Reading presented by Goodman Theatre and Illinois Holocaust Museum
Play reading presented twice: November 9 at the Goodman Theatre and November 10 at the Illinois Holocaust Museum
Play reading at the Illinois Holocaust Museum
Goodbye Marianne, by Irene Kirstein Watts
A talkback following reading. The moderator is NJTF HTII Advisory Board Member Dr. Alvin Goldfarb
Panel Guests:
Johanna Saper was born in Vienna, where her family lived comfortably. After the Anschluss, her oldest brother began corresponding with a young Quaker woman in North Carolina, and in November 1938, her family agreed to sponsor him, allowing him to leave Austria. He advised their parents against sending Johanna on an organized Kindertransport, and instead, they took out an ad in the newspaper, offering her services as a “school girl’s companion.” The ad was answered by an Orthodox family in Manchester, England, and Johanna left Austria in December 1938. The family that took her in expected her to speak Yiddish, which she did not, but they managed. When her brother’s quota number for the US came up in 1941, he was able to bring her with him to the United States. Johanna will be joined by her son, Cliff Saper, who shares Johanna’s story as part of the Illinois Holocaust Museum’s Second Generation Speakers’ Bureau.
Ernst “Ernie” Heimann was born in 1929 in Mainz, Germany. During Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938, Ernie’s school and synagogue were destroyed. In the aftermath of these events, his parents knew that they had to get Ernie out of Germany. On February 1, 1939, Ernie was placed on a Kindertransport to England. His maternal aunt, who lived in England and sponsored him, arranged for Ernie to live with an English family just outside of London. In September 1939, Ernie and other children from his village were evacuated to the countryside because of the bombing in London. Ernie would remain in England for four years until he came to the United States in 1943.
A longer version of Ernie’s story is available here: https://www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/profiles/ernie-heimann/
This program is part of the National Jewish Theater Foundations Remembrance Readings, a program honoring the victims, survivors, and lessons of the Holocaust. May the unique power of theater in performance and education overcome the forces of bigotry, and Holocaust denial, and serve as an artistic moral compass for future generations. This program is a collaboration between the Association of Holocaust Organizations, Theatre Communications Group and National Jewish Theater Foundation.
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