ACT I

    Scene 1

ELIE
(From Offstage)
Everybody had called him Moishe the Beadle (MOISHE enters from SR), as if he had never had a last name. The Jews of Sighet in my little town in Transylvania had been very fond of him. (TOWNSPEOPLE walk around and behind MOISHE) Moishe had stayed out of people’s way, and had rendered himself invisible to everybody.

(Light shines on MOISHE)

ELIE
Moishe had a physical appearance that was as awkward as a clown, but his shyness had made people smile when they saw it. I enjoyed his dreamy eyes gazing into the distance, since they had inspired me to dream big. He rarely spoke, but instead, he had sung, or more like chanted.

(Enter ELIE)

ELIE
I had met Moishe the Beadle in the year of 1941. (Pause speech) My name is Eliezer Wiesel, but I prefer to go by Elie. I was almost 13 years old, and very observant. In the mornings, I would study the Talmud, (ELIE is watching YOUNG ELIE cry at the synagogue) but by night I would run to the synagogue and weep over the destruction of the Temple.

  Scene 2

(Setting changes to the Wiesel household)

YOUNG ELIE
Father! Father!

SHLOMO
What do you want Eliezer?

YOUNG ELIE
Father, can you find me a master who can guide me in the studies of Kabbalah?

SHLOMO
You are too young for that. One must be thirty before traveling into the world of mysticism as the Maimonides tell us.

(The scene freezes and ELIE walks on stage)

ELIE
My father was always a cultured man, and was more unsentimental than a person should be. He rarely showed his actual feelings to his family, and cared more about the welfare of the community rather than his own children. I was one of four children in my family. First we have Hilda, the first born child. (Spotlight on HILDA) Next we have Bea, the second born and my second sister. (Spotlight on BEA) Then comes me, the only son and the second youngest. (Spotlight on YOUNG ELIE) Finally, you have my younger sister Tzipora. (Spotlight on TZIPORA) Hilda and Bea had helped my parents run their shop, while my place was the house of study, or so they thought.

(ELIE leaves stage and scene unfreezes)

SHLOMO
There are no Kabbalists in the Sighet Eliezer.

YOUNG ELIE
Then I will find one to teach me myself.

ELIE
(Offstage)
This was later found to be right, since I ended up finding Moishe the Beadle be my master.

  Scene 3

(Time skip to dusk)

MOISHE THE BEADLE
Why do you pray Eliezer?

YOUNG ELIE
Why do I pray? That is like asking why do I breathe or why do I live. But all the less I do not know why I pray. Why do you pray Moishe?

MOISHE THE BEADLE
I pray to the God within my for strength and to ask him the real questions. That is why I pray Eliezer.

ELIE
(Offstage)
Almost every evening that we had talked had gone the exact same way, and we had remained in the synagogue where only a few half-burnt candles had provided us with a flickering light.

  Scene 4

ELIE
(Offstage)
Soon enough, all of the foreign Jews were expelled from Sighet, which meant that Moishe the Beadle would be forced to leave.

FOREIGN JEWS
(Being forced onto train)
Please don’t make us leave! We did nothing wrong!

TOWNSPERSON
(Standing behind YOUNG ELIE)
What do you expect? That’s war …

ELIE
(Offstage)
The deportees were quickly forgotten about, and after months had passed, life in our little town had returned to normal.(MOISHE THE BEADLE, ELIE, and TOWNSFOLK pantomime)Moishe had later returned to warn us of the upcoming events, but everybody thought that he had gone mad.

  Scene 5

ELIE
(Offstage)
It had turned to spring of the year 1944 when we had received news from the Russian front that Germany would be defeated.

TOWNSPERSON 1                   TOWNSPERSON 2
        The Red Army is          Hitler will not be able to harm
advancing with                      us, even if
giant strides …                      he wants to …

YOUNG ELIE
Father! Please sell everything that you can and leave with me! We can be safe if we just leave this town.

SHLOMO
I am too old, my son. Too old to start a new life and too old to start from scratch in some distant land. We will be fine for now.

ELIE
(Offstage)
In less than three days, the German Army vehicles has first appeared on our streets. The Germans were in out town, and the Fascists were in power, but the Jews of Sighet were still smiling.

  Scene 6

ELIE
The weather was beautiful and my mother was busy working in the kitchen on one of the 8 days of Passover. The synagogues were not open anymore, so people had gathered in private homes to not anger the Germans. Unluckily, on the 7th day of Passover, the Germans had arrested the leaders of the Jewish community.

MOISHE
(Running over to Wiesel household)
I warned you!

HUNGARIAN POLICE
You are forbidden to own gold, jewelry, or any valuables. Anything stated has to be handed over to the authorities for holding.

ELIE
(Offstage)
A few days later, all of the Jews in our community were forced to wear the yellow star.

