Kindertransport

Author(s): Diane Samuels
Kindertransport is based on the experiences of children who were allowed to leave Nazi Germany for England in 1938/39 and who were separated from their families, many of whom perished during the Holocaust. Through flashbacks, the play presents the hardships faced by Eva, a nine-year-old child sent on a Kindertransport and taken in by a British family. The play also focuses on the now assimilated and completely dislocated Eva’s alienation from her actual mother, a survivor of the Holocaust, and the discovery by Faith, Eva’s daughter, of her mother’s unspoken past.
Format: Drama
Cast Size:1M/5F
Character breakdown:

Evelyn: 50s, English middle-class woman
Faith: 20s, Evelyn’s only child
Eva: Evelyn’s younger self
Helga: German-Jewish woman of the late 1930s
Lil: 80s, Eva/Evelyn’s English foster mother
The Rat Catcher

Notes:

An L.A. Theatre Works audio recording of the play is available.

See also Voices: Plays for Studying the Holocaust, Janet E. 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.

Snapshot

Original or Prominent Production:
The Cockpit, Gateforth Street, London, 1993
Nationality of Author: English
Original Language: English
Publisher:

Nick Hern Books

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