Play tells story of hope in dark times

Northern Burlington students portray Jewish children in World War II Czechoslovakia.

By: Cara Latham
   MANSFIELD — Imagine you are a child, just taken from your parents, perhaps never to see them again. You are placed in a camp, along with other children who are going through the same thing.
   How do you find hope?
   Students in Northern Burlington County Regional High School will portray the story of those children, taken from their families and transported to a concentration camp in Terezin during World War II, in the fall play this weekend in the high school’s auditorium.
   The play, titled, "I Never Saw Another Butterfly: The Terezin Promise," tells the story of Jewish children transported to a ghetto in Terezin, Czechoslovakia, where they attended school. The camp was a stop on the way to the gas chambers in Auschwitz.
   Through poetry and drawings, their teacher helped them survive with hope, said Valerie Gargas, the play director and theater arts teacher.
   The play is based on a true story, as 15,000 Jewish children went through the concentration camp, and only 100 of them survived. The rest were killed in Auschwitz, said Ms. Gargas.
   In the beginning of the play, main character Raja Englanderova, played by senior Kristine Buffa, is among the students who are frightened as they enter the camp, not knowing what to expect. When they are told to take their clothes off and move to the showers, Raja stays behind, fearing that she will be gassed, like her father, who was previously told to do the same.
   Teacher Irena Synkova, played by junior Emily Gaudette, tries to learn the girl’s name, and explain to her that the children really are going to take showers. Telling her a little about herself, Irena bonds with Raja, as the story progresses.
   "The main character (Raja) is one of the children who survives," said Ms. Gargas. "She tells the story. It’s kind of told in flashbacks of the whole thing."
   One of the flashbacks includes a scene involving Raja and her family, where they discuss their fears of stricter Nazi actions, and what they could do to avoid danger.
   "Her brother gets married to his sweetheart before they get shipped off," said Ms. Gargas, adding that the play includes the wedding scene. All of Raja’s family members eventually die.
   Another scene in the play takes place in Irena’s classroom, where students are sharing their thoughts and poetry with each other about how they felt about being kept at the camp, and about what they would do once they were home again.
   One student wrote about how she will make her bed every day when she gets home, and another said she would create pretty white curtains. Still, another student said she would sit quietly and read story books, and another said she would play the piano, and others would be dancing and laughing, and "won’t care how noisy we are."
   Raja, reads the poem, "I Never Saw Another Butterfly," (originally a poem written by Pavel Friedman, who died in Auschwitz at the age of 13) and shares that she has been at the camp at this point in the play for over a year. She questions why she was torn away from her home.
   Irena eventually dies, but Raja survives, and the play even includes a scene where one of the Nazi soldiers, portrayed by sophomore Alex Urisko, also dies, after the Allied Forces have arrived.
   The soldier, following orders to destroy evidence of the camp upon the Allies’ arrival, stumbles, after being wounded, into the barracks, where Raja comes to collect all of the poetry and artwork that was hidden in the camp. The soldier, who was only 15 years old when it happened, was recruited by Hitler who targeted the youth as a dwindling army battled the Allies.
   Ms. Gargas said the play is very serious, and that to prepare for their parts, actors visited the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C., and spent two hours during their next rehearsal talking about their experience.
   The dialogue from the characters in the play about what they missed about home are derived from actual artwork and poetry that were rescued after being hidden all over the camp. The work was taken to a museum in Prague, and some of it was sent to the museum the Northern Burlington actors visited, Ms. Gargas said.
   And to prepare the set for the play, students in art classes actually reproduced actual drawings of the characters.
   "We did turn the whole auditorium into a concentration camp," she said. "You come through the door and you see the archway that greeted all the Jewish people when they came into a concentration camp."
   Ms. Gargas said the school performs a comedy one fall, and then a drama the next.
   "I selected the play because I wanted to do a serious subject with a message, and in this day of terrorism and genocide in Darfur, I think it’s an important topic to remember what happened," she said. "This particular play deals with children in the concentration camp, so it’s more accessible to the students. They’re able to relate more to the characters."
   Ms. Gargas said she is hoping the cast —comprising 33 students — and audience members will learn a lesson about hope.
   "The message of the play is that it’s important to remember that people will continue to survive as long as we have hope and we keep trying to look forward."
   A preview performance at the Four Seasons development drew a standing ovation. One man actually said the students "reached that level of sadness," caused by the Holocaust, even though he said "he knew that they didn’t have that sadness really in their lives, but that they portrayed that believability," said Ms. Gargas.
   The play will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $7 for adults, $6 for students and children, and $3 for senior citizens.