Rising from the Ashes Vol 2: Chronicles of Zion

By Ronald John Vierling

"The three two-character, two-act plays in Chronicles of ZionThe Attic Room, The Tower, and The Children of Moses Davartake place in settings that range from Poland to Israel, from Ireland to Spain. The plays themselves center around motifs that vary from historical fantasy melded to conflicted morality; political, military, and religious confrontation melded to the hope for reconciliation; conflicted morality melted to historical fantasy, all three researched portrayals requiring the suspension of disbelief."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 9, 2010
• ISBN: 9781453537442

Ronald John Vierling

In addition to Falling in Love at the End of the Road, Ronald is the author of the Clementine Camille trilogy of novels: Volume One: An American Romance; Volume Two: An American Memoir; Volume Three: An American Life, all of which are available from bookstores. He published his newest novel, Crossing the Continental Divide: Three American Diaries: 1853-1854, in 2012, available from bookstores or online as an e-book. Ronald’s two volumes of plays, written while he was Writer-in-Residence at the Holocaust Memorial and Resource Center of Central Florida, were published under the titles Rising from the Ashes: Volume One: Beyond the Abyss and Volume Two: The Chronicles of Zion. The two volumes of plays are available from bookstores or online as e-books. At present, Ronald is in the process of writing a new novel, Going Sane: A Serious American Comedy.

Book preview

Contents

THE ATTIC ROOM

A Drama in Two Acts

THE TOWER

A Drama in Two Acts

THE CHILDREN OF MOSES DAVAR

A Drama in Two Acts

Readers’ Guide to the Plays

The Attic Room

The Tower

The Children of Moses Davar

THE ATTIC ROOM

A Drama in Two Acts

For Erica Eisenberg and Jose Ruiz

Rejoice not over they greatest enemy being dead,

but remember that we die all.

Ecclesiasticus 9:7

THE APOCRYPHA

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Adam Czerniakow        Chair, the Jewish Council, Warsaw Ghetto, Warsaw, Poland, 1939-1942

Rachael Wyze        Journalist, The Jerusalem Post, Jerusalem, Israel

Act One

Date: July 23, 1992

Time: 7 p. m.

(Lights come up on a sixteen-by-sixteen foot room on the fourth floor of a musty smelling, aged, and ornate brownstone building that no longer exists, in what was once the Warsaw Jewish ghetto, which was destroyed by the Nazis in 1943 following the Jewish uprising. Three rather narrow windows are centered in the up stage wall. The windows are so dirty that they admit almost no light.

The room itself is furnished with a single bed cot that juts out at forty-five degrees from the up stage right corner. The bed is covered by a blue gray woolen blanket. A pillow lies on top of the blanket. Books are piled on the floor stage left of the bed. A drafting board stands in the down stage left corner. The table is awash with large sheets of drafting paper drawings of Warsaw ghetto streets and ghetto housing. A bare bulb suspended over the drafting table lights the surface. A pull chain hangs from the socket. A tall backless wooden stool stands in front of the drafting table. Drawing pencils and odd pieces of paper are scattered over the surface of the table.

An overstuffed chair stands in the down stage left corner of the room facing the center of the room. An old fashioned floor lamp stands next to the chair. Books are piled next to the chair as they are next to the bed. A small wooden kitchen table stands in the up stage left corner of the room, far enough out from the wall to allow one chair to face the table from the up stage side and one chair to face the table from the down stage side. A small hot plate sits on the table along with two white porcelain mugs stained by tea.

A tea pot sits on the hot plate. A tea tin is placed in the center of the table as well as a tin of sugar cubes. Like the drafting board corner, the table is lit by one bare bulb hanging from an electrical wire. A pull chain hangs from the socket. The room centers on a well worn Persian style rug. The room contains no other furniture.

A stocky balding man sits as the drafting table working. He is wearing dark dress shoes, dark dress suit pants, a white sleeved dress shirt buttoned at the collar but no tie, and round steel rimmed glasses. His suit coat lies on the cot style bed. The man is so occupied by the drawings and maps on the drafting board that he is not aware that a young woman has entered the room.

