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A ‘Passover sweater’ made this Holocaust survivor a sensation. Now, a new play makes Helena Weinrauch’s story come alive.
(New York Jewish Week) — Holocaust survivor Helena Weinrauch survived imprisonment at three concentration camps and a forced death march. And yet the 99-year-old Manhattanite is, by all accounts, a force of nature. Time and again she has stared down unbelievable darkness. And yet she continues to exude a palpable joie de vivre.
In the immediate aftermath of World War II, while being nursed back to health in Sweden, which took in thousands of Jewish refugees, Weinrauch wrote a memoir, “A Will to Live.” Her aim was to remember things as they happened, and Weinrauch hoped that if she published the manuscript, her parents would come across it and find her.
The book was never published, and Weinrauch’s parents would never be found — her entire family was murdered by Nazis. But now, “A Will to Live” has been transformed into a one-woman play that premieres Thursday at the Chain Theatre on West 36th Street. Like the memoir, the play tells the story of Weinrauch’s years of survival: As a 20-year-old Weinrauch convalesces in a Swedish hospital, she recalls her experiences as a resilient teen who found herself alone in the world and determined to make it out alive.
“My story is not fiction,” Weinrauch wrote in a statement. “Unfortunately, this is my true story. I wrote it 61 years ago in German and Polish. Two years after I arrived in New York in 1949, I translated it into English. Two people read my story — one questioned the authenticity, the other wanted to know who wrote it. I was very hurt by their reaction and decided not to show it anymore. It remained dormant and unread because as the years passed, my outlook, mentality and perception changed. I would be tempted to correct mistakes, change style, phraseology etc. I was advised not to do it — all authenticity would be lost.”
Weinrauch’s story and personality have captivated many artists and writers over the years: She was among the survivors featured in “Reckonings,” a 2022 film about the complicated decision taken by Israel’s government to accept reparations from the German government in the early days of the state. She is also the subject of a 2015 documentary, “Fascination: Helena’s Story,” directed by Karen Goldfarb, a tale of how the then-octogenarian lived with the haunting shadows of her time in the concentration camps, and how she found joy in ballroom dancing.
Helena Weinrauch’s vivacity in the face of suffering has inspired many artists — including members of the knitting community, who were touched by Weinrauch’s tradition of wearing the same hand-knit blue sweater every Passover. (Karen Goldfarb)
Weinrauch took up ballroom dancing after her husband died in 2006 at 87. (The couple’s sole child, a daughter, had died of breast cancer the decade prior.) A 2019 New York Times profile describes the salvation she found in dancing: “When I dance, I forget what happened to me and it makes me feel for a few minutes or hours that I am happy,” Weinrauch told the paper. The article also quotes Steve Dane, who runs the Manhattan Ballroom Society, who describes Weinrauch as the society’s “Dancing Angel” who is “the last one off the dance floor.”
Weinrauch is also something of an icon in the knitting community. In 2019, Moment Magazine featured a story about the sweater she wears at every Passover seder — a brilliant blue top gifted to her by a friend who had been forced to knit sweaters for Nazis’ wives in order to survive in the Lodz Ghetto. The story about the sweater and her resilience garnered international attention.
It also inspired another project, Knitting Hope, “which aims to share the ways knitting or knitted objects helped women to resist, remember those they lost, and find renewal after the horrors of the Holocaust,” its founder, Tanya Singer, wrote in a New York Jewish Week piece about the project.
“Her story, and her telling of that story, is incredible — her recollections are so fresh,” Kirk Gostkowski, the artistic director of the Chain Theatre who adapted “A Will to Live” for the stage, told the New York Jewish Week. The memoir “was written so close to the war, there’s no room for interpretation.”
RELATED: Why this Holocaust survivor wears the same hand-knit sweater every Passover
Gostkowski said he had wanted to turn Weinrauch’s story into a play for years before the project came to fruition. The pandemic kept pushing the process back. Gostkowski believes it was for the best: The delays allowed him to work with Weinrauch more extensively on the adaptation. Being in her late 90s, she wasn’t able to attend rehearsals, making this initial collaboration all the more important.
“We spoke quite a bit at the beginning [of the adaptation process] about what was important for [Weinrauch] to keep in,” he said. “She wanted to make sure that this wasn’t sanitized, that the hard parts are there. I think we’ve really successfully done that. Really, anything we left out was omitted for length and to make it a play. These are all her words. My only job here is to be the steward of her story. She’s a brilliant writer.”
