Gene A. Plunka: Holocaust Drama: The Theater of Atrocity

• John Klapper

The Holocaust forces us to confront some of the most challenging moral and ethical issues of modernity, including the philosophical debate of good versus evil, the existential notion of individual and collective responsibility in a Judeo-Christian society, the value of art in times of extreme situations, the role of God in the modern wasteland, and the need to understand survivor guilt and our own as well. (pp. 15–16)
This impressive volume provides an analysis of more than 30 key dramas originating in different parts of Europe, the United States and Israel. The author’s selection, made from an estimated 257 Holocaust plays written up to 1997, excludes plays that have never been published or produced, and he defines Holocaust drama as plays about Nazi genocide (1933–1945) and its after-effects, in particular the psychological implications for survivors.

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