The young woman is wearing khaki slacks, dark loafer style shoes, a blue long sleeved work shirt, and a dark blue man’s blazer. She carries an Israeli military backpack over her right shoulder. Her hair is dark and heavy with intricate curls in the style popular with young Mediterranean Jewish women.)

(Standing in the open doorway behind the overstuffed chair, the young woman raises her hand as if to knock, but then she does not. She speaks instead.)

YOUNG WOMAN: Mr. Czerniakow?

(Preoccupied, the man does not respond.)

YOUNG WOMAN: (More emphatically) Mr. Czerniakow?

(The man turns slowly and looks at the figure in the doorway.)

YOUNG WOMAN: (Stepping through the open doorway and into the room) Adam Czerniakow?

ADAM: (Slowly) Yes. I am Adam Czerniakow.

YOUNG WOMAN: The Chair of the Jewish Council . . . in the Warsaw Ghetto?

ADAM: And who are you?

YOUNG WOMAN: Are you Adam Czerniakow who was the Chair of the Jewish Council . . . in 1942?

ADAM: Yes. I was Chair of the Council . . . from 1939 to 1942.

YOUNG WOMAN: Then I’ve finally found you.

ADAM: Yes. You’ve (puzzled) found me. But who are you?

YOUNG WOMAN: I’m Rachael Wyze.

ADAM: Rachael (pronounces an i and double ss sound) Weiss?

RACHAEL: No. Rachael Wyze. With a y and a z.

ADAM: With a y and a z?

RACHAEL: Yes. Rachael Wyze. (She emphasizes the z sound.)

ADAM: (Clears his throat) And you wish to meet Adam Czerniakow?

RACHAEL: Yes. I do. I mean, yes . . . I wish to meet you.

ADAM: Well, you’ve met me. (Gesturing that she should enter) Please, Miss Wyze. (He moves to the cot and retrieves his suit coat, putting it on as he formalizes his mannerly invitation.) Please, come in.

(Rachael steps more fully into the room as he puts on his coat.)

ADAM: (Gesturing toward the drafting board behind him) I was just working on a map of the Ghetto. I didn’t hear you at first.

RACHAEL: I’m sorry to disturb you, but I’ve come very far.

ADAM: And where have you come from, Miss Wyze?

RACHAEL: From Israel.

ADAM: Israel?

RACHAEL: Yes. Jerusalem . . . Israel.

ADAM: Do you mean Palestine? Jerusalem, Palestine? I always thought of it as Jerusalem, Palestine, when I grew up.

RACHAEL: It’s been Israel since 1948 . . . when it became a Jewish state.

ADAM: Ah, yes. The Zionists. I remember. I knew people in Warsaw who were Zionists . . . in the 1920s (adds) and 30s. They too always spoke of Palestine as Israel. But (as if distracted) . . . I don’t hear much about the outside world any more. Not since 1944 . . . ’45. I had visitors then . . . during the last years of the war. I even had some visitors in 1946 after the war. But since then there haven’t been very many. You’ll have to forgive me if I’m not as informed as I should be. (Looks at Rachael carefully) But please, my manners. I am forgetting my manners. My wife used to say to me, Adam, you get so caught up talking that you forget your manners. (Hesitates again) Put down your pack. You must come in and tell me why you’ve come all the way from . . . Jerusalem, Israel.

RACHAEL: (Putting her pack on the floor next to the overstuffed chair, moving to center stage) What are you working on?

ADAM: Ah. Yes. Well, it’s a map (gestures she should come to the drafting table to see) of the Ghetto. All of the streets and all of the houses. I had to keep track of who lives where. I had to take care of many things, Miss Wyze.

RACHAEL: (Moving closer so she can see the map) As Chair of the Jewish Council.

ADAM: Yes. I had to be certain that the Jews in the Ghetto were fed and housed . . . that the Germans did what they promised.

RACHAEL: That’s what I’ve come to talk to you about . . . the Ghetto. What it was like.

ADAM: You wish to know about the Warsaw Ghetto?

RACHAEL: Yes, I do.

ADAM: Forgive me, Miss Wyze. I don’t mean to question your sincerity, but you are a . . . very young woman. You must have a busy life in Israel. Why would you wish to know about the Ghetto?

RACHAEL: I’m a journalist.