Weinrauch was born in Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1924, and was only 9 years old when the Nazi party came to power in 1933. As a girl, she loved to dance and to sing; in a 2016 interview with Lilith Magazine, Weinrauch said she could “pound out simple melodies on the piano” by the time she was 4 years old. Her mother was a pianist and Weinrauch dreamed of dancing and performing, but these dreams were cut short.
Weinrauch describes this period of her life as one of “sadness, suffering and loss.” She initially escaped the Nazis with the help of an employer who forged new identification documents for her. Soon, though, she was noticed by an old classmate who turned her in. Weinrauch was sent to a firing squad, but a Nazi soldier she’d danced with at a ball stopped her from being shot. “A bullet is too good for you,” he sneered, sending her to the camps for further torture. That decision would save her life.
Weinrauch would go on to be confined in three separate concentration camps, interrogated by the Gestapo and left for dead in the snow outside Bergen-Belsen, saved by a British soldier who happened to notice that her body was still warm.
The play, and its cast and crew, are deeply dedicated to portraying Weinrauch’s story with the utmost accuracy. “Huge sections of the play are taken right from the memoir, so I’m literally saying her words,” Masha King, who stars in the show as Weinrauch, told the New York Jewish Week. “There’s nothing fictionalized. Honestly, if she was young enough she could do this play herself.”
The play is structured, like the memoir, as a series of memories. “We transport the set through visual projection mapping and sound design, none of which could have been possible without Greg Russ and David Henderson, our sound and projection designers,” Gostrowski said. “Everybody’s very emotionally invested in the show.”
King and Gostkowski said everyone on the production team is on the same page about the vision for the play. “Rick [Hamilton, the director] and I spoke about doing this in a way that really honors the way it’s written,” Gostkowski said. “It feels like a friend telling you about the worst time of their life. There’s an intimacy with the way that Helena wrote, and the way Masha portrays that is outstanding.”
To King and Gostkowski, the play feels vital and important. The rise in global antisemitism has them both on edge — “It’s never really gone away, but it’s so prevalent right now,” Gostkowski said — but that’s not the only driving force.
“Anything that has to do with the Holocaust is always relevant,” said King, a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine who previously toured the country performing as Anne Frank in an educational adaptation of her diary. “It’s more than just a Jewish issue… We still face antisemitism, yes, but also anti-any-group-of-people. [Helena] is a child — she’s 16 when it happens. She doesn’t even talk about religion in her memoir, other than the fact that she was Jewish and that meant she could no longer live as a human being.”
“If you have an oppressive regime, it will oppress everyone,” King added, noting how gays, Romani people, people with disabilities and countless others were targets of Nazi hatred. “I welcome antisemites to come see the show. Please, come. If we could influence one person to think about the humanity of others, we’ve done a great job.”
Weinrauch herself concurs. “I hope that my story may bring hope and love into the lives of those who hear it,” she said.
“A Will to Live” will be performed at the Chain Theater (312 West 36th St.) through Sept. 16. For tickets and info, click here.
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Australia Cracks Down on Antisemitism Amid Unrelenting Surge in Hate Crimes Targeting Jewish Community
Car in New South Wales, Australia graffitied with antisemitic message. Photo: Screenshot
The government of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has introduced a proposal to criminalize specific protests outside places of worship in response to a recent wave of hate crimes targeting Jews in Australia.
“We have seen disgusting acts of racial hatred and antisemitism,” the NSW premier Chris Minns said in a statement outlining the proposed laws. “These are strong new laws, and they need to be because these attacks have to stop.”
Part of a broader set of measures, the reforms aim to address a recent wave of arson attacks and antisemitic vandalism across Australia over the past two months.
“These laws have been drafted in response to the horrifying antisemitic violence in our community, but it’s important to note that they will apply to anyone, preying on any person, of any religion,” Minns said.
The legislation also followed Israel’s call for the Australian government to take stronger measures against the “epidemic of antisemitism” that has swept across the country. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has maintained that his government is doing everything possible to combat attacks, including acts of domestic terrorism.
