On Monday morning Nov. 11, the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills was filled with hundreds of students from 12 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). It was clear that these 8-12 graders were thrilled at the chance to leave their classrooms and watch a live performance. The theater buzzed with excitement and chatter.
Once the curtains rose, however, the audience fell into complete silence that lasted until the final moments of the play.
The production, “Survivors,” is a powerful one-hour play that recounts the experiences of 10 Holocaust survivors before, during and after World War II. It draws from the real stories of Jews like such as Helen Levinson, who survived by posing as a Christian; Evie, who was saved through the Kindertransport to Britain; Rosemarie Molser, who survived by disguising herself as a nun and later marrying her pen pal in Africa; and Henry Silberstein, who endured the horrors of Theresienstadt and Birkenau concentration camps.
Commissioned by CenterStage Theater in Rochester, New York, to create a Holocaust-themed play, “Survivors” was written in 2017 by Wendy Kout. Just one month after starting the project, Kout witnessed neo-Nazis marching with tiki torches in Charlottesville, which made her realize that she wasn’t just writing a historical piece – she was crafting a timely warning.
When Kout began writing the play, four of the 10 featured survivors were still alive and she was able to get in-depth interviews with them. She also spoke extensively with the family members and friends of all 10 survivors to authentically capture their essence. The outcome was a play that added rich, multi-dimensional portrayals to each survivor’s narrative. This allowed the audience to feel more connected to the characters and understand them better.
The play reached over 10,000 students throughout Rochester and surrounding areas, garnering strong reviews and positive feedback. A few years later, as the production gained momentum and more productions were staged, Genie Benson, executive director of Keshet Chaim, saw a posting about the Philadelphia production on Facebook and called Kout, her college friend. “She said, ‘so Wendy — “Survivors” — why just Philly?’” Kout said in an interview with The Journal, noting she hadn’t heard from Benson in years. “I said, is it you Genie?”
And so, the two began collaborating to bring the play to the West Coast. Benson, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, has years of experience producing shows for the Keshet Chaim Dance Ensemble. Under the Keshet Chaim umbrella, she created Arts for Change, which connects socially conscious artists to raise awareness and inspire change.
The play had its West Coast premiere at the Museum of Tolerance and invited Holocaust survivors, who filled the first row in the theater. One of them was 95-year-old David Lenga, who was just 11 years old in Poland when the Holocaust began. He was imprisoned at Auschwitz and lost his mother, father, brother and many other family members. Kout recalled he got up at the end of the play and said, “Until today, I was worried about Holocaust education in this country, and now I’m not worried anymore.”
Kout and Benson noted that it wasn’t easy to convince teachers that the play should come to their school or that it would make for a valuable field trip, but they were persistent. They sent materials and continued following up, and in the end, their efforts paid off. The first school to host the play was Calabasas High in March 2023. They later brought the production to Camp Alonim, the Reagan Library, a Catholic high school in downtown L.A., Burbank High and to 800 students in Santa Barbara, among other venues.
This last performance of the tour was at the Saban Theater. Three Holocaust survivors were invited to attend: Lya Frank, Henry Slucki and Joe Alexander.
“We wanted to do this performance to reach students from Title I schools, low-income and underserved schools that don’t have access to quality theaters,” said Benson. “We could see the impact it had on them as they came into this beautiful venue.”
The actors portray students, just like their audience, with hopes and dreams, living normal lives until the rise of the Nazi party. The play demonstrates how quickly their lives were turned upside down as they were sent to concentration camps or had to escape the tragic fate of their families and Jewish friends by disguising themselves as Christians. The audience also learned what happened to the survivors after the war, with photos of them as young adults and in their later years displayed on a large screen.
The actors portray students, just like their audience, with hopes and dreams, living normal lives until the rise of the Nazi party.
After the play, students were invited to ask questions of the actors. “One student came to me afterward and asked to speak with the survivors,” said Kout. “She spent some time talking to them and as she walked away, I asked if she was okay. She said, ‘I need some time to process what I’ve learned; it’s unbelievable what they’ve been through.”
Kout and Benson claim that students don’t know enough about the Holocaust. “[California Gov.] Gavin Newsom launched a collaborative a couple of years ago, making the Holocaust and overall genocide education mandatory,” said Kout. “This makes us a valuable tool for schools, as they need ways to teach these lessons. The play was designed to teach the history of the Holocaust through active testimony.”
While the play centers on the horrors of the Holocaust, Kout emphasized that she wanted also to show how each survivor discovered hope and resilience, finding the strength to endure and overcome unimaginable challenges.
The performance at the Saban Theater was sponsored by the Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation and the Len Hill Charitable Foundation. Benson and Kout plan to bring the play to as many schools on the West Coast as possible, including those in San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Las Vegas.
For more information and donations to help bring “Survivors” to schools and local communities, visit: www.artsforchange.world
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