ABSTRACT
The holocaust and the Palestinian dispute are two problematic issues at the centre of Israeli consciousness, as well as central themes in Hebrew Israeli culture and theatre. In recent years Hebrew culture has seen a link forged between these two subjects, including several plays staged in the theatre. This link has received particular emphasis in an unusual performance that has been running since 1991 at the Akko Theatre Centre, and which will be dealt with in the second part of this chapter. The performance — Arbeit Macht Frei in Toitland Europa — is about holocaust memories and their place in Israeli reality. Its materials are the collective biographies of the actors and the audience, most of whom comprise second generation holocaust survivors. The production is an unusual theatrical phenomenon, whose success lies in its complex and chilling text, in its actors’ commitment (the extent of which would be hard to find in the professional theatre), and particularly in the frankness that only a non-establishment theatre can afford in the confusing link between two Israeli national traumas — the past burden of holocaust memories and the ongoing burden of the conflict with the Palestinians.
