It’s one of the biggest challenges facing Holocaust educators. Most survivors have died, and those who remain cannot visit the number of classrooms they did when they were younger.
Hearing a firsthand experience is really different from watching a video interview or reading about human tragedy in a book, according to Sabrina Darby, a volunteer with the Tulsa-based Council for Holocaust Education.
So rather than following tradition by bringing in a scholarly speaker to commemorate the explosion of antisemitic violence during Kristallnacht, the council decided to produce a staged reading of the 1938 novel “Address Unknown.”
“I think this is the next best thing, in a way, to having that survivor standing in front of you and telling you the story, because while this is fictional, it could have happened,” said Darby, who is pulling from her background in theater management to lead the production. “It removes that kind of wall we put up sometimes when we are interacting with historical information.”
The short book is made up entirely of letters between fictional business partners Max and Martin, both German immigrants to the United States. When Martin returns to Germany and Max stays behind to run their art gallery, the distinctions between them are thrown into harsh relief. Max is Jewish, and Martin’s enthusiasm for Hitler — and his willingness to overlook growing abuses against Jews — tears their worlds apart.
How to attend
The free program featuring the reading of “Address Unknown” is set for 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8, at Congregation B’nai Emunah, 1719 S. Owasso Ave. Members of the public are invited to join. Registration is required here.
Tulsa actors Tom Berenson and Kurt Harris will play Max and Martin on Nov. 8, a day before the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht. During “The Night of Broken Glass,” Nazi leaders coordinated attacks against Jewish homes, businesses and places of worship — a prelude to the terror that was to come during the Holocaust.
Longtime council volunteer Janet Dundee tapped Darby, her daughter, to bring the novel to life. Hank Knight, a former University of Tulsa professor and Holocaust studies expert, will be on hand Sunday afternoon to lead a talkback with audience members.
“This is a little bit challenging for the audience to involve themselves rather than to be only receiving information,” Dundee said. “They obviously do, because in theater performance you receive information from the actors and what’s happening in the play, but this requires more activity between the audience and the staged reading.”
Part of the council’s mission is to put books and curriculum into the hands of local educators who want to teach about the Holocaust but lack the resources or time to develop materials for their classrooms.
Christina Henson, an Advanced Placement world history teacher at Jenks High School who teaches a class on the Holocaust, developed discussion questions for “Address Unknown” as part of her work with the council.
Educators — and adults interested in bringing the novel to book clubs — can borrow up to 50 copies by contacting Henson at christina.henson@jenksps.org.
While a 2022 Oklahoma law requires Holocaust education in secondary schools, teachers typically have a single day to talk about this massive historical event, Henson said.
“The Holocaust is three lines in our AP world history textbook,” she said. “Our hope is that we can bring these resources so that people have more opportunity to be exposed and to dig deeper.”
Henson doesn’t have to convince her students that “Address Unknown” is relevant to their lives. As they’ve read the book, students have considered the choice put before Martin and Max: Accept that your friend has viewpoints that are utterly opposed to yours or end the relationship. It’s a “very tough, timely discussion,” Henson said.
Hearing the letters read aloud likely will spark more reactions for audience members, Darby said.
“This is a little bit more raw. It’s a little bit more real in a way, so I think it’ll definitely give people pause,” Darby said. “There’s definitely several moments in the letters where it’s probably going to get a little uncomfortable for people.”
Dundee wants to keep expanding the council’s programming, which includes an annual essay contest and interfaith work.
Her dream is to find funding to support a touring show that would take Holocaust stories to students across Oklahoma, much like a production her daughter was part of in the early 2000s. She knows the need for educational support goes beyond Tulsa.
“There’s so many small towns, and these people, they can’t travel; they don’t have the funding and so on. But if we could travel to them, we could do something like this,” Dundee said.
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