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Lives of Holocaust
Survivors to be Portrayed on Stage HarveyHouse Photo
“We have to accept the facts. We don't have the money to bribe our way out of here. The Jewish population dwindles daily. Some have fled. Some simply disappear. How long will we wait until we just disappear? Do you want to end up in a concentration camp with no food? No water? Do you want to end up in Auschwitz in the furnace? We must take our lives into our hands and not simply wait for fate!” - Kurt, brother of Erika Mandler, as portrayed in “Courage and Love: The George & Erika Mandler Story,” a play written by Chillicothe Drama Teacher Lisa Rule. Six million people. Six million men, women and children - that's how many European Jews were executed as part of a deliberate extermination by the National Socialist regime in Germany led by Adolf Hitler during World War II. Erika Mandler, of Chillicothe, and her husband, the late Dr. George Mandler, were fortunate that they were not included in that number. They had escaped. But their escape was not without fear, physical struggles and emotional pain. This spring, their story will be told on stage at Gary Dickinson Performing Arts Center in the form of a play by the Chillicothe High School drama department. The play was written by drama teacher Lisa Rule, a personal friend of Erika Mandler. Rehearsals began this week for the 54-member cast. The two-hour play consists of five acts, with the opening five minutes of each act being a videotaped interview of Mandler, now 85 years old, as she reflects about what is transpiring in the play. The performances will held April 10, 11, 12 and 13. The April 10 show is a daytime show just for school students and, already, four schools have made reservations for that performance. Rule became acquainted with Mandler about 10 years ago through her mother, Sandy Sappington. “My mother was already friends with her and Erika was nice enough to invite me over to light Hanukkah candles,” Rule said. Through the years, a friendship developed and Rule continued to learn more about Erika's past. Last fall she decided to write a play about Erika's life as a way to preserve this element of history. “Her story is incredible,” Rule said. “If you have ever heard Mrs. Mandler tell her story, then you know already how powerful it is. I think seeing her story on stage will bring the Holocaust to life for the audience.” The play has a budget of over $5,000 because of costume rentals and specific stage effects, Rule said. She said that donations are being accepted to help defray the costs of the production. Donations could be earmarked for the production itself or for the educational display in the PAC lobby - including the visual representation of the 6 million men, women and children who were executed. “The drama department's coffers are not nearly adequate to do justice to this amazing story,” Rule said. Nearly 60 high school students auditioned for the various parts in the production and all will have roles. “This is definitely an ensemble cast because there were so many people who affected the lives of George and Erika Mandler during their Holocaust experience,” Rule said. “But, Erika's immediate family has been cast as follows: Hannah Morgan as Erika, Weston Baker as George, Korey Elkins as Erika's brother, Patricia Moore as Erika's mother, and Ari Coleman as Erika's father.” The Mandler Story The Mandlers' past and the Holocaust was so horrific that the Mandlers did not speak openly about it until 1980. Little by little, Dr. George Mandler began revealing their trials; and Erika, to this day, makes a passionate effort to tell her story - to people of all ages - as the number of Holocaust survivors quickly dwindles. Some government sources say that Holocaust survivors are dying at a rate of approximately 10 percent a year. “This story has to be told and never be forgotten,” Erika told the Constitution-Tribune six years ago. “It has to be told for the six million innocent people who were executed. It has to be told for my own mother and father. They can't speak for themselves. I survived to speak for them.” Rule says the drama will be another medium through which to tell the story. “This is a slice of culture that will be gone shortly,” Rule said. Rule's play is based on many hours she spent talking with Erika and reading “Czech Escape,” a book written in 2002 by John Irvin of Chillicothe, a friend of the Mandlers. She also enlisted the help of former CHS Drama Coach Kathy Breeden, former English teacher Rose Lee Davis and current faculty to provide critiques. Erika was born in Vienna, Austria, and enjoyed a normal happy childhood for 15 years. However, all that changed in March 1938 when the German Army marched into Austria without resistance. Erika's family feared this was the beginning of the end for their people. Searching for safety, Erika's parents moved to Czechoslovakia. The plan was for Erika and her brother, Kurt, to join them at the end of the school term. But, conditions in Vienna quickly worsened and Erika and her brother escaped to join their parents. In Czechoslovakia, Erika married a dentist, Eric. It wasn't long before a message came ordering Eric to be at the train station the next morning with a bag packed for relocation. They speculated and prayed that he would be away for only a short time and then would return. Erika waited for weeks and weeks but she never saw Eric again. She later learned that the train went straight to Auschwitz where he had been killed. Erika had no place to go but back to her family. But, there was no stability with her family. At this time, persecution was intensifying and many Jews were being transported by cattle car to Auschwitz, an extermination camp and what later became known as the largest graveyard in human history with an estimated 1.6 million Jews killed there. In March 1942, Erika, her brother, Kurt, and her parents were informed that they were to go to the work camp and would be there for the duration of the war. They were to be transferred that day and be allowed to take what clothing they could carry in one large bag or suitcase. There was no alternative. They had to go. They went to a Jewish concentration camp in Novaky, Slovakia. The camp was made up of various manufacturing departments. George Mandler was a Czechoslovakian doctor, one of three doctors at the camp taking care of 1,600 prisoners. After the family's first 24 hours, they were all ordered to the clinic for medical examinations. Erika, as fate would have it, was told to go to Dr. George Mandler's office. A relationship ensued - a relationship that would save her life as Erika and her family were among 300 people to be relocated to Auschwitz. Mandler convinced officers to let Erika stay. Erika, however, would not leave her family so Mandler asked for them to stay as well. The family was already down at the train station in the carriage car, but Mandler got her parents and brother out. Tragically though, Erika later learned, that moment would be the last time that she would ever see her parents. Her parents went into hiding with a local family, but were later turned in for reward money and sent to different camps. Her mother died of starvation while at the camp and her father died of starvation just a few days after his camp was liberated. |
CAPTION:
Chillicothe High School Drama Teacher Lisa Rule, left, visits with Erika Mandler, of Chillicothe, who survived the Holocaust through the efforts of George Mandler, one of three doctors taking care of 1,600 prisoners who were sent to a concentration camp in Novaky, Slovakia during World War II. Here, Rule is looking at a prayer book which belonged George's father. The book was rescued by a Christian housekeeper just before the Nazis ransacked their home. The powerful story of George and Erika Mandler will be performed on stage this April in the form of a play written by Rule. George and Erika moved to Chillicothe in 1951.