Play Auerbach!

Have you heard of Philipp Auerbach? The successful entrepreneur survived Auschwitz; in 1945, he was appointed ‘State Commissioner for Racially, Politically and Religiously Persecuted Persons’ by the Americans in Munich. For many, he was a kind of ‘Messiah’ who helped surviving Jews emigrate to Israel. At the same time, he sought to re-establish Jewish life in Germany. Auerbach’s life ended in tragedy: his commission was closed down and, in 1952, a Munich court convicted him of corruption and embezzlement of state funds. Auerbach committed suicide. Ten years later, he was rehabilitated – and then thoroughly forgotten!

Avishai Milstein, born in Tel Aviv in 1964, deploys a savage dark humour to distil true and fictional encounters from Auerbach’s sorely tried existence, confronting us in this revue of remembrance with our own failings and forgetting. In a near future in which there is virtually no Jewish life left in Germany, and also no theatres, an anti-Semitism commissioner is rehearsing an ‘Auerbach Memorial Revue’. But the rehearsal goes awry when the lead actor reveals himself to be Jewish and refuses to stick to the script he has been given.

Brilliant live music, an ensemble pushing itself to its limits and a writer who drives us deep into the dark abysses of our souls: “What on earth has gone wrong with the Jews in Germany? Why aren’t they there anymore?”

Hitler was defeated and crushed.
Now the remaining survivors want to return home.
Peaceable, not vengeful like Orestes.
Bavaria’s roads will soon be worn out.
The uniforms are no longer braided.
The passion for Germany is as hot as incest.
We survived Hitler

– Song from “Play Auerbach!” by Avishai Milstein