By Carol Davis

SAN DIEGO—On May 27, 2008, a major monument to gay holocaust victims was unveiled in Berlin. The monument remembering gays persecuted by the Nazi regime ‘was unveiled in preparation for a ceremony in Berlin which was presided over by Germany’s federal commissioner for culture, Bernard Neumann, and openly gay Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit’. The monument was designed by Berlin-based Norwegian-Danish artist duo Ingar Dragset and Michael Elmgreen.

It is estimated that 54,000 homosexuals were arrested and sentenced by the Nazis with 7,000 being killed in concentration camps. As Jews, we will never forget the six million who were sent to the camps never to be seen again. Because of “The March of the Living.” an international educational program that brings Jewish teens from all over the world to Poland on Yom Ha Shoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, to march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the largest concentration camp complex built during WWII, and then to Israel to observe Yom HaZikaron, Israel Memorial Day, and Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel Independence Day, these atrocities will be remembered.

They will be remembered every Yom Kippur. They will be remembered every time a new generation reads The Diary of Anne Frank or sees a movie about WWII or reads Arthur Miller’s Playing For Time, or sees the play Judgment at Nuremberg by Abby Mann, or the play Anne Frank and Me, or The Man in the Glass Booth or Barbara Lebow’s A Shayna Maidle and the list goes on.

My two grandsons 18 and 17 who live in Israel participated in their school program and have been to Poland. Before they went, they studied the Holocaust with visits to Yad Vashem, and partnered with Righteous Gentiles by sending them a research paper about them and then having a face to face meeting in Poland. For my oldest grandson it was an experience he could barely talk about.

The goal of the March of the Living is for these young people to learn the lessons of the Holocaust and to lead the Jewish people into the future vowing “Never Again.” “Never Again” has been a watchword of Jews since the end of the war. And these marches will continue to keep the memories alive along with every heartbeat we Jews have.

But who will remember those who were not Jews, but who were gays, gypsies, mentally ill or just not fitting the Aryan nation look-a-like poster and who also suffered at the hands of the Nazi’s? Their story, or part of it, the Gay part, at least is being told at Diversionary Theatre on Park Boulevard with the showing of Martin Sherman’s gay holocaust play, Bent.

It’s time now to have an honest conversation about who and how they will be remembered. In fact they were considered lower than the Jews in the Nazi regime pecking order of things. They wore the Pink Triangle while the Jews wore the Jewish Star and in case no one could figure out what that represented it also had the word Jude on it.

There have been numerous books written about Gays and the Holocaust. The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals by Gad Beck, The True Life-and Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps 1933-45 by Gunter Grau, The Pink Swastika by Scott Levy and Nazi Extermination of Homosexuals by Frank Rector are but a few. But the play that broke all barriers between what was written about the way Gays were treated and what audiences saw was Martin Sherman’s play, Bent.

Diversionary Theatre and Ion have paired up to produce Bent through Nov. 22nd. Bent first made into mainstream theatre in 1979 when mounted in a West End production staring Sir Ian McKellen. Richard Gere played in it in the original Broadway production and in 1997 Sherman adapted it to film. It is now being given a somber but measured showing at the Diversionary Theatre under the direction of Claudio Raygoza and Glenn Paris co artistic directors of Ion and married partners at home.

Bent takes place during and after Night of the Long Knives. Avowed homosexual Ernest Roehm was executed in the wake of an internal struggle between his leadership in the SS and Hitler and his cronies. After the dust settled and Hitler was once again in control, he ordered the registration of all homosexuals. The play opens between 1933 and 1934 in the apartment of Max and Rudy (Michael Zlotnick and Chris Buess).

They’ve had a tough night on the town and Max cannot remember what happened the night before. While Max tries to ease his hangover and Rudy tries to comfort him with coffee, Wolf (a nude Bobby Schiefer) comes out of a bedroom and startles Max. Small talk is made about their shenanigans the night before and shortly thereafter the Gestapo comes and arrests Wolfe whom we later learn is a member of the SS.

