Women, Theater, and the Holocaust, an evening of dramatic readings by professional actors,
will be presented by Remember the Women Institute. This annual Yom HaShoah event features four readings that dramatize various aspects of women’s experiences during the Holocaust. They portray how women suffered and survived the horrors of the Nazi regime. Excerpts from Annulla, written and performed by Broadway veteran Emily Mann, are based on the true story of a Jewish woman who passed as a non-Jew in Nazi Germany. English Lessons is the premiere of a short play by Cynthia L. Cooper, inspired by a memoir by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s sister Gemma LaGuardia Gluck, held as a political prisoner in Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp. Excerpts from And the Rat Laughed, a novel by Nava Semel, deal with the sexual abuse of a hidden child in Poland. The reading from Letters to Sala by Arlene Hutton, adapted from the book Sala's Gift by Ann Kirschner, is from the true account of a young girl's survival in Nazi labor camps. Following these dramatic presentations, there will be a talkback with the playwrights, as well as a reception.