The Continued Relevance of Telling Holocaust Stories

Holocaust education has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Being raised Jewish and as a member of an immigrant family, I had heard stories about my paternal grandparents who fled Russia during the pogroms. Because they crossed the ocean and came to America when they did, no one in my lineage was in a concentration camp. In Hebrew School, we performed The Diary of Anne Frank, and I played Anne’s older sister, Margot. 

I had not heard about “hidden children,” those who had to go undercover and take on a non-Jewish identity for survival, until I was in my teens. Hidden: The Musical tells one such story, that of Ruth Kapp Hartz, Holocaust educator and the author of Your Name Is Renée. Written by Jenny and David Heitler-Klevans, the play is based on Ruth’s true story. As a young Jewish girl, Ruth was hidden in Southern France during World War II. Forced to change her name to Renée Caper in order to blend in, Ruth and her family relied on the kindness of strangers in a small French village.

I had the chance to interview the musical’s composers to learn about their inspirations and hopes for the show.

Edie Weinstein (EW): What drew you to Ruth Hartz’ story?

David: We were both moved by the story itself, which felt different from many other Holocaust-related stories, as it emphasizes rescuers, allies, resistance, resilience, and hope. We also felt that Ruth’s story resonated with so many things that were, and are, going on right now: the rise in antisemitism (Charlottesville, the Tree of Life shooting), xenophobia (Muslim ban, children in cages, border wall), racism (deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, etc.), anti-LGBTQ+, and fascist leaders around the world and in the United States.

EW: How did you meet Ruth Hartz? 

David: Ruth and my mother became friends first, bonding over their experiences as French teachers. Ruth gave my mother her book Your Name is Renée to give to our family. 

Jenny: I eventually read the book and was very moved by her story. I knew a lot about the Holocaust, but I didn’t know much about what happened in France in regard to the hidden children. I could immediately picture this story as a musical, so I proposed the idea to David. 

David: In 2019, we reached out to Ruth to ask if the musical would be okay with her.  Not only was she enthusiastic and supportive about the idea, she also said, “You need to come to France and meet the descendants of my rescuers and visit the places that are important in my story. And you need a translator, and it shouldn’t be your mother, David, it should be me!” So, off we went to France in August of 2019, met up with Ruth. We interviewed various people in the Fedou family, the ones Ruth stayed with in France, as well as Lucette, a 94-year-old who was a teenager when Ruth was hidden by her parents, The whole family was incredibly welcoming, friendly, and giving. It was clear that this was a family that had taught each successive generation to be “the helpers” that Mr. Rogers urged us to look for in difficult times. Just as hatred has to be “carefully taught,” so does doing the right thing, and this was obviously a family that had done just that. It was such an honor to meet them.

Jenny: That visit had a huge impact on our writing and framing of the musical.

EW: Is there a Holocaust history in your families?

Jenny: My great aunt Irene was a Holocaust survivor. My grandfather escaped from Poland around the time of WWI and made his way to the U.S. He brought over a brother and sister before WWII; however, his parents and younger siblings were still in Poland. They all ended up in the Warsaw ghetto and most of them were killed in Auschwitz. Irene escaped from the Warsaw ghetto by pretending to be a cleaning lady. She hid for the rest of the war. My grandfather found her in Paris after the war and brought her to the U.S.

EW: As you were creating the musical, did you find yourselves on an emotional roller coaster ride?

David: Absolutely!  We were constantly moved and inspired by Ruth’s story.  I remember when I first heard Jenny’s start on songs like “We Will Be Free” and “I Do it Out of Love,” I was immediately moved to tears.  There were times when I cried just writing or reading a part of the script.

Jenny: Sometimes, at its core, I think of this as a mother-daughter story. As a mother myself I can’t imagine having to send my child away. I definitely shed tears when I was writing the song “I Do it Out of Love.” 

EW: What was the creative process that was involved in writing the script and composing the music?

Jenny: One of the things that I love about working with David is that we can have really deep discussions. We spent a lot of time talking about the story and what approach we would take and how we would frame it. When the lockdown started, we had more time, so we began writing songs.

David: A silver lining of the pandemic!

Jenny: The first song I wrote was “Little Bird,” because I was staring out my window looking at the birds being free to fly around wherever they wanted while we were stuck in our houses. I’m not saying that the lockdown was in any way the same as what Ruth experienced, but it gave me a small taste of being confined. 

