A Message from Arnold Mittelman After a career in not-for-profit and commercial theater spanning more than 40 years I was honored in 2007 to found the National Jewish Theater / Foundation and in 2010 to assume leadership of its Holocaust Theater International...
Mengele
Author(s): Philip Wharam
After the fall of the Third Reich, Josef Mengele – the notorious Nazi doctor known as the 'Angel of Death' – evaded capture and fled to South America, where he lived under a pseudonym until drowning off the coast of Brazil at the age of 67. In Mengele, he washes up on a beach, having been saved by a mysterious woman whose gentle questioning and flattery spurs him to defend his actions during the Holocaust.
Brief synopsis: In 1979 the notorious doctor of Auschwitz drowned whilst swimming off a beach in Brazil. This play imagines him washed ashore and confronted by the woman he assumes has saved him. Flattered by this enigmatic presence he attempts to justify the unjustifiable before facing a final, climactic judgment. Making powerful connections between past and present the play warns of buying into the rhetoric of bigotry.
Format: Drama
Cast Size:1M, 1W
Running Time: 75 minutes
Character breakdown:
Dr Josef Mengele (M – 60s)
Azra’il (F – any age/ethnicity)
Notes:
Production History:
The Bakehouse Theatre, Adelaid, South Austalia, Australia – 2018
The Edinburgh Theatre Festival at Assembly George Square Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland – 2019
Theatre503 in London, England – 2020
A tour of Austria in January, including a residency in Hitler’s birth town of Braunau – 2020
Study guides or support material: Education Pack available on request
Snapshot
Original or Prominent Production:
Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2017/18/19
Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2017/18/19
Original Source Material: Inspired by the novel, Right To Live, by Philip Wharmon
Nationality of Author: English
Original Language: English
Publisher:
Lynfa Publishing
Production Rights Holder:
Timothy Marriott
HTC Insights
Views, reference and research of interest.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The National Jewish Theater Foundation presented its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award to Alfred Uhry. The presentation took place as part of the Lincoln Center Library event on January 27th 2025 in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
Lifetime Achievement Award
On September 30, 2024, French playwright, Mr. Jean Claude Grumberg received the Lifetime Achievement Award. It was presented by NJTF HTII President, Arnold Mittelman with Dominique Trimbur, PhD-Manager for the History of Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Teaching of the Holocaust of Fondation Pour La Memoir de la Shoah Project.