SHLOMO
The yellow star? So what? It’s not lethal. What harm could possibly come from this yellow star?

Scene 7

ELIE
Two ghettos were later built in Sight, and the street that my family had lived on was in the first ghetto. Many people felt like this was a good thing, but there were still unpleasant moments.

TOWNSPERSON
Everything is going to be fine. We are among our fellow brothers and sisters. We do not have to live in fear anymore.
ELIE
(Offstage)
(Pantomime with TOWNSFOLK while ELIE talks)
This had continued on until the news of getting transported had arrived, which caused everybody to just go to bed and wait for the moment that we were moved from our town.

Scene 8

ELIE
(Offstage)
Saturday had finally arrived, which meant that it was the day of our expulsion. The Hungarian Police had forced into train cars, where there was 80 people stuffed into one car. Once we had finished loading the cars, we were headed off to our unknown destination.
(While ELIE is speaking, pantomime of YOUNG ELIE,SHLOMO and TOWNSFOLK getting forced into car.)

Scene 9

ELIE
(Offstage)
On the train, there was a woman named Madame Schächter, who was in her fifties and traveling with her 10 year old son. Her husband and older sons had been transported separately by mistake, but the separation had shattered. Her Madame Schächter had lost her mind and began to moan on the first day. On the third day though, her cry broke the silence.

MADAME SCHÄCHTER
Fire! I see a fire! I see a fire!
(EVERYBODY is panicking because of the screaming)

LITTLE BOY
Mother! It's nothing, Mother! There's nothing there so please… Please sit down…

ELIE
(Offstage)
This had repeated for hours upon end until we had arrived at Auschwitz

Scene 10

ELLE
(Offstage)
The train never did move again one we arrived at Auschwitz, and it was the beginning of a horrible time in my life.

TWO MEN
This is your final destination, so please leave the train immediately.

MADAME SCHÄCHTER
Look at the fire! Look at the flames! Over there!

ELIE
(Offstage)
We had believed her for an instant, but nothing ended up being outside. Later on, we would find out she was telling the truth.

(Time skip to later that day/next day)

SS MAN
Men to the left! Woman to the right!

ELIE
(Offstage)
We had quickly moved to where we were told to go, but I later realized that this would be the last time that I would ever see my mother or Tzipora again.
(MOTHER and TZIPORA walk to SR while ELIE AND SHLOMO walk to SL)
I would also run into the Angel of Death or Dr. Mengele on this dramatic experience.
(SHLOMO and ELIE walk past DR. MENGELE with PRISONERS)

Scene 11

STEIN
Who among you is Wiesel from Sighet

SHLOMO
That's me. Wiesel from Sighet.

STEIN
(Squints at SHLOMO)
You don’t know me? … You don’t recognize me. I’m your relative, Stein. Already forgotten? Stein. Stein from Antwerp. Reizel’s husband. Your wife was Reizel’s aunt … She often wrote to us … and such letters!

ELIE
(Offstage)
My father had not known who Stein was when we had met him in Auschwitz, but at least it was nice out have someone that you are related to in there with you, but we never ended up seeing him again.

(Setting changes to cots)

AKIBA DRUMER
God is testing us. He wants to see whether we are capable of overcoming our base instincts, of killing the Satan within ourselves. We have no right to despair. And if He punishes us mercilessly, it is a sign that He loves us that much more.

ELIE
(Offstage)
Akiba would always speak of God, and so did many men, but it isn’t a matter of hearing what they say, it’s a matter of believing what they say.

Scene 12

BLOCK SECRETARY
A-7713?
YOUNG ELIE
That’s me.
BLOCK SECRETARY
After your meal, you’ll go to see the dentist.
YOUNG ELIE
But … I don’t have a toothache …
BLOCK SECRETARY
After your meal. Without fail.
ELIE
(OFFSTAGE)
I ending up going to the infirmary block, and about twenty prisoners were waiting in line at the entrance. It didn’t take any of us in line to figure out the reason that we were called to the dentist; they wanted to remove our gold crowns. I kept postponing my extraction until the doctor had been fired for stealing the crowns for his own needs.

Scene 13

ELIE
(Offstage)
Plenty of years later, in Paris, I had decided to sit in the Métro and ended up reading my newspaper. Across the aisle, a beautiful woman with dark hair and dreamy eyes was sitting. (ELIE walks on stage)

ELIE
Madame, don’t you recognize me?
WOMAN
I don’t know you, sir.
ELIE
In 1944, you were in Poland, in Buna, weren’t you?
WOMAN
Yes, but …
ELIE
You worked in a depot, a warehouse for electrical parts …
WOMAN
Yes (Pause)
Wait … I do remember … Idek, the Kapo … the young Jewish boy … your sweet words … (ELIE and WOMAN leave Metro and sit on Cafe terrace)
ELIE
May I ask one more question?
WOMAN
I know what it is: Am I Jewish … ? Yes, I am. From an observant family. During the Occupation, I had false papers and passed as Aryan. And that was how I was assigned to a forced labor unit. When they deported me to Germany, I eluded being sent to a concentration camp. At the depot, nobody knew that I spoke German; it would have aroused suspicion. It was imprudent of me to say those few words to you, but I knew that you would not betray me
(BLACKOUT)

ELIE
(Onstage)
That was one of the best days of my life, since I had found the one person who gave me hope during our dark times at Auschwitz.

