted to escape from Auschwitz during its first few years of operation. About three hundred people were successful. For those caught, death by starvation was the punishment. Every time one person successfully escaped the camp, the SS would shoot ten people from the same block as a way to discourage others from attempting to escape.
GO TO HENRY & SABINA
SURVIVOR 6 (as Henry Frydman)
Ok . . . let me see. We met while we were both working in a factory during the war --
SURVIVOR 7 (as Sabina Frydman)
You’ll need to start at the beginning or they won’t understand.
SURVIVOR 6 (as Henry Frydman)
Will you just let me tell the story --
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
I am letting you tell it --
SURVIVOR 6 (as Henry Frydman)
You’re interrupting me!
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
Just tell it right!
SURVIVOR 6 (as Henry Frydman)
I was born in Poland. I was the oldest child. I had three brothers and two sisters . . . all younger. My father had a butcher store, and my mother worked with him. I went to public school, and when I was fourteen I started to work --
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
In a textile factory --
SURVIVOR 6 (as Henry Frydman)
In a textile factory. Our home was burnt down --
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
By the Germans --
SURVIVOR 6 (as Henry Frydman)
It was burnt down by the Germans. I was twenty years old. My family moved in with my Aunt. We only had summer clothes and with the weather getting colder we had to find warm clothes. We lost everything in the fire.
(Pause)
Let me see –
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
The Germans came in --
SURVIVOR 6(as Henry Frydman)
The Germans came in, and they took over the textile store where I worked. A ghetto was formed, and we all went to live there. Now you talk --
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
You’re not done.
SURVIVOR 6 (as Henry Frydman)
I know, but you tell about you’re life before the war and then we will go from there.
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
So, you want me to talk now?
SURVIVOR 6(as Henry Frydman)
Did you ever stop? Yes, tell your part of the story --
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
Let me see . . . What should I say?
SURVIVOR 6 (as Henry Frydman)
For the first time in your life you don’t know what to say?
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
Ooh!
SURVIVOR 6 (as Henry Frydman)
Just start at the beginning, Dear . . .
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
I was the youngest of ten children. I had five brothers and four sisters. My parents were pretty old. My mother looked like she could have been my grandmother. My oldest sister was more of a mother to me. She would bathe me and help me get dressed . . . that kind of thing.
(Pause)
I was fourteen when the war started. My father died when I was thirteen . . . before the war. We never believed it could happen. We would hear the adults talking about the war. Already the Jewish people were treated differently before the war.
SURVIVOR 6(as Henry Frydman)
We lived as second-class citizens. Jewish people could bury you or marry you . . . That was the extent of our power.
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
Ok, I’ll finish talking --
SURVIVOR 6(as Henry Frydman)
Keep talking, please --
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
Don’t interrupt me --
SURVIVOR 6(as Henry Frydman)
Just tell them –-
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
Ok. We lived in a ghetto. . . Some of my siblings were married and their families lived with us. We were all together in the Ghetto. Like I said, my mother was much older. I was sixteen when the Germans emptied our ghetto.
GO TO GERMAN DOG
I was holding on to my mother . . . who looked like my grandmother . . . and a German soldier asked me why I was holding on to an old dog. I told him, “This is no old dog. This is my mother.” And he slapped me and told me I was going to stay and work. My mother was taken away, and I never saw her again. (Pause) This was the beginning.
GO TO HENRY & SABINA II
SURVIVOR 6(as Henry Frydman)
The Germans took over everything. When you were in the ghetto the Germans would come in and take people away . . . to concentration camps or work camps. People disappeared and every now and then someone would come back . . . they had escaped . .
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
From a transport --
SURVIVOR 6(as Henry Frydman)
From a transport . . . They would tell us about what they had seen . . . About the trains –
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
The camps, the trains --
SURVIVOR 6(as Henry Frydman)
The killings. . . .
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
Burning people . . .
(Pause)
We knew what was going on, and you didn’t know what was worse . . . the ghetto or the outside.
SURVIVOR 6(as Henry Frydman)
September 22, 1942, I was separated from my family. The Germans came to the ghetto and took about 3000 of us . . . young people. The children and older people were put on trains. I was taken to a smaller ghetto.
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
Where I was --
SURVIVOR 6(as Henry Frydman)
Where I met Sabina --
SURVIVOR 7(as Sabina Frydman)
We started to get to know one another and we grew close.
SURVIVOR 6(as Henry Frydman)
I joined a resistance group in the ghetto, and we tried to buy guns from Christians . . . From gangsters. My friend and I had to buy guns and bring them back into the ghetto. It was dangerous, because they could catch us inside or outside the ghetto. We could be shot at any moment. There were fourteen of us that were caught with about ten guns.