Kindertransport (NHB Modern Plays)

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In this author’s guide to the play, Diane Samuels investigates the historical background, drawing on the personal testimony of those whose lives were transformed by the Kindertransport. Teresa Eyring Executive Director Theatre Communications Group (TCG) AHO Conference, Miami, FL TCG is a national organization for theatre, based in New York. The play jumps back and forth between three time periods: 1) Pre-war - in which Helga tries to prepare Eva to leave her home and parents; 2) War - in which Eva is living in England with Lil, adjusting to a new country, and desperately trying to get her parents out of Germany; and 3) Post-war, in which Eva (who has now changed her name to Evelyn) is an adult, has a daughter named Faith, and has intentionally wiped most of her past and her Jewishness out of existence. When Eva arrives in London, speaking no English, and feeling very much abandoned, she is taken under the wing of Lil Miller. Rubin (Scarecrow Press, 1999), a compilation of eight plays, including Kindertransport, along with related activities and resources for upper elementary, middle and high school students.

Renowned theatre company Shared Experience also revived the play to great acclaim for a regional tour in 2007. Also available: Diane Samuels' Kindertransport: The author's guide to the play, invaluable for anyone studying, teaching or performing the play. Spared the horrors of the death camps, the Jewish "Kinder" were uprooted, separated from their parents and transported to a different culture where they faced, not the unmitigated horror of the death camps, but a very human mixture of kindness, indifference, occasional exploitation, and the selflessness of ordinary people faced with needy children.Eva and Lil fall out as Eva skips her English lessons to go and ask round rich houses if they will give her parents jobs; Lil thinks this makes her seem desperate. Subsequently the play has been produced in San Francisco with awards, Sweden, Japan, Germany, Austria, Canada and South Africa.

by Robert Skloot 2022 NJTF HTII Lifetime Achievement Award AHO Winter Conference, Miami, FL I’d like to begin my remarks by asking the question that all of us have been asked often: “Why do you do the work you do? Set Text: Kindertransport is a set text for GCSE English Literature (AQA) and AS/A-Level English Literature (WJEC). One day Helga arrives when Eva is in her late teens and Eva tells Helga that Lil and Jack have adopted her and she has been naturalised as English, and her name is now Evelyn. It's a refreshing change for a study guide to come from the pen of the person who created the text being studied. When Evelyn was nine, her mother Helga sent her to live in England to keep her safe from Nazi persecution.This play is also available as an A4 Edition, offering spiral binding, a larger print size and additional space for notes. Eva Schlesinger, daughter of Helga and Werner, is sent away to live with a foster carer in Manchester, England, temporarily until her parents find work and move to England too.

All of this takes place in the attic of Evelyn's house, which supposedly represents Evelyn's psyche. The author's guide to Kindertransport, an invaluable and uniquely authoritative resource for anyone studying, teaching or performing the play. He interrogates her in English and is visibly annoyed when Eva responds in German, the only language she understands.

When her own daughter discovers some old letters and photos in the attic, she is forced to confront the truth about who she really is and to reveal a dark secret that she has done everything to keep hidden. The play enjoyed a season in London's West End, playing at the Vaudeville Theatre from 9 September to 30 November 1996. Kindertransport was first performed in the UK by the Soho Theatre Company at the Cockpit Theatre, Marylebone, in London on 13 April 1993 and in the US at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York on 26 April 1994.