Author Description

Describes Terezín during the period of the Nazi regime, often presented as a pastoral, ideal ghetto, but in fact a transit camp in the service of the Final Solution. Relates in detail the story of the production of a play which was composed and performed in the ghetto, reflecting the condition of life there with symbolic sharpness. The manuscript of the play, which had no title, was discovered decades after the Holocaust, as was the only survivor of the ensemble, Paavo Krohnen, thus enabling reconstruction of the play and events surrounding it. Krohnen was cast in the role of "Death", who resigned from his official function and, as a consequence, people became immortal and were transferred into an unbearable state of suspense, floating between light and obscurity. The play reflects a constant transition between reality and its reproduction in performance. It aroused the awareness of the population in the ghetto to their true situation and led to a revolt, which was suppressed; the theatrical group was liquidated and deported. The book is written in the form of a dialogue between Mann and Krohnen, who reconstruct together the content and context of the play.