Newsmakers, September 7, 2017

Organizers staging a play in La Crosse based on the life of Eva Schloss, a Holocaust survivor and stepsister of Anne Frank, say the work is all the more relevant in the aftermath of violence at a white nationalist rally in Virginia last month.

White supremacist groups including neo-Nazis clashed with counter-protesters leaving one dead and dozens of people injured at the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Well before the Charlottesville incident in early August, plans were underway by Viterbo University and the La Crosse Community Theatre to stage “And Then They Came For Me,” based on Schloss and her family.

Schloss, who spoke at Viterbo University in 2015, is planning to attend a performance and participate in a question and answer session with the audience afterward.

The play’s director Sara Adams said being able to stage the play so close to the Charlottesville tragedy is important.

“(Charlottesville) was an extreme example of how this lesson has not been learned yet,” she said. “Or that people think that it is so distant that it can’t possibly happen again.”

Viterbo University Holocaust educator Darryle Clott has hosted 17 survivors in the dozen years the university has held a Teaching the Holocaust conference.

“We have not learned the lessons of the Holocaust, clearly,” Clott said. “The Holocaust ended in 1945 and here we are in 2017, and we have the same things happening right in our own country.”

Clott said the best way to fight white nationalism in America is to treat other people with respect and be accepting other people’s differences.

Performances in La Crosse are at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 17, 19 and 20 in the Lyche Theatre at the Weber Center for the Performing Arts.

In addition to taking questions after the play, Schloss will also speak Monday, Sept. 18 at Viterbo University.