Tale Of Children Displaced By Nazis Comes To Westfield

WESTFIELD, NJ - While every student in America learns about World War II, not many people remember the Kindertransport. Not many know that in 1938, as the Nazi rise to power began to spell a darker and darker fate for Jews, thousands of Jewish children from Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Austria left their homes on the Kindertransport and went to live in England in order to survive the war.

On Tuesday, ArtsPower National Touring Theatre’s production of My Heart in a Suitcase, based on the autobiography written by Kindertransport survivor Anne Lehmann Fox, will be presented at Thomas Edison Intermediate School at 9 a.m. and Roosevelt Intermediate School at 1:30 p.m.

The production features a cast of four professional actors who will perform in Westfield as part of their 10-week tour that will take them to regional theatres, cultural centers, and schools in nine states and Canada. ArtsPower received a grant from the Westfield Foundation to support the presentation of both performances.

In 1938 and 1939, 10,000 Jewish children living in Nazi occupied countries were permitted to leave their homes, via the Kindertransport, to find safe haven in England just prior to the outbreak of World War II. They were forced to leave behind their parents, their homes, and everything they knew and loved; most of them would never see their mothers and fathers again.

Author Anne Lehmann Fox was one of those 10,000 children. She left on the Kindertransport in December of 1938, when she was just 12 years old. Years later, she would record her experiences in the book entitled, My Heart in a Suitcase.

In 2005, ArtsPower National Touring Theatre decided to produce Ms. Fox’s moving
autobiography as a one-hour, professional touring theatre production for young and family audiences. The show has presented more than 1,300 performances in theatres, cultural centers, university auditoriums, and schools for almost one million people throughout 45 states.

“We wanted to create a production that portrays the strength of the human spirit, because in order for Anne Lehman Fox to forge a productive and fulfilling life, she had to survive the unthinkable tragedy of leaving her parents, who were eventually captured and killed in concentration camps, when she was only 12 years old,” said Mark Blackman, the founding co-director of ArtsPower.

Gary Blackman, ArtsPower’s other founding co-director and Mark’s identical twin, added, “By weaving an emotional bond with our audiences through the power of live theatre, we touch the hearts and minds of old and young alike and inspire them to learn and read more about the Holocaust. Our goal is to motivate our audiences not only to appreciate reading and the theatre, but also to love and respect all people.”

The performances are being funded by a grant from the Westfield Foundation.

Since 1975, the mission of the Westfield Foundation is to provide funding support in the arts, health, aging, historic preservation, social services and civic projects. The foundation focuses on four sectors:

• Education
• Health
• Social Services
• Arts

Mark and Gary Blackman founded ArtsPower in 1985 and have been steering its course ever since. ArtsPower has grown into one of America’s premiere producers of professional theatre for young and family audiences. Its 33 professional touring productions have been seen by more than 13.8 million people in 49 states in many of the nation’s top cultural centers, including The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and Lincoln Center in New York.

For more information about the Cedar Grove, New Jersey-based company or any of its
professional theatre productions, please call 973.239.0100 or visit ArtsPower’s website at www.artspower.org.

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