By Mikaela STONE

The poetic confessional “First They Came” by concentration camp survivor and reformed Nazi sympathizer Pastor Martin Neimoller is a well known overview of Nazi escalation during the Holocaust. Neimoller did not speak out when Nazis came for Jews, communists, socialists or trade unionists. The poem concludes with “Then they came for me. And there was no one left to speak out for me.” 

The play “Survivors” by Wendy Kout, performed for students at Glendale High School in March, looks at the lives of 10 survivors of the Holocaust and the way hatred escalated from derogatory comments to the deaths of 6 million Jews and millions of others, including Roma and Sinti people, disabled people, people of color, gay and transgender people and political prisoners. 

The beginning of “Survivors” highlights how even after Adolf Hitler’s appointment as chancellor in January 1933, the 10 survivors lived as many young people do today: going to school, attending dances, having crushes and hanging out with friends. No one believed the anti-democratic and antisemitic laws the Nazi party proposed would actually pass.

Antisemitism had existed long before the Holocaust began; the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum reports that Russian pogroms killed tens of thousands of Jews between 1918 and 1920. In spite of its role in WWI and subsequent economic instability, much of the world considered Germany and especially its capital Berlin, a cultural melting pot that celebrated a post war Renaissance of art, free thought and diversity that created stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Conrad Veidt and Peter Lorre. Even with the prevalence of antisemitism, few thought an atrocity such as the Holocaust could happen in Germany, least of all the survivors who were then school children. In spite of the hopes of many, the Nazi regime only gained power. Hitler gained support by promising to fix the failing economy and strengthen Germany. When a fire broke out at the Reichstag, he blamed communist protesters and declared a state of emergency. Using these emergency powers, by February Nazis suspended freedom of protest, press and non-Nazi political meetings. In March, the Nazis opened the first concentration camp. Dachau would hold political prisoners, dissenters and disloyal press. While Dachau’s creation was even reported in American newspapers, no one realized how inhumane were conditions or what Dachau foretold. 

Survivor Rosemarie Marienthal’s first meaningful brush with Nazi ideology came in the form of a new teacher who lectured on the supremacy of the Aryan race. He claimed the opposite of an Aryan was a Jewish person. He singled out Marienthal as the perfect example of an Aryan, only for the class – at that point, still full of Marienthal’s friends – to laugh at him. She explained she was Jewish, not realizing how this belief of Aryan supremacy would soon grip the nation. 

The far more personal blow came when Marienthal’s best friend joined Hitler Youth. After attending her first meeting, the friend no longer spoke to Marienthal. Marienthal was then expelled from school for criticizing Hitler. 

Control of education did not stop at handpicking teachers and expelling students. In May 1933, Nazi students burned 20,000 banned books for being “un-German.” Among these were works by anyone Jewish, protestors, pacifists, psychologists and historians critical of aspects of German history. Recognizable texts include “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque, and the medical research of Jewish Physician Magnus Hirschfeld, whose practice inspired the Oscar winning 2015 movie “The Danish Girl.” The play paused to note that book bans continue to this day and referenced 19th century German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine’s famous quote, “Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people.” Heine’s work was among those burned. 

Antisemitic laws first stripped naturalized Polish-German Jews of their citizenship, then all German Jews. These laws prevented Jews from owning businesses, owning radios, marrying non-Jewish Germans, and finally forced them to wear yellow star badges. 

“They identified us, isolated us and deported us,” one character summed up. 

Those fleeing the Third Reich discovered that no other countries wanted them. As a result, many migrants had no choice but to return to Germany. 

Lives and livelihoods depended on the kindness or cruelty of others. Survivor Kurt Weinbach advised “to have friends you can trust” alongside “stay informed and aware” and “if all else fails, fake it.” His parents’ non-Jewish friends saved the family business during kristallnacht, or The Night of the Broken Glass, by creating a wall of people between the shop and the looters. The Museum of Tolerance reports “200 synagogues destroyed; 7,500 Jewish shops looted; 30,000 male Jews sent to concentration camps.” Marienthal’s father, sick in the hospital, was almost among the men deported: only the bravery of his doctor refusing the Nazis saved him. 

The Nazi Regime forced Jews in Germany and occupied territories into ghettos where they were used for cheap labor. The scarcity of food led 9-year-old Carl Voldman to sneak outside of his Polish ghetto to steal potatoes for his family. The farmer caught him and turned him over to the police. Imprisoned in jail, he watched other inmates shot in the prison yard. His mother rescued him and returned him to their family, only to discover their ghetto would soon be “liquidated.” Voldman and his family relied upon other Poles to hide them, moving often and splitting up. Voldman and one sister were the only ones of his immediate family to survive. He moved in with his uncle following the close of WWII. However, “just because the war ends doesn’t mean that hate ends.” Antisemitic Poles raided the house, killing Voldman’s aunt and two of his cousins. 

Survivor Henry Silberstein first found himself in Theresienstadt, the staged concentration camp shown to visiting dignitaries. The Red Cross arrived in Theresienstadt to find gardens and art classes. 

“The Red Cross sees what the Nazis want them to see … This method of repeating a lie until people believe it is true is still used today,” said Silberstein.

From Theresienstadt, Silberstein was deported to Auschwitz where he was one of 600 boys presented to the infamous Doctor Mengele, known as “the angel of death” for his inhumane experiments on Jews, Roma and Sinti. Mengele picked 87 boys of the 600 to use as slave labor and sent the rest to the gas chambers. Those who labored for Mengele are now referred to as the “Birkenau Boys.” 

The refrain of “Survivors” is “Never forget, never again … never is now.” “Survivors” actor Tyler Woehl believes, “What is happening in our current political climate is getting very similar.” Hate crimes towards immigrants, members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of color are on the rise in the United States, as confirmed by FBI hate crime statistics. 

It is writer Wendy Kout’s goal to teach about “Hatred, how it begins and where it can lead.” “Survivors” not only discusses the Holocaust, but mentions the Armenian Genocide, the Myanmar Muslim Genocide, the South African Genocide, crimes against humanity in Artsakh and Palestine, and American Japanese internment camps. 

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust offers a list of the Ten Stages of Genocide, all of which can be seen throughout “Survivors.” The first, “Classification,” begins with exclusion, establishing stereotypes and disrespect for differences of a minority. The second, “Symbolization,” marks a group as identifiable, such as by wearing a yellow star. “Discrimination” refers to legal discrimination or passing of laws to infringe upon the rights of or makes it more difficult to exist as a certain identity. “Dehumanization” compares a group to animals. In “Survivors,” Nazis compare Jews to dogs. Fifth is “Organization,” when militants are trained to go after certain groups. “Polarization” refers to the spread of propaganda and hate messages to isolate members of a group. “Preparation” refers to a plan for genocide, often not called what it is. “The Final Solution” is an example of this. In stage eight, “Persecution,” people are divided and sent to ghettos or camps. Stage nine is “Extermination,” followed by the tenth stage, “Denial.” 

Kout encouraged her audience to help curb the first stage, “Classification,” by standing up to prejudiced jokes or comments in one’s own community.

“Sometimes people want to be mean,” she said, “and sometimes they aren’t conscious what they’re saying is wrong.”