From there things go down hill for the couple. Rudy is a hoofer, Max is a wheeler/dealer and between the two, Max is the survivor. Max tries to get money to leave Berlin; Rudy refuses to leave. Max cajoles his uncle Freddie (a charming Walter Ritter who plays a ‘Fluff’ and dandy) for enough money for both Rudy and himself to leave but there is only enough for one.

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Charlie Reuter (left) as Horst and Michael Zlotnik as Max
Photo credit: Daren Scott


They finally go to Greta (Steven Lone) the owner of the establishment Rudy works in and again to no avail.

We finally see the two on their way to Dachau after being betrayed by a neighbor. When the Gestapo notices a weakness in Rudy, they begin to beat him to break him. While the other prisoners on board the train turn the other way, Max is goaded into putting the finishing touches on Rudy and Rudy is finally beaten to death by his one time lover. This is just the prelude.

In Act II we find Max in a rock quarry carrying rocks back and forth from one side of his area to the other. In the background is a wire fence (electrically charged we learn) and large spot lights illuminating it. When that pile is done, the rocks are carried back to the other and this goes on all day with five-minute breaks of standing completely still while the guards monitor.

One unusual note, however, Max has a Star of David on his prison stripes instead of a pink triangle now. When a new prisoner, Horst (Charlie Reuter) whom he met on the train is brought to the quarry, (he signed a gay rights petition that landed him in the camps) and is assigned to this nonsensical, backbreaking and boring labor, Max tells Horst that he traded up (read did favors for the guards) his triangle for the star. That’s why he doesn’t have the triangle.

As offended as Horst is by this move and as much as he tries to be aloof to Max the two become friends and in some bizarre way the two become intimately involved without touching, something strictly forbidden by the guards. They talk, they bond, they care, they smile and they begin to feel alive again. They also know that neither will leave the camps alive.

In a you-could-hear-a-pin-drop second act Zlotnick’s Max and Reuter’s Horst almost bring the audiences to breathless non-belief that such cruelty could have taken place in this century yet Sherman’s dialogue brings us a beautiful love story set among the ruins of civilization and ‘man’s inhumanity toward man’ that it almost seems plausible. It’s worth a trip to Hillcrest to see this show and be informed.

In the opening weekend performance I saw, I was impressed but wanted to see more conflict, more feeling, and a deeper self-awareness in Zlotnick’s Max. Max is the center of this play. His performance while exhausting was neither here nor there as the dialogue dragged on and on stretching to long. Even in the final scene (you have to see it), I didn’t get the depth of his despair, that I felt was too rushed. By now his pacing should be in a smooth rhythm. Reuter’s Horst was much more credible. Remaining cast members who played many roles did so with integrity.

Bret Young and Claudio Raygoza designed the bare yet intricate set with drawbridge, wired camp enclosure and piles and piles of rocks. Jeannie Galioto’s costumes, Nazi greens and concentration camp stripes, looked pretty authentic to me. Chris Renda’s lighting design works and Omar Ramos’ sound design brought the music of the 30’s cabaret and the horrifying drum beats of the Nazi’s together.

In a brief conversation I had with executive/artistic director Dan Kirsch we talked about how the community could finally get the word out about how gays were treated during the Holocaust. This is a good start.

There is also an exhibit in the lobby The Lambda Archives: Collecting, Preserving and Teaching LGBT History. The ACLU has study program guides and with the tenacity of gay rights groups the pressure will keep the country well aware that everyone has a right to Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness and that means equal rights to marriage as well.

One step in the right direction was the recent signing of the Matthew Shepherd and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act put into law by President Obama last month. One step backward was the failure of Prop 8 to pass here in California last year. Another was the failutre of Prop, 1 to protect Equity in Maine (Freedom to Marry) in this year’s off-presidential election. Sadly, the anti-gay groups are still out there. So who will tell the stories? We will.

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist. Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the labor leaders, and I did not speak out
because I was not a labor leader. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. (Then they came for the gays and I did not speak out because I was not gay). Then they came for me, and there was no oneleft to speak out for me.—The Reverend Martin Niemöller

See you at the theater.

Davis is a San Diego-based theatre critic. She may be contacted at davisc@sandiegojewishworld.com