FOR THE LOST CHILDREN OF PARIS

A La Memoire Des Enfants Perdus by Carrie Robbins

[SUMMARY]

THE STORY AS IT OCCURRED IN HISTORY:  In Paris, 1942 – 1944, the Nazis, with the help of France’s Vichy government, gathered up all the Jewish children they could find and took them to (primarily) Auschwitz.  In total, they collected 11,400 children.  In 1945, at the liberation, with the aid of excellent German record-keeping, 200 children were found alive.  This is the story of one French classroom’s collection day and its aftermath. 
The play is partly about deceiving children.  And of taking children away from their families.  And of course, of murder, just because they were Jewish. Or Romas. Or Jehovah’s Witnesses. Or Epileptics. Or Homosexuals. Or ‘Retards’. Or ‘Disabled’, and so on.  Cr

[PROLOGUE]
SETTING THE DOLLS’ KINDERGARTEN CLASSROOM:

It’s 1942.  Gepetta, wearing the high-waisted pleated slacks of the time & a carpenter’s apron of waxed cotton is at work in her small studio.

Behind her, the model of a carved theatre proscenium sits on a worktable.  Commedia-like puppets,  in various states of ‘dishabiller’, are strewn round the table.  Also some toys needing repair, & some modeling tools.  Gepetta opens the doors of a steamer trunk, the old kind with drawers; each drawer contains a pair of large dolls. She fusses with each, tying shoes, fluffing hair. As she works, she describes a friend of hers, Elodie, a professional calligrapher, who, having scribed most of the choice parts of the Bible, and almost all Shakespeare’s sonnets, came to Paris looking for ‘something new to write’.  Gepetta tells of Elodie’s obsession with the plaques she discovered by the front doors of all the schools in Paris.  The plaques read: “A La Memoire des Enfants Deportes” (“To the Memory of the Deported Children”) at the top.  A list of the children’s names and ages follows. Then, at the bottom: “Ne les oublions jamais.”  (We must never forget them.) Gepetta sets some of the dolls in wooden school desk-chairs.  There is some discussion between Gepetta & Jakob (a little Jewish boy) over his preference for American sneakers versus the leather tie-up oxfords more commonly worn, but a rapprochement between them is reached.  She hands the 3 principal dolls off to their Wranglers.  Mlle. Brigette, their teacher, enters the ‘classroom’.  The children & their Wranglers fall into formation & freeze.  There is a very bright pop of light. The class has had its picture taken.

PART 1. 
THE DOLLS COME ALIVE:

We meet the children:  Solange, Jakob, Genevieve, & Sabine. We hear about a new puppy.  The smartest among them conjugates ”etre”. The children discuss names for the new puppy. They learn from their teacher that some lucky ones amongst them will receive a great surprise from a visitor.  Then, a knock at the door.

PART 2.  A SPECIAL VISITOR COMES TO THE KINDERGARTEN CLASS:

A beautiful uniformed woman appears; she reveals that the very smart Jewish children will be rewarded with a wonderful train trip, for which their parents have already consented, and even packed their luggage!  The Jewish kids are ‘faklempt’ with excitement, except for Genevieve, who would prefer to go home and play with her new puppy.  She cries.  The beautiful Lieutenant finds this behavior annoying to say the least. 

PART 3.  THE CHESS GAME & JOUST:
Mlle. Brigette speaks privately to the Lieutenant; she makes the officer an unusual proposal. It involves a lot more study for the Jewish kids, but a lot less “train” travel. The Lieutenant is not receptive, but agrees to return later that evening to pick up a formal proposal which the teacher will prepare.

4.  THE JEWISH CHILDREN BEGIN THEIR TERRIBLE JOURNEY:
The 3 Jewish children are taken by the Lieutenant to the waiting train in a red Berlin flyer. Their teacher remains in the classroom waiting for the Lieutenant’s return to pick up the precious academic proposal.  The train’s metal door screeches open, wide, like a gaping dark mouth. The train doesn’t look right to the children. It has no interior lights. It has no windows. And NO SEATS.  [It is, instead, a standard issue German Boxcar.]  The children object. Things go sharply downhill from there. With the ‘help’ of the Lieutenant, the 3 children and their Wranglers disappear into the car. The metal door grinds closed.

EPILOGUE:  THREE YEARS HAVE GONE BY.  (1945. The war is over.)
Image:  Soft light begins to stream through the slatted sides of the wooden boxcar.  The boxcar door, soundless this time, glides open.
We see a large pile of doll-children carpeting the floor of the car.  Limp bodies crisscross each other.  They wear the familiar stripes of prisoner garb, oversized on these little bodies. They’re faded, threadbare, ripped, & hard to see clearly in the low light.  They’re stacked like a trifle seen through a cloudy glass compote dish.

Like a dumb show:  Mlle. Brigette puts on her coat & hat, both now worn.  She picks up a “bookbag’ which likely holds a typed thesis, a syllabus, and some other formal papers never picked up. She moves up the few stairs to the classroom door, then approaches the open boxcar.  There’s some movement from within the pile of stripes.  She jumps back, assuming it’s some kind of animal foraging. The pile moves again.  A rumpled figure appears out of the pile. The teacher stares.  It wears a brimmed cap. There’s something familiar about it.  And it stares back at Mlle. Brigette.  It’s Solange.  Mlle. Brigette takes the cap off Solange, much to the child’s dismay.  Solange’s beautiful long hair has been shaved off.

Halting, they begin to talk.  Solange reports that the people who prepared the food in her camp did NOT know how to cook.  “And they definitely did not know how to season anything.  They were definitely NOT French” she concludes.
Mlle. Brigette offers her home to Solange, and, as she has been caring for the little red puppy since the children “left”, requests Solange’s help in training the pup. Image:  Light begins to grow golden in the boxcar; the figures within take on the glow of the old Renaissance paintings of Joseph, Mary, & the baby in the manger. Music on piano and saw return. Teacher, Solange’s Wrangler, & Solange rise and walk together. They’re going home.  Maybe a few stars blink. 

The warm French voices update the story: 
50 years after the Liberation, the French government, beginning to feel badly about its complicity, determines to erect plaques next to the doors of each Parisian school. Then the voices read the text of more recent plaques installed in Parks for those children taken from the parks because they were too young to be in school yet.  An apologia. An offering. “Nous les oublions jamais. “ Over the voices, sounds of French children in the park, playing and singing. Then the sound of a little red dog barking.  Lights fade to black.   END OF PLAY