On the eve of Yom HaShoah, the annual Jewish Remembrance Day for Victims of the Holocaust, JW3 (Jewish Community Centre London) will host a one-off performance of Kindness: A Legacy of the Holocaust. Kindness is a very special project that was launched thanks to support from the European Jewish Fund and with a partnership with the Association of Jewish Refugees to examine the impact of Kindness and Voices’ educational work in schools around the UK.
Described as “beautiful and empowering”, “extraordinary” and “breath-taking”,
Kindness is a play based on the testimony of Hungarian survivor Susan Pollack OBE, aged only 13 when she was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the summer of 1944. Interwoven are several complementary narratives, including that of Mala Zimetbaum and Edek Galinski whose love story and spiritual resistance is painted across a backdrop of this darkest period in human history.
Kindness is a one hour play without interval. There will be a post-show panel Q&A with Susan Pollack OBE, Cate Hollis, Artistic Director Voices of the Holocaust and cast members hosted by Alex Maws, Head of Education & Heritage, The Association of Jewish Refugees. It will be streamed live at 7.30pm Tuesday 18th April.
Speaking ahead of the performance Cate Hollis, Artistic Director of Voices and co-author of Kindness explained: “As the events of the Holocaust, the most disturbing example of human failure in history move increasingly from living memory, Kindness is tasked with speaking on behalf of that lived experience. The experiences that it asks the audience to engage with and consider speak directly to each and every one of us. It does so with grace and dignity, re-humanising experiences for those whom the dehumanisation of the Holocaust was all too real. It asks us all to bear witness.”
She continued: Voices was founded on a belief that theatre, if used appropriately, could act as a ‘surrogate human voice’ both for those who never had the chance to testify and for those fearing their voices and connection to communities may be lost in the future. It speaks immediately and directly, but not exclusively, to students in schools across the UK and offers extensive educational opportunities to help students and teachers begin to unpick the complex learnings of this most challenging and disturbing period in our history.”
This exclusive performance is being held on the eve of the AJR International Forum on Collecting, Preserving and Disseminating Holocaust Testimonies at Lancaster House, London.
Alex Maws, Head of Heritage & Education, Association of Jewish Refugees said:
“The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) is pleased to support Voices of the Holocaust through our educational grants programme, enabling schools across the country to experience performances of the ground-breaking play Kindness: A Legacy of the Holocaust. As experts from around the world gather in London for the AJR’s International Forum on Holocaust Testimony, there is a fascinating question to be considered about the role that verbatim theatre might play in telling survivors’ stories to future generations.”
You can buy your tickets here (in person and online)
