PARIS — In the play, “Under a Yellow Star: Diaries of Children of the Holocaust,” actor Madison Marshall, 11, of Otisfield speaks for ‘Helga’ of Czechoslovakia who was about her age when she wrote her diary during the Holocaust.

“One of my lines is about losing a friend and I’ve felt that before . . . but not to the extreme that she’s going through,” Marshall said. “I learned (from the play) not to judge people before you get to know them, especially large groups.”

Another actor, McKenzie Wallace, said her great-grandmother was on the train to Auschwitz and jumped off. Then she had to hide under dead bodies in a church and eventually went on a ship to the United States. “This definitely helps me feel more connected to her,” Wallace said.

Marshall and Wallace are two of 24 area children and four adults performing “Under a Yellow Star,” a play comprised of moving diary entries from Jewish children who lived during the Holocaust.

Performances are at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School on Main Street in Paris. It is free and open to the public.

Director and compiler of the diary entries, A.M. Sheehan, doesn’t remember why she initially began the project in 2001.

“Something triggered an interest in this, and I don’t remember what it was,” she said. “I started doing some research and it just spoke to me and I decided I was going to write a play about it.”

She researched the children’s stories in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel, the U.S. Holocaust Museum, state Holocaust museums, in books, and from oral histories.

Sheehan first premiered the play in 2001 at the Nottingham, New Hampshire, elementary school. The play toured for a year before she received a Tolerance in Education grant from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

When she left to take a job in England, the play continued touring for a second year in New Hampshire and southern Maine.

In the meantime, Sheehan, a musical theater and drama teacher, took a position as head of drama at King’s College in Taunton in the United Kingdom, eventually producing the play again with her British students, who she said knew less about the Holocaust than their American counterparts.

In 2019, Sheehan rehearsed for four months with students who ultimately couldn’t do the final performances because of COVID. A few children performing now were part of the group from three years ago.

All of the performers are from the Oxford Hills School District, including some who are home-schooled. They are ages 5 to 17. The adult performers include a teacher, a librarian and a minister. Two other teachers oversee costumes.

While some students knew about the Holocaust before starting the play, others had no knowledge, and one said she didn’t know who Hitler was before they began. As part of the peer education intent, they have done exercises to learn more. One example is where they individually rated the responsibility of those in Germany during the Holocaust, like the factory owner who made the gas that killed the Jews.

“These kids have all learned about the Holocaust,” Sheehan said. “They applied what happened then to behaviors today. They have done some amazing exercises and have learned a lot.”

Parent Kelly Wallace of Oxford agreed. The director “quizzed them on everything Holocaust related. They had to know the 23 (main) camps. They had to understand what genocide was and research other genocides in history. They looked up the Righteous (Among the Nations) list and they did extensive research on the child they are speaking for.”

Following each performance, cast members will return to the stage to answer questions from the audience about the Holocaust and other genocides.

Wallace continued, “The kids spent the summer learning about the Holocaust and rehearsing. They started when school got out in June. Many are missing their first middle school dance to perform.”

Kailie Balcom of Paris, who is in the play with her children, Madelyn, 5, Mahala, 8, and Michael, 13, said her daughter Mahala’s character, Holocaust survivor Loré Grozman Segal, is 94 and living in New York City. Coincidentally, Segal comes to Maine every summer with her son. Balcom said they have been in communication with the family and hope to meet them next summer.

« Previous

Food Pantry to temporarily operate from Oxford’s old town office

Next »

Sen. King receives Medicare Champion Award