Kannada play to bring Holocaust horrors to light

By Sravasti Datta

Kaushik HA, Bengaluru-based theatre writer and director, understood the intensity of Germany’s Holocaust when he visited the Dachau concentration camp in the outskirts of Munich “My brother lives in Munich, so I went for a vacation there and visited Dachau, the first concentration camp in Nazi Germany. I knew about the Holocaust from history textbooks and movies but it was only after I visited Dachau that I realised about the level of human suffering,” says the director, who is bringing the Kannada play, Dachau, to the city this weekend.

‘My experience visiting the Holocaust site haunted me’
“I decided to write and direct this Kannada play about Dachau, because the experience of visiting the siter lingered, haunting me even after returning to India,” says Kaushik. For research, Kaushik read up extensively and accessed the official podcast of the Auschwitz Memorial. “It was my primary source of information. I also read a lot of fiction and non-fiction books, and researched material on the internet. I also took photographs and videos of Dachau. Dr Sushma S V, the dramaturge of the play, guided me at every stage.”

“Senior citizens were killed first because they were of no use. A lot of women who were physically weak and those who were pregnant were killed next. But I read stories where pregnant women survived and delivered babies. This was both surprising and interesting to me.” The director say he then found a few stories where a group of prisoners helped a pregnant lady hide her pregnancy. And when they were liberated from the camp, she delivered her baby. “In my play, the setting is a barrack which comprises 12 women of different nationalities,” he shares.

‘The intensity of the Holocaust is often depicted as a lesson to prevent its repetition’
The play has been staged earlier. “The usual audience reaction was being stunned by the whole premise of the play because people often have little knowledge about the Holocaust. Many people told me they read up about it, which was good because that was the whole point of depicting the intensity of the Holocaust so that it should never be repeated. A lot of high school and university students, who have studied about the Holocaust, developed a renewed interest in it after watching my play. The audience has also appreciated the multidimensional production,” says Kaushik.