My friend Witek Dąbrowski came here for the second year in a row so that we could present the work of remembrance being done by Brama Grodzka-Teatr NN in Lublin, Poland. Brama Grodzka is an organization where over sixty non-Jewish Poles work under the leadership of Witek and my good friend the visionary Tomek Pietrasiewicz. Witek is the Deputy Director.
Witek and I did three presentation-performances: 1). in West Nyack, NY sponsored by Lubliners Judy Josephs, who is a survivor, and her daughter Ruth Josephs, and the Holocaust Museum and Center for Tolerance and Education; 2). in Milwaukee sponsored by HERC (the Holocaust Education Resource Center) and 3). in Boston at the Vilna Shul, co-sponsored by the Family Genealogy Center.
In the first two venues we had many survivors and children of survivors in the audience. There were people descended from Lublin Jews who had never heard of Brama Grodzka, non-Jewish Poles, non-Jewish non-Poles and assorted Jewish people. In all three venues we had engaged audiences and important Q&As. We had laughter and tears and lots of positive feedback.
We did not spend all of Witek’s visit performing, Qing and Aing, however! See the photos below.
Witek with Dr. Anna Ornstein, Hungarian survivor of Auschwitz and Płaszów. I had shown Anna a clip of my interview with Witek and she was delighted to meet him. The feeling was mutual.
Witek at the beautiful table in the home of my childhood friend in VA and his husband. One of the great side benefits of Witek’s visit was our travels and performances gave me a chance to catch up with old friends.
We visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture—very impressive.
This beautiful poster greeted us as we entered the Jewish Museum in Milwaukee.
On the way to our West Nyack show.
Witek mid-performance of an Isaac Bashevis Singer Story.
He performs in Polish, with English subtitles. I was proud that my Polish is good enough now for me to be able to advance the slides. ;-)
Me, explaining the work of Brama Grodzka.