ADAM: A journalist?

RACHAEL: With The Jerusalem Post.

ADAM: I see. And The Jerusalem Post wishes to know about the Ghetto.

RACHAEL: No. I wish to know about the Ghetto.

ADAM: The Jerusalem Post did not send you?

RACHAEL: No. I’ve come on my own.

ADAM: Well, you’ve come a long way on your own, Miss Wyze, to find out about the Ghetto.

RACHAEL: (Quickly) And about you. I’ve come to find out about you.

ADAM: You wish to find out about me?

RACHAEL: I got to Warsaw three days ago. I tried inquiring. But I couldn’t get any information. Then I found an old man. He was sitting in a café across the street from a synagogue. Did you know there’s only one synagogue left in Warsaw?

ADAM: (Pained by what she has said but appearing to ignore her question) And the old man helped you?

RACHAEL: He recognized your name. He said he knew where the Jewish Council had once had its office. He told me to go to the corner of Geisa and Zamenhofa Streets. He described what the building . . . what this building looked like.

ADAM: And so you have come.

RACHAEL: Yes. (Adding) I’ve read books about the Warsaw Ghetto . . . and first hand accounts by people who survived.

(Adam turns back to his drafting table. He begins looking closely at the map and, using a pencil, checking off items on a list printed on a piece of paper next to the map. At the same time, Rachael moves back to the overstuffed chair.)

RACHAEL: (When Adam does not respond) I’ve even read your diaries. Your notebooks.

ADAM: (Stops working; looks up but does not turn around) Someone has published my notebooks?

RACHAEL: Yes. Scholars . . . Jewish scholars.

(After a moment, Adam turns around slowly and looks at Rachael.)

ADAM: Then you are a scholar in addition to being a journalist, Miss Wyze?

RACHAEL: No.

ADAM: But you’ve read my notebooks?

RACHAEL: Yes. All but notebook five. You wrote nine . . . but number five was lost. (Hurriedly to prevent his objections) And I know my coming here must seem strange. But it’s very important, Mr. Czerniakow. It’s very important.

ADAM: (Smiling courteously) I dare say, Miss Wyze. (Hesitates for a moment as if he is not sure what to say next) Well, Rachael Wyze, as you have come so far to ask me questions (he gets up and moves slowly across the room to the kitchen table), perhaps you should begin.

(As Rachael responds, he sits down and turns so he can see her.)

RACHAEL: You’ll talk to me?

ADAM: It would be most inconsiderate if I did not.

RACHAEL: Yes, it would. But I appreciate that you will.

ADAM: (Nodding his assent) Do you wish to know when the Ghetto was established? Or do you know things like that already?

RACHAEL: I know the historical facts . . . how the Nazis set the Ghetto boundaries in 1939 after they’d defeated Poland. I know some things about how they treated the Jews.

ADAM: Then what exactly do you wish to know from me, Miss Wyze (smiling and, to put her at ease, adding ) with a y and a z.

RACHAEL: (Stands, moves slowly toward the drafting table) I want to know what it was like every day (stops and looks at him) . . . dealing with the Gestapo. What could you expect?

ADAM: You never knew what to expect . . . that’s what you could expect.

RACHAEL: I don’t understand what you mean.

ADAM: People think the Nazis were intelligent . . . that they were well organized. But here, in the Ghetto, from day to day . . . I always suspected they were making it up as they went along.

RACHAEL: But I thought that at the Wannsee Conference, in 1942, in Berlin . . . I thought they planned everything out.

ADAM: Yes . . . in 1942. But the Ghetto was established in 1939. Things were very different in 1939.

RACHAEL: Are you saying that the Nazis didn’t know what they wanted to accomplish?

ADAM: (Standing, moving a step or two up stage around the table away from Rachael, who sits on the drafting table stool when Adam stands) No. I’m not saying they didn’t know what they wished to accomplish. I’m saying that they just didn’t know how to go about it. And because they didn’t seem to know what they were doing, it was impossible for us Jews to know for sure what they had in mind . . . or how to respond. Not in 1939, at least. Later, of course, in 1941 . . . ’42, it was obvious what they planned. But by then, there wasn’t anything we could do to stop them. So I’m answering your question by saying that, in the beginning, when they first confined us Jews to the Ghetto here in Warsaw, I don’t think they understood the problems a ghetto like this would create. Not just for Jews . . . for them, too. Does that make sense?

