By Eva Trieger
SOLANA BEACH, California — While there is little to laugh about when it comes to the subject of the Holocaust, Simon Wiesenthal (Tom Dugan), began the one-man show with a joke. The longer the show went on, the more the actor revealed the character, and perhaps a trace of hubris, of Simon Wiesenthal. It was as if the suit grew on him and melded to his frame. His Austrian accent was completely authentic and credible, as were his tremors, and shambling walk around the North Coast Repertory stage.
Wiesenthal welcomed the audience into his office at the Jewish Documentation Center in Vienna, Austria, and shared his remarkable life with us, on his last day of work. He had promised his wife, Cyla, that he would not grant any more interviews, but leave the office and begin retirement in earnest, finally leaving the Nazi war criminal hunting to the next generation. The set, designed by Dugan himself, mirrored Wiesenthal’s small office, replete with books, files, a desk, a telephone, and a sunflower.
Wiesenthal recalled for us in vivid and brutal detail how he and his wife lost 89 family members between them, yet miraculously found each other after Cyla, who’d managed to pass as a Pole, was sent first to Warsaw then West Germany. Simon had not escaped the camps, and by the war’s end had spent time imprisoned at Janowska, Plaszow, Gross-Rosen, Buchenwald and finally Mauthausen, from which he was liberated by US troops in 1945.
With his liberation came a huge responsibility. Wiesenthal did not want revenge, he told us, but justice. This six foot tall, emaciated man of 37, dedicated his life to searching out and legally prosecuting Nazi criminals because, he admonished his visitors, “If all of us forgot, the same thing might happen again, in 20 or 50 or 100 years.” We were warned that unless we are vigilant the wolf is always at the door. Wiesenthal said, “There is no denying that Hitler and Stalin are alive today… they are waiting for us to forget, because this is what makes possible the resurrection of these two monsters.”
This fear is what drove Wiesenthal to open the Jewish Documentation Center relentlessly pursuing all leads from his extensive interviews and sleuthing. This further explains why he did not move to Israel when his wife begged him to. He believed that to be most effective at capturing his enemies, he had to be in Austria.
Wiesenthal did not win every popularity contest despite his deeds, and in fact, had his share of critics, yet he never allowed them to deter him. As a civil rights champion he mourned not only the destruction of 6 million Jews under the Nazi regime, but additionally he recalled the 5 million others who were dehumanized and decimated, including Communists, gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally ill, Jehovah’s Witnesses and virtually anyone who didn’t mitigate the shame felt by the Nazis post World War I. He even drew criticism from Elie Wiesel because he did not see the Holocaust as only directed at Jews, but at others who might have undermined or interfered with the lebensborn prototype.
“For me the Holocaust was not only a Jewish tragedy, but also a human tragedy. After the war, when I saw that the Jews were talking only about the tragedy of six million Jews, I sent letters to Jewish organizations asking them to talk also about the millions of others who were persecuted with us together — many of them only because they helped Jews,” said Wiesenthal.
Wiesenthal demanded each individual be tried for his personal involvement and crimes. He railed against a notion of collective guilt. Actor and playwright Tom Dugan tells us that Wiesenthal also defended a few German and Austrian officers who refused to participate in “the final solution.” In his own words, Wiesenthal said, “We know that we are not collectively guilty, so how can we accuse any other nation, no matter what some of its people have done, of being collectively guilty?”
The Jewish James Bond, an affectionate moniker, succeeded in aiding in the arrest of 1,100 Nazi war criminals. He spoke fluent Polish, German, English, Yiddish and Russian. Thanks to his shrewd tactics Franz Stangl, a Polish death camp commandant, was extradited to West Germany and later died in prison there. Valerian Trifa who’d massacred the Jews of Romania was captured. Hermine Braun-Steiner was infamous for shooting small children and selecting women for the gas chamber. She was discovered in Queens, New York, and given a life sentence.
Adolf Eichmann’s capture made a massive impression on Wiesenthal, and with his help, Israeli agents were finally able to bring Eichmann to trial after 14 years of pursuit. Wiesenthal was disappointed about Eichmann on two counts. First, that Eichmann was executed because he felt the criminal should have been kept alive and used as a witness in other trials. Secondly, because he’d envisioned this man as a monster. When he saw him in the flesh, he realized he was just a “little bookkeeper, not a monster.”
Our playwright delivered a true round character in Wiesenthal. He showed us a man with commitment, anger, intelligence, humor and love. His monologue is poignant, but he reminds us he is not attempting to extract our tears, but rather to exhort us to remember all of those who were murdered and to prevent any future holocausts. He decried the inhumane oppression of any group over another and the systematic destruction of a people and their legacy.
Dugan has been nominated for the New York Drama Desk Award, New York Outer Critics Circle Award, Los Angeles and Ovation Award. Wiesenthal, produced by Daryl Roth and directed by Jenny Sullivan, is currently performed in Israel, India, Australia and Mexico, and is being adapted for the screen. His newest show is Jackie Unveiled. He is currently creating two new solo pieces: Tevye in New York, and A Magnificent Enthusiasm (The story of black abolitionist Frederick Douglass). If Wiesenthal is any indication of what Dugan is capable of, I’ve no doubt San Diegans will demand an encore!
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Trieger is a freelance writer who specializes in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eva.trieger@sdjewishworld.com