Tags: leaders

A. H. (Before He Changed Our History) [קורות חיים]

The play puts a spotlight on Adolf Hitler. How did a sensitive boy, who wanted to be a painter, become one of the most horrifying leaders in history? The text follows young Adolf from early childhood up to his thirties, when he joined the Nazi party.

From Crystal to Smoke [Du Cristal à la fumée]

On Saturday, November 12, 1938, two days after the Kristallnacht bloodbath, the most prominent Nazi leaders held a secret meeting in Berlin chaired by Goering. Himmler, Heydrich, Funk, and Daluege, among others, were present. Hitler, who had remained in Munich, followed every minute of the meeting. It was during this meeting that the Nazi leaders decided to eradicate the Jews. This was long before the meeting in a villa on the Wannsee lakeside on January 20, 1942. Jacques Attali represents here, in minute detail, with the help of recently discovered German archives, the surreal dialogue of this high-level meeting, during which the worst decision ever taken by a group of men was conceived: the extermination of a people.

Jim the Lionhearted [Jim le téméraire]

Jim is a Jew who is haunted and obsessed by the Holocaust. Jim locks himself away in his bedroom and has hallucinations presented as dream-like scenes. Jim envisions Hitler, who becomes intrigued by the frightened Jew, as well as many of Hitler’s notorious colleagues. Ironically, Jim becomes a trusted confidant of the Führer. Based on his awareness of historic events, Jim warns Hitler about those who will plot against him. Eventually, only Jim and Hitler remain and battle to prevent each other’s suicide.

Perdition

Perdition is a highly controversial play, loosely based on actual circumstances involving Dr. Rudolph Kastner, who negotiatied with Adolph Eichmann, to exchange goods to save 1,685 Jews in Hungary from deportation to the Auschwitz death camp. Kastner was found guilty by an Israeli court of conspiring with the Nazis, a ruling overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court, but not before Kastner was assassinated. Allen’s play, which had its Royal Court Theatre production in London cancelled, suggests that Zionists conspired with the Nazis.