(Curtain falls)

ACT II

   Scene 1

(Curtain rises)

MAN
Look at the little officer, teaching the old man to march … Hey, little general, how many rations of bread does the old man give you for this?

ELIE
(Offstage)
My father did not make sufficient progress during the time that I was trying to help train him.

MAN
So! You still don’t know how to march in step, you old good-for-nothing?

ELIE
(Offstage)
This barrage went on for two weeks, so we had to give in.

FRANEK
I knew it, I knew that I would win, kid. Better late than never. And because you made me wait, it will also cost you a ration of bread. A ration of bread for one of my pals, a famous dentist from Warsaw. To pay him for pulling out your crown.

YOUNG ELIE
What? My ration of bread so that you can have my crown?

FRANEK
What would you like? That I break your teeth by smashing your face?

ELIE
(Offstage)
That evening, the dentist from Warsaw pulled my crown using a rusty spoon. From time to time, Franek even gave me extra soup. But it didn’t last long, since two weeks later, all the Poles were transferred to another camp. Which meant that I had lost my crown for nothing. A few days before the Poles had left,I had seen something that I wasn’t supposed to see. I had seen Idek, our kapo with a naked girl and burst out laughing.

IDEK
A-7713
(ELIE steps forward)
IDEK CONT.
A crate!
(PERSON brought a crate)
Lie down on it! On your belly!
(ELIE lies down)
One! … Two! …
(ELIE gets whipped while IDEK counts)
Ten … eleven! …
Twenty-three …
Twenty-four …
twenty-five!

ELIE
(Offstage)
I wish that I could go back in time and change the events of time so then I did not end up laughing at Idek since that was one of the most painful times in my life.

Scene 2

(Time skip to the March)

ELIE
(Offstage)
After plenty of months had passed, we were forced to march from Auschwitz to Buchenwald in the freezing cold while it was snowing.

SHLOMO
Don’t let yourself be overcome by sleep, Eliezer. It’s dangerous to fall asleep in snow. One falls asleep forever. Come, my son, come … Get up.

YOUNG ELIE
(Time freeze for inner monologue)
Get up? How could I? How was I to leave this warm blanket?

SHLOMO
Come, my son, come …

ELIE
(Offstage)
Luckily, I had listened to my father and got up, but we had continued to march until we had gotten to Buchenwald. Many people had died on the way there, and only 12 out of 100 people were left on the cart, but my father and I both survived the horrendous journey.

Scene 3

ELIE
(Offstage)
Since I traded a ration of bread, I was able to get a cot that was next to my father. The doctor had arrived in the afternoon, so I went to tell him that my father was very ill.

YOUNG ELIE
Bring him here! My father can not stand up to come to you, so you must come with me since my father is ill

DOCTOR
What do you want?

YOUNG ELIE
My father is sick, … Dysentery …

DOCTOR
That’s not my business. I’m a surgeon. Go on. Make room for the others!

SHLOMO
I can’t go on, my son … Take me back to my bunk.

YOUNG ELIE
Try to get some sleep, Father. Try to fall asleep …

(Blackout)

ELIE
(Offstage)
My father was eventually taken away on January 28, 1945, and was most likely taken to the crematorium. The next day, a different sick person had taken my dad’s bunk. I had then assumed that my dad was dead, just like the rest of my family.

Scene 4

ELIE
(Offstage)
I had stayed in Buchenwald until April 11, but nothing mattered to me anymore. Nothing has mattered to me since the death of my father.

(Pantomime of what is being described happening)

ELIE CONT.
(Offstage)
On the 10th of April, there were still about twenty thousand prisoners remaining in the camp, among them almost one hundred children. It had been decided to evacuate all of the prisoners at once and done by the evening. Afterward, they had decided that they would blow up the camp. Finally, at six o’clock that afternoon, the first American tank stood at the gates of Buchenwald.

ELIE
(Onstage)
Three days after the liberation of Buchenwald, I became very ill from some form of poisoning. (Show YOUNG ELIE in hospital) I had been transferred to a hospital and spent two weeks between bouncing between life and death. On one day when I was actually able to stand up, I had decided to look at myself in the mirror that was placed on the wall across from me. I had not seen myself since the I had been put into the ghetto and from the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.
(Curtain falls)