David: We both contributed to the music as well as the lyrics. Usually, one or the other of us would start working on a song and bring the other one in on the process later on. Sometimes if one of us got stuck on something in a song, the other one would try to solve the issue. Jenny did most of the 1st draft of the script, and then we worked on it a lot together.

Jenny: We also went on two self-funded writing retreats. We would go somewhere for a week and just write and hike and talk through things. It was so helpful to get away from all the obligations of everyday life and just focus on the show.

David: Those two weeks were extremely productive times. We workshopped a lot of the songs with songwriting groups like the Philadelphia Area Songwriters Alliance (PASA) and the Philly Songwriters Circle and got lots of useful feedback that way. We had a staged concert reading of the show in May 2023, and the process leading up to that also helped shape the show significantly.

Jenny: We got a lot of feedback from the directors and actors, so we changed things along the way. After the staged reading, we started working with a dramaturg to help us with the script. Rick Sperling is a longtime friend and accomplished writer/director/actor/producer. He helped us so much, especially with fleshing out each character and improving the dialogue and flow of the show. We learn something each time we work with new people.

EW: Were you in awe of the resilience and fortitude that it took for the Kapp family to survive and for the rescuers who kept them safe?

David: Definitely! One thing that is in common between so many of the stories from the Holocaust is that they challenge us with questions like “What would I do if…?” That is one of the many ways that this story is so relevant. We have to be prepared to do the right thing when moral challenges come our way, if we want to act in ways that reflect our values and that we can be proud of later on.

Jenny: It’s an amazing story and that’s the reason I was drawn to it in the first place. Ruth said her father had an uncanny intuition for knowing who to trust. When we met the descendants of the Fedou family, including Lucette (who has since passed away), they were some of the nicest and most welcoming people we’ve ever met. We could see why Ruth’s father trusted them.

EW: It became obvious as I sat in the theater that this was not just Ruth’s story that took place in the 1940s but a frightening mirror of what is occurring in our own country and the world as a whole today. How did you weave that into the script?

Jenny: It was important for us, in trying to adapt this story to the stage, that we make connections with what is now happening in our country and around the world. We see the rise of antisemitism and fascism, which directly connect to the story, but we also see racism, trans- and homophobia, and xenophobia, too.. The power of theater is that a very specific story can touch you and make you see how it is connected to your own story. I think everyone can understand the idea of identity and whether one feels comfortable sharing their identity with the world or whether they feel the need to hide parts of themselves.

David: We don’t view this musical as just being for Jews, and it isn’t only about antisemitism and the Holocaust. We make overt connections to recent events at the beginning and end of the show, which are set in the present day, and there is also a running subtext of those connections throughout the rest of the show that is set during World War II. It was very interesting and rewarding to find that when we brought individual songs out of context to Songwriting Critique groups, people often picked up on multiple possible interpretations or applications of those songs, which was exactly what we intended. For instance the title song “Hidden,” which in the context of the show is specifically about having to hide one’s Jewish identity from the Nazis and French collaborators, can also connect with many other people who have to hide today, such as undocumented immigrants or LGBTQ+ people. The song “I Do it Out of Love,” sung by Renée’s mother just after making the painful decision to send Renée off to a Catholic orphanage in order to (hopefully) save her from the Nazis, can also relate to other heartbreaking stories of parents sending their children away in Ukraine, or at the U.S. southern border.

EW: Is there any emotional processing going on with the cast and crew? This is such a deeply traumatizing experience that they are all portraying. 

Jenny: That is an interesting question, and we don’t totally know. Ruth visited the cast during the rehearsal process, and we had a Q&A with her. We know that the director, producer, and members of the cast who were in our staged reading are caring, kind, and knowledgeable people. We are really proud of the cast in that they have risen to the occasion, and I think they realize this is no ordinary show, especially because the show’s subject was in the audience.

EW: What would you like the takeaway to be for those who see the musical?

David: We hope that our musical will inspire people to do what they can to stand up to injustice of all kinds, and to do what they can to help people in need. In particular, we hope that it will motivate people to fight against antisemitism, racism, xenophobia, hatred of LGBTQ+ people, and fascist or authoritarian leaders.

Hidden: The Musical performs through September 22 at Weisbein Theater at Gratz College in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

Official website: https://hiddenthemusical.com/

Ticket Link: https://our.show/hidden