Fragility of Freedom a drama by Michael Rosen
May 11, 06:47 AM
Story-telling using your own WW2 family history for demonstrating the theme on Fragility of Freedom to be used by a DRAMA group to perform at HMD which can be rehearsed using our recording of your words
FRAGILITY OF FREEDOM DRAMA by Michael Rosen
Scene one
Home at Michael Rosen’s house
1950s
Father (Harold)
Mother (Connie)
Brian (older)
Michael (younger)
Home at Michael Rosen’s house
1950s
Father (Harold)
Mother (Connie)
Brian (older)
Michael (younger)
Eating meal
Narrator
Pinner in north-west London
It’s the 1950s
This is the Rosen family: father Harold, mother, Connie, two sons, Brian and Michael
Pinner in north-west London
It’s the 1950s
This is the Rosen family: father Harold, mother, Connie, two sons, Brian and Michael
Michael: I love raisins.
Brian: We noticed. Leave some for me.
Connie: Who’s going to clear the table?
Harold: (looks up from paper): You know I had two uncles living in France before the war. They weren’t there at the end.
Brian: What happened to them?
Harold: I don’t know. They died in the camps I suppose. There’s no way of finding out.
Connie: Don’t look like that. There’s nothing we can do about it. It’s happened and that’s it.
Michael: What camps? What do you mean?
Connie: Another time, Harold.
Michael (to Brian) (whispering) What camps?
Brian: Later.
Brian: We noticed. Leave some for me.
Connie: Who’s going to clear the table?
Harold: (looks up from paper): You know I had two uncles living in France before the war. They weren’t there at the end.
Brian: What happened to them?
Harold: I don’t know. They died in the camps I suppose. There’s no way of finding out.
Connie: Don’t look like that. There’s nothing we can do about it. It’s happened and that’s it.
Michael: What camps? What do you mean?
Connie: Another time, Harold.
Michael (to Brian) (whispering) What camps?
Brian: Later.
Scene 2
Narrator:
50 years later:
Michael is on the phone with his second cousin Teddy in America:
50 years later:
Michael is on the phone with his second cousin Teddy in America:
Michael: Yes I can hear you. Say that again, who are the letters from?
Teddy: Two are from Stella Rosen…wait a minute…she’s our great-aunt. Your father and my father’s aunt.
And two are from Oscar and he’s our great-uncle, your father and my father’s uncle.
Michael: Okayyyy.
Teddy: Don’t you see? These are the last letters they ever wrote.
Michael: Where are they writing from?
Teddy: Stella is writing from Poland. Oscar is writing from France.
Michael: When?
Teddy: 1941.,
Michael: O my god…what are they saying.
Teddy: OK, Stella in Poland is pleading with my grandfather to take her son in. To the States. It’s his only hope of survival.
Michael: And Oscar in France?
Teddy: The net is closing in there too.
Michael: Is there an address on the letters?
Teddy: I’ll screenshot them and send them to you. I just had to tell you the moment I saw them.
Michael: Where have they been?
Teddy: Hidden in my mother’s brother’s files somewhere. They’ve only come to light since he died.
Teddy: Two are from Stella Rosen…wait a minute…she’s our great-aunt. Your father and my father’s aunt.
And two are from Oscar and he’s our great-uncle, your father and my father’s uncle.
Michael: Okayyyy.
Teddy: Don’t you see? These are the last letters they ever wrote.
Michael: Where are they writing from?
Teddy: Stella is writing from Poland. Oscar is writing from France.
Michael: When?
Teddy: 1941.,
Michael: O my god…what are they saying.
Teddy: OK, Stella in Poland is pleading with my grandfather to take her son in. To the States. It’s his only hope of survival.
Michael: And Oscar in France?
Teddy: The net is closing in there too.
Michael: Is there an address on the letters?
Teddy: I’ll screenshot them and send them to you. I just had to tell you the moment I saw them.
Michael: Where have they been?
Teddy: Hidden in my mother’s brother’s files somewhere. They’ve only come to light since he died.
Scene 3
Michael:
So the Nazis wanted to create a new super race. A pure race. And to do that they thought they would wipe out all the Jews. Exterminate them. Millions of them. Millions of us.
And amongst all those millions, there was my father’s uncles and aunts in France and Poland. But how did they do it?
Michael:
So the Nazis wanted to create a new super race. A pure race. And to do that they thought they would wipe out all the Jews. Exterminate them. Millions of them. Millions of us.
And amongst all those millions, there was my father’s uncles and aunts in France and Poland. But how did they do it?
Narrator:
You’ll have to do some research.
Michael:
I will. I will.
You’ll have to do some research.
Michael:
I will. I will.
Scene 4
(with computer)
Michael: (As he speaks these lines, Oscar and Rachel mime what he is relating)
So Oscar is married to Rachel. Hmm my father didn’t know that.
