116 pages, black and white

With illustrations by Bedřich Fritta

Publication date:

September 1, 2020

ISBN 978-3-9819140-1-6

Short description. Press release

This musical theater piece, which is based on the experiences of a group of Jewish children, brings to life what happened in Mikrokosmos Room 28, girls' home L 410 in the Theresienstadt ghetto - including the songs they sang. The story became internationally known through the book and the exhibition The girls from room 28 and through the authentic diary of 12-14 year old Helga Pollak, published by Edition Room 28 under the title “My Theresienstadt Diary 1943-1944”.

As a reminder....

• to the children of the Theresienstadt ghetto;
• to the adults in the ghetto – carers, teachers, artists, mothers and fathers – who gave their care and love to the children in a dark time;
• to “The Girls of Room 28”.

From the foreword

The present play is based on the authentic story of the girls from Room 28, L 410 Theresienstadt. It is the result of many conversations I had between 1996 and 2002 with a special group of survivors of the Theresienstadt ghetto and other Holocaust survivors - in the USA, Israel, the Czech Republic, Germany and Vienna and during our annual meetings in the fall Czech holiday resort Špindlerův Mlýn/Spindlermühle in the Giant Mountains.

There, during our many conversations and workshops, I witnessed and participated in a work of remembrance that grew in intensity and liveliness with each subsequent meeting. A passage from Helga's diary, words from Flaška's poetry album, a poem from Handa's notebook, a photo, a child's drawing - suddenly the past became the present, tangibly close even for me, who was carried away by this stream of consciousness into the center of a story, that hasn't let go of me to this day.

Most of the scenes and dialogues woven into this play have their origins in these first annual meetings. The play that emerged was my first attempt to cast the material into an artistic form.

However – the script never felt “finished”. As I was writing, I kept listening to music. Music played an important role in room 28, thanks to the supervisor Ella Pollak (Tella), pianist and music teacher. She founded a choir with her protégés and with three of the girls – Flaška; Ela and Maria – a trio. The singing often spilled out into the main square. It is said that passers-by stopped in front of the house to listen to the girls' voices.

Music often drifted up into room 28. It came from the basement room of the girls' home, where Rafael Schächter was rehearsing with his choir - Mozart's Bastien and Bastienne, Smetanas Sold bride or, unforgettable, Verdi requiem . From the summer of 1944, the music came from the newly built pavilion on the main square, directly in front of the girls' home, where the city band usually played, and sometimes the ghetto swingers.

Even with poems - Handa Drori, née Pollak, wrote wonderful poems in her Theresienstadt notebook - or with certain scenes I heard music in my mind; not least of course in scenes involving the children's opera Brundibar have to do. I was aware that only a musical theater piece would do justice to the material.

But how to put all this on paper, what I had in mind, what I heard between the lines and what I still hear today? Alone, without a director, without a composer, without an ensemble with the determined will to bring the story to the stage? – I put the manuscript aside. And I concentrated on the book that was published by Droemer Verlag in spring 2004. (...)

May this play and storybook inspire many people so that the story of these girls can be heard and told in the medium of theater, music and film in many places and long into the future.

Hannelore Brenner. Berlin, December 2020

Cast of the play