Kristallnacht 80th Anniversary Commemoration: Confronting History
Be part of the worldwide commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht on November 9, 2018, with the one-act play THE THIN EDGE OF THE WEDGE.
The recent Claim Conference survey that identified the lack of Holocaust knowledge was shocking. (See blog post at www.millermosaicllc.com/history/holocaust-remembrance-day-2018/) Susan Chodakiewitz and Phyllis Zimbler Miller determined to do something about this with their mission to have the one-act play THE THIN EDGE OF THE WEDGE performed or staged read simultaneously around the world for the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht on November 9th.
The play (4 actors, no scenery for ease of production) that Phyllis wrote is primarily based on firsthand accounts of survivors and saviors that she published in the Jewish Exponent newspaper in Philadelphia during the 1970s. These accounts have been burning in her heart since then, and she believes she was given a responsibility to help preserve them.
The play contains no fictional material — everything is either based on firsthand testimony or historical research.
THE THIN EDGE OF THE WEDGE is set in an historical timeline (via the character of the radio announcer) showing how Nazi military aggression and anti-Jewish activity proceeded with little or no world reaction — until it was too late. As such, the play is also a cautionary story for today.
In a similar way to how Arthur Miller’s 1953 play THE CRUCIBLE was about the Salem witch trials in colonial Massachusetts and also reflected on the era of McCarthyism, THE THIN EDGE OF THE WEDGE is about World War II and the Holocaust and also reflects on current political events of today.
The performance or staged reading of THE THIN EDGE OF THE WEDGE could be held any time between Sunday, November 4, and Sunday, November 11, in order to be part of this synchronized worldwide commemoration.
A current Jewish resident of Frankfurt, Germany, said that THE THIN EDGE OF THE WEDGE is a …
Play of yesterday, play of today, play of tomorrow.
(After the Kristallnacht 80th commemoration, Susan and I want to get the play in front of high school and college students to showcase what can happen when people allow the step-by-step encroachment of their civil liberties.)
This is what people are saying about the play:
I love the way you made the story so personal about your own experience and Mitch’s. That served as a perfect platform to deliver a lot of historical information that might otherwise have sounded dry to young people, but it doesn’t the way PZ relays it. The stories are individualized and chilling.
Those characters really came to life for me starting with Judith and the unimaginable horror of being 47 pounds when she finally was liberated, not to mention the idea of Christians cheering when they watched Jews being shot. So important to mention how many died of sickness and starvation, not just by gas or bullets, too.
Great reminder that it wasn’t just Jews – the Gypsies [Roma], blacks, gays, handicapped, frail or elderly, etc., were vulnerable as well.
From the play THE THIN EDGE OF THE WEDGE:
Two months after we arrived in Munich, I read a history book on the Holocaust. Seated in the living room of my Army-assigned apartment, I came across an event where the Nazi government had organized mass public attacks on Jews throughout Germany and Austria. This event, which became known as Kristallnacht — Night of Broken Glass, further widened the edge of the wedge of the Nazis’ war against the Jews. The Nazis in Germany and Austria burned synagogues, vandalized Jewish stores, and rounded up Jewish males, sending thousands to concentration camps including Dachau. Suddenly I realized that I was reading about Kristallnacht while in Munich, Germany, on the anniversary of that dreadful night of November 9-10, 1938.
CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS IN THIS 80TH ANNIVERSARY KRISTALLNACHT COMMEMORATION:
The goal is to have this play performed or stage read in Berlin, Frankfurt, Vienna, Israel and other locations. If you can help us reach museums, organizations and other venues that might be interested in participating, please email me at pzmiller@gmail.com — and we are happy to email you the most recent version of the script.