The attempted antisemitic terror attack at a synagogue in Sydney is intolerable. This joins a long list of antisemitic attacks in Australia, including setting fire to a childcare center in Sydney, firebombing a synagogue in Melbourne, and many other antisemitic attacks.
The…— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) January 29, 2025
On Sunday, the NSW Jewish Board said that in three weeks they had seen 10 publicly reported antisemitic incidents, primarily in the Sydney area, which included arson and vandalism — including property defaced with messages reading “f—k Jews.” The group said that number “doesn’t include the graffiti appearing in our streets on a daily basis or the abuse and harassment that goes unreported.”
Last month, Australian police said they foiled a potential mass-casualty antisemitic terrorist attack after discovering a caravan in a suburb of Sydney filled with explosives and material containing details about Jewish targets.
Under the new proposed laws, it would be an offense to block access to places of worship or harass, intimidate, or threaten people there, with a maximum penalty of two years in prison. The legislation gives the police heightened powers to enforce he law.
It would also become a crime to display a Nazi symbol near a synagogue, with a maximum two-year prison sentence, and the Graffiti Control Act would be amended to make graffiti on places of worship an aggravated offence.
These potential changes would come after two synagogues in Sydney were vandalized last month with swastikas, and an attempt was made to set one on fire.
Under the new legislation, sentencing could take into account whether an offense was “wholly” or “partially” driven by hatred or prejudice.
“The entire community will be safer as a direct result of these changes. The proposed changes will mean that divisive and hateful behaviors will not succeed in dividing our community,” said Michael Daley, the attorney general.
As authorities work to counter the alarming surge in anti-Jewish incidents, law enforcement has made several arrests across Australia.
On Wednesday, two 27-year-old men were arrested and charged for spray-painting antisemitic symbols and words on walls, bus stops, and signs in several Perth neighborhoods in western Australia.
“The Western Australia Police Force will not allow vile acts of hatred and racism to go unchecked,” a WA Police spokesperson said in a statement. “This swift outcome should send a clear message to anyone engaging in this kind of behavior. We will find you and you will be put before the courts to face the consequences of your actions.”
In Melbourne, a 68-year-old man has been charged with criminal damage, unlawful assault, and offensive graffiti after allegedly vandalizing a family home in a Jewish community and throwing bacon at a passerby who tried to intervene.
In Sydney, a woman was found guilty of sending a threatening message to a Jewish school just 11 days after Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. However, she has escaped conviction.
In the letter, the 21-year-old wrote: “You are the children of Satan … get cancer and die a slow, painful death.”
“Praise Hitler. If only he was here to continue the mass destruction of your bloodline,” the message continued.
Many observers have expressed outrage over the woman escaping conviction. The verdict came as Jewish students were reported to be hiding their school uniform logos and avoiding public transport, in the wake of rising antisemitic attacks on Jewish schools, daycare centers, and synagogues.
AUSTRALIA’S SHAME – ANTISEMITISM EMERGENCY
This pic is the front cover of the Wentworth Courier, the local paper for much of Sydney’s eastern suburbs which is home to much of the Jewish community in NSW.
“Jewish children under police watch” in order to attend school.… pic.twitter.com/L6Itct35L9
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) February 4, 2025
Last month, the NSW government also proposed a new law making it a criminal offense to intentionally incite racial hatred, with a maximum two-year prison sentence.
In their efforts to combat hate speech, this change would make inciting racial hatred a criminal offense, rather than just a civil one under the Anti-Discrimination Act.
The state government also announced an increase of $525,000 in funding for the NSW police engagement and hate crime unit, along with a $500,000 boost to a grants program for social cohesion.
The post Australia Cracks Down on Antisemitism Amid Unrelenting Surge in Hate Crimes Targeting Jewish Community first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pro-Trump Arab American Group Changes Name After US President Floats Controversial Gaza Plan
Then-US President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington, DC, US on Nov. 13, 2024. Photo: ALLISON ROBBERT/Pool via REUTERS
A prominent organization that sought to forge strong ties between US President Donald Trump and the Arab American community has changed its name in opposition to Trump’s proposal for the US to “take over” over Gaza.
On Wednesday, “Arab Americans for Trump” announced a rebrand to “Arab Americans for Peace,” criticizing the president for his failure to hold meetings with “key Arab leaders” and his support for removing “Palestinian inhabitants to other parts of the Arab world.”
