A week or so ago my husband and I bought the three show packet for Grace Arts Live our Main Street theater. The first show “Cabaret” is on and we decided on the Matinee on Sunday at two pm. I saw “Cabaret” years ago in the movies with Liza Minnelli, but sadly remembered nothing about it.
For a local theater we thought the actors were terrific and laughed when appropriate with everyone else in the audience. The second act rolled around and for me things got serious. I saw my first Swastika armband since the 1940’s Germany and my instinct was to leave the theater. Sadly I did not but continued to watch. I did not want to embarrass my husband. I no longer laughed and especially when the last scene came on.
In the background there was this man sized opening and flames sizzled loudly. The Emcee who played a gay actor ripped off his long, black coat and revealed his Jewish POW uniform of striped, cut off at the knee pants. He wore the Jewish Yellow star and a red patch under it. The red patch during Hitler’s reign signified political prisoner, the “pink” star was for gays. He stepped back into the opening, flames sizzling in the background doing a happy little dance, when he stepped back lightening flashed signifying electrical currents.
Now I know that directors take artistic license and I’m okay with that, however, the Holocaust is too serious a matter to show someone doing a happy little dance going into the gas chamber, besides….gas did not give off an electrical sizzle and only dead bodies went into the ovens. I know this because my friend was the daughter of Holocaust survivors; her father’s job at the camp was to sort through the clothes prisoner’s had to shed before going into the gas chambers. I could tell you endless stories about my time at Harvard University in Boston during a seminar conducted by the then Dr. Mona Weimar “Children of Holocaust Survivors meet children of the Third Reich”. I learned about the Holocaust then because in the German school system it was pretended the Holocaust did not happen and some say to this day “it didn’t happen”.
I wrote this to a friend who has a Jewish parent and she said “write to them” which I did and also wrote one to “Orchids and Onions”. I’m sure most think I am taking this way too serious and I will assure you, I didn’t come home crying for hours finding joy in this guy’s happy little dance. Shame on Grace Arts Live for portraying the Holocaust with a happy little dance. I suggest you bone up on the Holocaust.
