Sparks Fly Upward

The Factory Action - February 27, 1943

“Now the Jews of Berlin will finally be deported. On February 28 they are to be assembled, first, in camps and then deported in groups of up to 2,000 per day.”              ~Joseph Goebbels~[1]

Saturday, February 27, 2011 marks the 68^th anniversary of one of the most extensive and brutal arrests of Jews in Berlin during the Holocaust.  

In the early morning of February 27, 1943 the SS engaged in a massive raid, attempting to arrest the last Jews remaining in Berlin.  Those arrested were taken to assembly centers around the city, where they were forced to wait, sometimes for days, before being deported to Auschwitz. In the days that followed the arrests, the non-Jewish wives of Jewish men picked up during the factory action staged a protest in front of the building where their husbands were being held.  Most of these men were ultimately released.  The rest of the thousands of Jews arrested that day were sent directly from Berlin to Auschwitz.

The arrest came to be known as the “Factory Action” or “Fabrik-aktion”.  The protest came to be known as the “Rosenstrasse Protest.”

Some Jews were warned of the impending raid by their bosses, and thereby escaped arrest and deportation to Auschwitz.  Of this, Goebbels wrote in his diary:

 “The scheduled arrest of all Jews on one day has proven a flash in the pan because of the shortsighted behavior of industrialists who warned the Jews in time.  We therefore failed to lay our hands on about 4,000.  They are now wandering about Berlin without homes, are not registered with the police and are naturally quite a public danger.  I ordered the police, Wehrmacht, and the Party to do everything possible to round these Jews up as quickly as practicable.”[2]

The Factory Action is depicted in the second act of The Sparks Fly Upward.

 

 

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[1] Diana Schulle, The Rosenstrasse Protest, in Beate Meyer, Hermann Simon, and Chana Schütz, Jews in Nazi Berlin: From Kristallnacht to Liberation (The University of Chicago Press 2009) p. 159 (quoting Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels: Sämtliche Fragmente, ed. Elke Fröhlich, part 2, vol. 7 (Munich, 1993), p. 369).

[2] Joseph Goebbels, The Goebbels Diaries, ed./translated Louis P. Lochner (Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1948) p. 294.

 

Our director, Timothy X. Troy

I though I would blog on some days about our fabulous staff for the production of The Sparks Fly Upward.

Our director in 2008, who is also planning to direct the stage production in 2012, is Timothy X. Troy. Tim is Professor and Chair of Theatre Arts at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. In 2008 he travelled to Des Moines to direct the production and did an absolutely fabulous job of turning my somewhat cinematic vision into a stage vision.

Tim received his Bachelor of Arts degree, The History of Ideas - modern, from Lawrence University. He earned the Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Arts/Directing from the University of Iowa, where he directed the original production of five new plays from
the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Professor Troy¹s regular contribution to Lawrence's Freshman Studies program was honored with the Freshman Teaching Prize in 2004. Since serving as Visiting Professor at Trinity College-Dublin
in 2005, Mr. Troy has recently turned his attention to playwrighting. The Playwright¹s Center in Minneapolis will present his latest play, Radio and Juliet, in March of 2011.

Here is what Tim has to say about Sparks and his involvement in its development:
"It's been a privilege to be part of the SPARKS project. The opera matches all my core values as both an artist and a citizen. It tells an important story that we need to tell and retell to help us remain vigilant in the face of oppression. It's an opera with emotional depth and intellectual integrity that reminds us that all the great challenges we face happen in the context of love of family and our attachment to neighbors and friends. Most importantly, Cathy chose the medium of music drama to tell the story - the
complete artwork that dazzles our eyes, enriches our ears, engages our mind, and stirs our hearts. Being part of the team that first brought SPARKS to life for an audience remains one of the most important projects in my career. I dearly hope we find a way to expand our ability to share this important work with more audiences who need its richness, depth, and humanity to help them navigate the perils that beset us."



Help us start our journey. Donate now at: www.thesparksflyupward.org
Any donation, no matter how small, is welcome and needed!

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United Nations Holocaust Memorial Ceremony
Rescheduled from January 27, 2011 to February 10, 2011,
10 a.m.- 12 Noon

Every year the United Nations participates in the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the Holocaust. This year the ceremony at the U.N. was postponed due to weather in New York. The ceremony has been rescheduled for February 10, 2011 in the U.N. General Assembly Hall. To register you must email them by February 7, 2011 at Holocaustrememberance@un.org. This year's theme is "Women and the Holocaust: Courage and Compassion." For more information go to http://www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance/2011/Calendarevents.shtml

No news this last week on the production front, but I'll keep everyone posted!