A grade school stages a Holocaust-era play

How ‘Brundibar’ made the transition from Terezin to Brookline

By Amy R. Handler Special to the Advocate

Last month, the William H. Lincoln Elementary School staged “Brundibar” (“The Bumble Bee”), an operetta first performed by the children of Terezin, also known as Theresienstadt. It was composed before the war by Hans Krása, a Czech Jew who was imprisoned at the camp and later killed, at age 45, in Auschwitz. The play was performed 55 times from Sept. 23, 1943, to Oct. 28, 1944. Many of the cast members, like Krása, perished in the death camps.

The Jewish children of Terezin debut “Brundibar.” The fairy tale plot of “Brundibar” is an allegory about innocence and evil. But its symbolism has taken on historic dimensions as a result of the Holocaust.

The Brookline “Brundibar” featured a cast of American students (ages 8 to 11) who teamed up with Russian actors (ages 11-15). It played two nights to enthusiastic audiences, made up of children to seniors.

But in the weeks leading up to the performance, the adults behind the scenes wrestled with the question of how a grade-school cast could perform a play with such nightmarish associations.

The Advocate spoke with the play’s producers, school officials, parents, actors and even a Holocaust survivor who performed in the original show more than six decades ago. We learned that much like the original, the production of "Brundibar" in Brookline was derived from multiple and often conflicting intentions. The play was presented as part of the 18th annual Russian-American Festival in Boston, sponsored by the Educational Bridge Project, a cultural exchange program. The executive director of the program is Ludmilla Leibman of Boston, a Russian native who lost many relatives in the Holocaust.

Leibman arranged for youngsters from the Zazerkalie Musical Theater in St. Petersburg to perform with Brookline students.

Leibman altered the play in several respects to underscore its historical context. The original character of Brundibar had a handlebar mustache; in the Brookline version, he had a short, brush-like mustache like that of Hitler. In the original show, many of the actors wore Jewish stars not as part of the costumes but because they had only their street clothes to perform in; for the Brookline production, the stars were an integral part of the costumes.

Interestingly, though, only the Russian actors wore the stars. The Russians, unlike the Americans, were aware of their significance and of the Holocaust in general.

“The principal was concerned that we were bringing a Holocaust production to the elementary school. She worried that this would traumatize the children,” Leibman said.

Principal Kristen Herbert confirmed that she tightly monitored the production. Herbert also made sure that no graphic images were included in a PowerPoint presentation about the Holocaust that Leibman showed in conjunction with the play. Since the young cast members were behind the stage curtain, they couldn’t see the presentation, but they were within earshot.

“Brundibar” is about a brother and sister who want to earn money to buy milk for their ailing mother. When they attempt to sing in the town square, they are pushed out by Brundibar, a territorial hurdygurdy player. A dog, a cat and a sparrow come to the children’s aid, and together they drive away the sinister Brundibar.

When “Brundibar” was performed in Terezin, parents and adult caretakers saw it as a way to divert their children’s attention away from the horrors around them. The Nazis, meanwhile, encouraged the play and other arts projects to give outsiders, such as the Red Cross, the impression that Terezin was an idyllic camp for Jews. They included scenes from “Brundibar” in a propaganda movie (clips of it are on YouTube).

The cat in the Terezin production was played by now 80-year-old Ela Stein Weissberger of New York, who travels throughout the country to speak at “Brundibar” productions. She was interviewed by phone from Fairbanks, Alaska, where the play was being presented at a high school performing arts center.

Asked if she and her fellow actors resented performing in “Brundibar,” Weissberger said, “Never! We loved being in the play. It was the only way we could forget where we were.”

She said that the children did have some sense of the precariousness of their lives. “We knew about Hitler and that something would happen, but our teachers, caretakers, and Theresienstadt’s [Jewish] board of governors wouldn’t let us think about that. They felt that our knowing the truth would cause fear and panic.”

Brookline parents and school officials saw “Brundibar” as a vehicle for teaching students about bullying and handling their emotions.

“The best way to protect our children is to teach them selfawareness, so they understand feelings of anger and how to channel these into constructive change, rather than harm,” said Elizabeth Childs, a child psychiatrist and Brookline school committee member whose 11-year-old son, Raphael Grieco, played Brundibar.

Raphael said he already knew about the Holocaust before acting in the play. “I love nonfiction and read a lot about WWII,” he said. “I’m like the nonfiction brainiac of the school.”

He acknowledged that he sometimes had nightmares from playing a character akin to Hitler. “It was more a half-and-half situation. I knew that I was going to be cruel, and I didn’t worry. But then, half of my brain told me I should worry about this.”

Raphael said his mother played a key offstage role: “My mom told me to take out my compassionate and loving soul and give it to her to hold. I replaced that soul with the evil soul. 

“Then when the play was over, she took out the bad soul and put back my original one.”

Childs said she had been unaware of the interplay between Leibman and school officials about exposing the children to the Holocaust. “I can’t speak for everybody, but I’ve never sheltered my children from knowing the horrors of the world,” she said. “However, I do realize that there may be children in different places who can’t hear these things, but in our family we talk about that stuff.”

Evidently, Raphael was among the few Brookline actors aware of the history behind “Brundibar.”

Katya Sorok, a Russian native who now lives in Brookline, served as an interpreter and surrogate mom for the Russian members of the cast. Her 10-year-old son sang in the show’s choir.

“During the second rehearsal I discovered that most of the American kids were unaware of the play’s context,” Sorok said.

To evoke the deportations, the Brookline production called for chorus members to form lines behind the principal characters at the end of the show. This addition was Sorok’s idea. “I happened to mention [to the cast] that the endless line formations represented children who died in the war,” she said. “That’s when one of the older American children asked, ‘We’re playing dead people? I don’t want to play a dead person.’

“I quickly collected myself and said, ‘You’re not exactly playing those who died, but are representing an idea that during the war innocent people died, and these included children.’ This caused me to have a very stuttering reaction, and I asked myself why the American child was so afraid to represent another child who died in the war.”

Sorok said she was surprised about how skittish Americans in general can be about the Holocaust. “It was a culture shock to learn of this protective mentality, only because that’s not how it is in Russia, where the Holocaust is discussed with people of all ages,” she said.

Russian cast member, 15-yearold Aleksandra Kashina, said she had been performing the role of the cat for two years. “My task was to absorb advice given by teachers, and feel the part. Holocaust stories told by director Sofia Drabkina helped me try to understand the cruelty at the extermination camps. I learned that the children who played at Terezin were no older than the kids at our studio,” she added. “After hearing such difficult stories, one feels responsibility to the children who played in 1943. They acted with such light hearts, even that last time.”

Ludmilla Leibman arranged for the Lincoln School to perform “Brundibar” as part of the Russian-American Festival in Boston. The two productions of the children’s operetta could not have taken place under more different circumstances: one at an elementary school in one of the most tolerant communities in one of the freest nations in the world. And the other, the first, performed 67 years ago in a small town in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia that served as a transit camp for Jews destined for extermination at Auschwitz and Treblinka.