So in 1941 they’re in Niort, in north-west France, before the war they had been running a clock-menders shop but now all they can do is sell second-hand clothes. The govt has taken nearly all their savings and says that they’ve got to wear yellow stars with the word Jew on them. And they have to put a sign on their market stall saying ‘Jewish business’.
Now hang on…they disappear from Niort…they go on the run….they’re refugees….
how do they do it?
they must have begged for lifts and begged to stay in people’s houses…dangerous…one wrong move and they would have been arrested…
till they get hundreds of miles away to Nice.
Why Nice?
(with computer)
Michael: (As he speaks these lines, Oscar and Rachel mime what he is relating)
So Oscar is married to Rachel. Hmm my father didn’t know that.
So in 1941 they’re in Niort, in north-west France, before the war they had been running a clock-menders shop but now all they can do is sell second-hand clothes. The govt has taken nearly all their savings and says that they’ve got to wear yellow stars with the word Jew on them. And they have to put a sign on their market stall saying ‘Jewish business’.
Now hang on…they disappear from Niort…they go on the run….they’re refugees….
how do they do it?
they must have begged for lifts and begged to stay in people’s houses…dangerous…one wrong move and they would have been arrested…
till they get hundreds of miles away to Nice.
Why Nice?
Narrator:
Nice South East France:
Angelo Donati, a philanthropist has a plan:
Nice South East France:
Angelo Donati, a philanthropist has a plan:
Donati: (to audience as if they are the Jews in Nice)
The Italian authorities promise you, we will not hand you over to the Nazis. In the meantime, I am getting hold of boats and we will get you away from Europe to north Africa, where you’ll be safe. I need just a few more days…
The Italian authorities promise you, we will not hand you over to the Nazis. In the meantime, I am getting hold of boats and we will get you away from Europe to north Africa, where you’ll be safe. I need just a few more days…
Narrator:
But Italy were at war with the allies. I know this is complicated! And the allies defeated Italy.
But Italy were at war with the allies. I know this is complicated! And the allies defeated Italy.
Donati:
I’ll send a telegram to General Eisenhower….’ don’t announce the armistice’. It’ll give me time to get the boats ready.
I’ll send a telegram to General Eisenhower….’ don’t announce the armistice’. It’ll give me time to get the boats ready.
Eisenhower:
Today we announce that an armistice has been signed between Italy and allied forces. Italy has been defeated.
Today we announce that an armistice has been signed between Italy and allied forces. Italy has been defeated.
Michael:
Oh no. That means that the Nazis will invade Nice….
Oh no. That means that the Nazis will invade Nice….
Narrator:
Exactly.
Nazi soldiers rounded up Jews in Nice, took them to the Hotel Excelsior…put them on trains to a special camp outside Paris called Drancy (‘Dron-see’).
Exactly.
Nazi soldiers rounded up Jews in Nice, took them to the Hotel Excelsior…put them on trains to a special camp outside Paris called Drancy (‘Dron-see’).
Michael:
Then what?
Then what?
Oscar:
They took us from that camp to a train called Convoy 62.
They took us from that camp to a train called Convoy 62.
Rachel: They squeezed 1200 of us into cattle trucks, and deported us to Auschwitz extermination camp where we were killed.
Michael:
I haven’t saved you.
All I’ve done is find out what happened to you.
Why?
Why have I done this?
Because the Nazis idea was not only to exterminate us all but to wipe all memory of us from history.
And they nearly succeeded with you Oscar and Rachel.
But with a mix of luck and research, at least I’ve made sure that you’re not wiped from history…
I haven’t saved you.
All I’ve done is find out what happened to you.
Why?
Why have I done this?
Because the Nazis idea was not only to exterminate us all but to wipe all memory of us from history.
And they nearly succeeded with you Oscar and Rachel.
But with a mix of luck and research, at least I’ve made sure that you’re not wiped from history…
Oscar:
What about my brother, Martin. Did you find out what happened to him?
What about my brother, Martin. Did you find out what happened to him?
Michael: Yes I did.
Rachel:
Did he live? Did he survive?
Did he live? Did he survive?
Michael:
No, they arrested him in the middle of the night in a village not all that far from where you were staying.
No, they arrested him in the middle of the night in a village not all that far from where you were staying.
Oscar:
And?
And?
Michael:
And he was deported on Convoy 68…
And he was deported on Convoy 68…
Rachel:
To?
To?
Michael:
Auschwitz…
Auschwitz…
Michael turns to Harold
So, that’s what I found out…
So, that’s what I found out…
Harold:
Yes yes yes.
Michael looks at him
You don’t really want to know do you?
You don’t really want to know do you?
Harold:
Not really.
I’m too old. It’s too hard for me to take, Mick.
I’m sorry.
Not really.
I’m too old. It’s too hard for me to take, Mick.
I’m sorry.
THE END