One of New Vic Borderlines’ flagship documentary-dramas is back on stage, respecting and remembering victims of the Holocaust through a performance featuring real testimonies.

Yizkor, performed at the New Vic Theatre from Friday 21 to Monday 24 January ahead of the United Nations Holocaust Memorial Day, follows the experiences of two teenagers, Ariella and Moshe, in an Eastern European Shtetl between May 1939 and 1944.

The documentary-drama has been created using real words written in letters and diaries, and witness and survivor testimonies of teenagers during the Holocaust. Audiences hear the voices of Ibi and Waldemar Ginsburg throughout, two Holocaust survivors who worked with New Vic Borderlines to develop the play.

Each performance will be introduced by UN Translator and survivor of the Bosnian Genocide Aida Haughton MBE. Every audience member will receive an empty Yizkor Passport typical of the era to allow them to discover more about those affected by the Holocaust. Following the play audiences will be invited to participate in an interactive discussion with Aida, New Vic Borderlines director and writer Susan Moffat, and war crime investigator Howard Tucker CBE, who spent over eight years as Head of Mission of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Each audience member will have the opportunity to make their own ‘This Day’ pledge to stand up against prejudice, discrimination and hate.

Yizkor gives audiences an important insight into a community, culture and way of life that was all but wiped out as a result of the Holocaust.

New Vic Borderlines Director Susan Moffat said: “The Yizkor play is part of an on-going commitment for me personally and for New Vic Borderlines to play a part in creating a world which embraces tolerance and celebrates the richness of diversity, as well as the validation of similarity. Wal and Ibi were great friends of myself and the theatre, and the play continues in their absence; their determination to remember those who were murdered and pledge to stand against intolerance and discrimination. In place of the statistics of genocide we see how the erosion of humanity leads to both personal and communal devastation, caused by hate and prejudice. Everyone has a role to play in making our world a place for everyone to thrive, create and contribute. We all have a moral duty to prevent crimes against humanity, which lead to genocide.”

For more information please visit www.newvictheatre.org.uk or telephone 01782 717 962.)

(Main image from a previous production of Yizkor.)