RACHAEL: Yes, it does. It’s just that what you say about the Nazis is surprising.

ADAM: Why is it surprising? It was a very complicated thing the Nazis had in mind. No government had ever said it wanted to destroy a whole civilian people before . . . a whole religious people before. And we Jews were living everywhere in Europe, from Russia to England. There weren’t any rules for the Nazis to follow when they began.

RACHAEL: I know that. It’s just that I grew up hearing about how, from the very first, Hitler made his intentions toward the Jews very clear . . . in speeches . . . at rallies.

ADAM: Oh, he did. He gave speeches. But to us Jews, what he said was unbelievable. So we didn’t take him seriously. (Hesitates) I traveled in Germany when I was a student. I heard things. Many German politicians said similar things. It was unpleasant to hear Jews spoken of as undesirables . . . as vermin. But how could anyone know what would happen? Besides, I was a Polish Jew. I lived in Poland. Poland had an army. But Germany . . . in 1932? 1933? Why would Germany invade Poland? (Gestures broadly) France, maybe. (Shaking his head) Even German Jews hated the way France had behaved after the War ended in 1918. They’d been so arrogant. All of that reparations nonsense. Any fool could see that Germany could never pay what France demanded. (Adding) Or frankly, we thought maybe Hitler would make war against Russia. The fascists hated the communists. Hitler spoke against the communists almost as much as he spoke against the Jews.

RACHAEL: But he did speak about Germany’s ambition to go east. To acquire more land.

ADAM: Yes, but it was very vague. German volkist dreams . . . land for the Aryans . . . the chosen people. In some ways, he sounded like the Zionists with their hopes for a Jewish homeland. Except the Zionists thought the Palestinians would understand. But with Hitler, it just didn’t seem real. Not until just before the war actually began.

RACHAEL: (Moving around the drafting table toward the center stage end) But didn’t he claim that Germans living in Poland were being treated unfairly? I’ve seen German propaganda films. Young German women being raped by ugly, retarded Polish men. Didn’t that tell you something?

ADAM: (Looking at her carefully) Yes, we did know about those films. (Shakes his head) But at the time, they were almost laughable. We knew things like that weren’t happening. And besides, he said even more about Austria. The Nazis even said Austria was part of Germany. So it was obvious to everyone that they would try to capture Austria. But Poland? Why would they want to capture Poland?

RACHAEL: (Shaking her head) I’m sorry, but all of that sounds like rationalization. Because no matter how you explain it, when the time came, you were unprepared.

ADAM: (After a moment) Yes. (Nodding) You are correct. We were terribly unprepared.

RACHAEL: (Her voice tightening) In fact, you were tragically unprepared.

(Adam does not respond immediately.)

RACHAEL: (Slowly, precisely) Wouldn’t you agree that you were tragically unprepared?

ADAM: (Hesitates, his tone of authoritative confidence suddenly gone) Yes, Miss Wyze. As you have expressed it. We were tragically unprepared.

RACHAEL: (Carefully but with an accusatory edge) And who is to blame for that, Mr. Czerniakow?

ADAM: What do you mean?

RACHAEL: Just what I said. Who was to blame?

ADAM: For the defeat of Poland? The Polish government . . . the Polish army.

RACHAEL: I don’t mean who was to blame for the defeat of Poland. I mean, who was to blame for the fact that the Jews of Poland did not believe the Nazis were serious? Who was to blame for the fact that you were tragically unprepared?

ADAM: (Leans forward and looks at Rachael) I suppose . . . history is to blame, Miss Wyze.

RACHAEL: History? (Warily) What do you mean . . . history?

ADAM: Just what I said. History. What had happened before. Pogroms . . . in Russia. All over Europe. Pograms and politics.

RACHAEL: The fact that Jews had been repressed, then liberated, then repressed again over the centuries? Is that what you’re saying?

ADAM: Yes. Things were always changing. (Almost smiling) Things would be said about the Jews. A few bad things would happen. But it would be limited. A small place. A village