“We strongly appreciate the president’s offer to clean and rebuild Gaza. However, the purpose should be to make Gaza habitable for Palestinians and no one else,” the group said in a press release explaining the name change.
The group explained that it supports a separate independent state for Palestinians encompassing Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, expressing disappointment that Trump has not attempted to carve out a “path to a permanent peace process.”
Bishara Bahbah, chairman of the group, told the Associated Press that the organization is “completely opposed” to Trump’s suggestion to transfer Gaza’s civilians out of the coastal enclave.
“The talk about what the president wants to do with Gaza, obviously we’re completely opposed to the idea of the transfer of Palestinians from anywhere in historic Palestine,” Bahbah said. “And so we did not want to be behind the curve in terms of pushing for peace, because that has been our objective from the very beginning.”
On Tuesday night, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was visiting the White House, held a press conference following their private meeting in the Oval Office. Trump asserted that the US would assume control of Gaza and develop it economically into “the Riviera of the Middle East” after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.”
Earlier in the day, Trump referred to Gaza as a “demolition site” and said its residents have “no alternative” but to leave, suggesting Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab states as possible relocation sites.
Trump performed remarkably well with Arab American voters in the 2024 presidential election. In the majority-Arab American city of Dearborn, Michigan, 42 percent of voters backed Trump, compared to 36 percent who supported Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Other Arab American leaders and organizations slammed Trump’s proposal to vacate Palestinians from Gaza.
Layla Elabed, the co-chair of the Uncommitted National Movement, said she was “sad, angry, and scared for our communities.”
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, called Trump’s comments “dangerous, provocative, illegal, and callously insensitive to Palestinian needs.”
Wa’el Alzayat, leader of EmgageUSA, an organization that advocates on behalf of Muslim Americans, rebuffed Trump’s proposal as a “violation of international law.”
The post Pro-Trump Arab American Group Changes Name After US President Floats Controversial Gaza Plan first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Liri Albag Celebrates 20th Birthday at Hospital With Other Hostages Released From Gaza
Liri Albag, center, standing from a balcony inside Israel’s Rabin Medical Center and watching an orchestra performance for her birthday alongside Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, and Naama Levy. Photo:
American Friends of Rabin Medical Center
Liri Albag, who was recently released from captivity in Gaza as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, celebrated her 20th birthday on Tuesday with other former hostages at Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah, Israel, where she is recovering after returning home 10 days earlier.
An orchestra came to the hospital to perform a small concert for Albag, who celebrated her previous birthday in Hamas captivity. The songs included Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Happy Birthday.” She watched from a balcony on one of the upper floors of the hospital alongside other freed hostages Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, and Naama Levy. All five women were serving as surveillance soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces when they were kidnapped from an IDF base in Nahal Oz by Hamas-led terrorists during their deadly rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Albag, Gilboa, Ariev, and Levy returned together after 15 months in Hamas captivity as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Five days later, Berger was also released as part of the ceasefire deal.
Albag uploaded a post on Instagram about her birthday and wrote: “Today I get to celebrate my 20th birthday with my loved ones. The only wish I asked for — is for all the hostages to return.”
Her older sister, Roni Albag, shared a photo from the birthday celebrations on Instagram and wrote in the caption: “Our Lirosh, our number 1. I dreamed of this moment countless times and here you are. Today you celebrate your 20th birthday at home!!! Today you celebrate the life that was given to you again. You are our victory, our heart and the light of our home. I love you and am here for you forever and ever.”
Liri posted on social media on Friday for the first time since returning from captivity. In an Instagram post, she thanked the people of Israel for their “support, love, and help.” She said, “Together, we are strength.” She also thanked the IDF and members of Israel’s security forces “who sacrificed their souls and fought for us and our country! There isn’t a morning that I don’t pray for their safety.”
“Finally got to reunite with my family! But our fight isn’t over and I won’t stop fighting until everyone is home!” she added. “I want us to continue to stay united, because together nothing can break us. The unity and hope we have in us scares all our enemies, amazes all our lovers, and comforts the people among us. A sentence that used to accompany me was ‘at the end of every night, darkness disappears.’ And I wish that everyone can see the light.”
Seven surveillance soldiers were abducted from the Nahal Oz base on Oct. 7, 2023, including Noa Marciano, who was killed in Hamas captivity, and Ori Megidish, who was rescued by the IDF in October 2023.
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