PLAY. Theresienstadt. The Girls of Room 28

The experiences of a group of Jewish children who once lived in Room 28, Girls' Home L 410 in the Theresienstadt ghetto along with the songs they sang together are brought to life in this play by the author Hannelore Brenner. The story is known internationally through the book and exhibition The Girls of Room 28 and through the authentic diary of 12-13year old Helga Pollak written in Room 28 and published in German in 2014 under the title Mein Theresienstädter Tagebuch 1943-1944 (My Theresienstdt Diary).

120 pages, black/white, about 30 images/ documents by "The Girls of Room 28" and 6 paintings by Bedřich Fritta, Date of Release: 28 June 2021 | Translation: Hannelore Brenner | Editing: Maris Lyons, Cardiff/Wales.

ISBN 978-3-9819140-3-0

From the Preface to the Play

This play is based on the true story of The Girls of Room 28, Jewish girls who lived together in the Girls’ Home L410 in the Theresienstadt ghetto. It is the result of many conversations with survivors of this group mainly between the years 1996 and 2003, but also after.

I came across the story of these girls during my research for a radio-feature on the children’s opera Brundibár in the US, Czech Republic and Austria. In November 1996 I visited Anna Hanusová in Brno and Helga Kinsky in Vienna for the first time, and after that, we agreed to join forces to create what we set out to be a “Book of Remembrance”, a compilation of documents and recollections in memory of the girls of Room 28 and the children of the ghetto who did not survive the Holocaust. It was also intended as a tribute to the adults in the ghetto who lovingly took care of the children and taught them values that became fundamental to their lives.

From September 1998 we met every year in early autumn for several days in the Czech resort of Špindlerův Mlýn, in the Krkonoše Mountains. There, during our conversations while walking along the Elbe river or over the mountains, and during the workshops we held in order to bring together whatever available documents and memories the participants could contribute, I was both witness to and a participant in a work of remembrance that became more and more intense and vibrant with every meeting. A passage from Helga's diary, words from Flaška's scrap-book, a poem from Handa's notebook, a photograph, a child's drawing, a song – all of a sudden the past would come alive for the women, tangibly close even for me, the outsider, who was swept along by this stream of consciousness into the very centre of a story that would not let me go, even today.

Most of the scenes and dialogues woven into this play originated in these first annual meetings and are from our conversations which I recorded. The play I created was the first step towards giving the story an artistic form. The first version, called Ghetto Tears 1944. The Girls of Room 28 was finished in 2002, two years before the book The Girls of Room 28 was published by the German publishing house Droemer, Munich. (...)

The importance of Music in Room 28

While writing, music kept sounding in my mind which, of course, is not surprising at all. Thanks to the caretaker Ella Pollak, whom the girls called Tella, music played an important role in Room 28. Tella was a passionate pianist and music teacher. With her protégés she founded a choir, and with three of the girls – Flaška, Ela and Maria – she formed a trio. Often the girls’ singing was heard outside and it is said that passers-by stopped to listen to their voices.

Sometimes, in the evening, powerful singing was audible all the way up to Room 28. It came from the old vaulted cellar of the Girls’ Home. All the inmates knew that Rafael Schächter, the multifaceted musician – conductor, pianist, composer – was rehearsing with his choir – Mozart's Bastien and Bastienne, Smetana's Bartered Bride, or the unforgettable Requiem by Verdi.

In mid-summer 1944 the music came from the pavilion set up on the main square directly in front of the Girls' Home. The reason for this was the so-called “Beautification of the Town” measures ordered by the SS ‘Kommandantur’ in preparation for the visit of a delegation from the International Red Cross in June 1944. It was also on command of the SS that the “Stadtkapelle” (Town Band) had to play from now on at specific times as well as the “Ghetto Swingers”, an orchestra that played in the style of American swing and jazz, music which was forbitten throughout the Third Reich but admitted in the ghetto.

Music also echoed in my heart whenever I read Handa’s wonderful poems that she jotted in her notebook, or when I imagined specific scenes. And then of course, there was Brundibár! This children’s opera by Hans Krása and Adolf Hoffmeister is an essential part of the story of these girls and the very reason that led me to them, and one of the reasons why I finally told their story. In short, I always felt that the play needed music. (…) And now, in May 2021, I am preparing the English edition with the help of the wonderful Maris Lyons, a performer and musical theatre producer who has worked extensively for Welsh National Opera (WNO) and Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff and who I got to know in June 2019 during WNO’s Freedom Season. WNO presented Brundibár as part of this Summer Season, conducted by its Music Director Tomáš Hanus, who is the son of one of the main protagonists of this play, Anna Hanusová, née Flachová, called Flaška. In the frame of the Freedom Season, WNO also presented our exhibition The Girls of Room 28 at Wales Millennium Centre, and it was here where Maris and I met, and she became interested in this work. Thank you so much Maris for editing the text of this play!

Hannelore Brenner. Berlin, May 2021