My Big News—“Surviving Hitler” is now a Play!
It’s been a fascinating experience seeing my book “Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps come to life on the stage. This is the first time I’ve written a play and I gave it the simple title Surviving Hitler. The White Theatre at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City produced it in April 2022. All five productions had sold-out audiences. They clapped and cheered and were on their feet. What a thrill for the cast and for me!
In spite of its difficult subject matter, Surviving Hitler is suitable for all ages. We had several elderly Holocaust survivors who came to see it, and I visited with a number of children who were there, including a nine-year-old who came three times because he liked it so much. As with the book, young people identified with Jack and what he was going through. One adult told me, “I was on the edge of my seating waiting to find out what would happen to Jack and his family. Everyone should see this play.” Several commented that it was heart-rending, entertaining, poignant, and even funny at times.
I very much hope that in addition to community theaters and other theatrical groups, Surviving Hitler will find a home in schools. It’s scheduled for a middle school performance in a few months—hopefully the first of many. If you’d like to know more about it, just click on “The Play” link above. If you know an organization that would be interested in producing Surviving Hitler, please email me at [email protected]. I look forward to visiting with you.
Interested in a Signed Book?
In addition to zooming with schools and other organizations (and in-person visits whenever that is possible) I’m pleased to autograph and mail books to you. Just let me know what book or books you want and any particulars about the inscription, and I’ll let you know the cost, including postage. If you’re interested in “Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps,” I’ll include for free a copy of the author’s guide I published about this book. That’s a two-for-one for you! You can reach me by email at [email protected]. Thank you!
Rest in Peace, Norman Mineta
Working with Norm on the book at his home in Maryland
Norman Mineta, the subject of my book “Enemy Child,” died in May of 2022. He was 90 and suffered from a heart ailment. Norm was memorialized in major newspapers and on television news programs around the world. I think he would have been especially pleased with the ceremony in his honor during the annual pilgrimage at Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, on the site of the Japanese-American internment camp in Wyoming where the Mineta family was imprisoned during World War II. Norm was revered by the Japanese American community, and he will be tenderly missed.
While working on the book, I was fortunate to spend four days at his home interviewing him. It was the first time Norm had cooperated with an author in telling his life story, and he referred to me as his biographer. I will always feel honored that he allowed me to write “Enemy Child” about him. I’ll remember him as a gentle, introspective man who devoted himself to righting injustices and looking out for the marginalized in our society. In spite of what his country did to him and his family, he always championed American democracy.