Children of the Shadows [ילדי הצל]

Yoram is a survivor, who was smuggled to Israel during the war through Tehran (from "The children of Teheran" group). In Israel, he tries desperately to fit in, forgetting and denying his past in the process. Yoram used to date Nurit, but he broke up with her because he couldn't open up. She is now dating Dubi, a privileged Israeli from a Kibbutz. Dubi can't sympathize with the hardships of a newcomer (Yoram came to Israel when he was 14), burdened by memories. They battle over Nurit, Yoram wins. They are to be wed, but still Yoram has a hard time. He comes to terms with his past after he discovers who the strange, and maybe crazy man that's following him is: Sigmund was his brother-in-law, and served in the Judenrat in the ghetto, and lost his wife and son. Consumed by guilt he lives in the streets, hiding from his past. He gives Yoram his papers and last testimony, and leaves towards the sea. Yoram is freer through Sigmund's act.

Format: Drama

Cast Size:5M/2F

Notes:

For additional reading, see Gene A. Plunka, Holocaust Drama: The Theater of Atrocity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 268–274.

Original or Prominent Production:
Habima, 1962

Original Language: Hebrew

Publisher:

Amikam

Production Rights Holder:

World Zionist Organization, Dept. for Education and Culture, [between 1963 and 1979]

Experience(s) Chronicled: Survivors and Subsequent Generations