Monday Night in Westerbork

On October 11, 2006, UMass Amherst hosted the Western Massachusetts premiere of S. Bear Bergman’s Monday Night in Westerbork, a one-person theater piece based on the experiences of a group of Jewish inmates at the Westerbork concentration camp in the Netherlands, who staged weekly cabaret performances inside the camp in 1943-1944.

The performances helped the prisoners cope with their desperate situation and took their minds momentarily off the ever-present threat of death. Because of the camp commander's fondness for cabaret, and his preferential treatment of the performers, the performances also postponed the inevitable transfer to Auschwitz and certain death.

While "Monday Night in Westerbork" educates audiences about the brutality of the Holocaust, it also manages to be funny, touching, and deeply inspiring. The piece explores themes of identity, persecution and resistance, drawing on Bergman’s experiences growing up Jewish among Holocaust survivors, visiting the concentration camps, and coming out as queer and transgender.

A resident of Northampton, Bergman has received widespread acclaim for hir (a gender-neutral pronoun for her/him preferred by Bergman) two previous theater works, "Ex-Post Papa" and "Clearly Marked." Bergman is also the author of the new book, Butch Is a Noun.

The performance was jointly sponsored by the
Office of Jewish Affairs and the Stonewall Center,
in commemoration of "National Coming Out Day"
on October 11th.


For more information...

Performer's Note (Historical Information)

S. Bear Bergman's web site

Westerbork concentration camp


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