"Himmelweg", translated from German, means "Way to Heaven". In the context of this absorbing play by Juan Mayorga, it means the sound of the train, and the way to the gas chambers. The third show of The New Jewish Theatre's 15th season is based on real occurrences, and it is arresting.
In the 1940's, there was a concentration camp at Theresienstadt, where scenes from everyday life were orchestrated by the Nazis for the appearance of normalcy for a group of Red Cross inspectors. It's within this settlement that our Red Cross representative (Jerry Vogel) found himself years ago. During a good bit of the first act, he talks about the time when he went to visit that community in the woods, and how something about the place seemed oddly fabricated, although there was a school, a synagogue, a theatre -- all of the trappings of relative comfort. He also talks about his regrets about what he couldn't, or refused to see back then.
In the 1940's, there was a concentration camp at Theresienstadt, where scenes from everyday life were orchestrated by the Nazis for the appearance of normalcy for a group of Red Cross inspectors. It's within this settlement that our Red Cross representative (Jerry Vogel) found himself years ago. During a good bit of the first act, he talks about the time when he went to visit that community in the woods, and how something about the place seemed oddly fabricated, although there was a school, a synagogue, a theatre -- all of the trappings of relative comfort. He also talks about his regrets about what he couldn't, or refused to see back then.
