Note to Correspondents

‘The Good and the True’, Award-Winning Play Celebrating Two Czech Holocaust

Survivors, Previews at Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium

 

The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, in partnership with the Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations, will hold an exclusive preview of the award–winning Czech drama The Good and the True on 1 August from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium.  The play will open at the New York City off-Broadway DR2 Theatre on 3 August and conclude on 14 September.

Written by Daniel Hrbek, Tomáš Hrbek and Lucie Kolouchová, the play intertwines the true testimonies of two extraordinary people — the Czech athlete Milos Dobry and actress Hana Pravda.  Although they did not know each other during the Second World War, both experienced the horrors of the Holocaust as prisoners in the Theresienstadt Ghetto and Auschwitz-Birkenau, the German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945).

Theirs is a story of endurance and inspiration.  Each suffered intolerable loss, yet went on to excel in their lives and chosen professions.  Hana Pravda was born Hana Becková in Prague on 29 January 1916.  Her blossoming career as a young actress was interrupted by the war, and although she survived a death march at the end of it, she lost many family members to Nazi terror.  Milos Dobry was born Milos Gut in Prague on 31 January 1923.  He survived the toughest of forced labour details and a death march with his brother Josef, but his parents and most of his relatives were murdered in the Holocaust.

Actress Isobel Pravda, who plays the role of Hana, is Hana’s real-life granddaughter and living proof that the cycle of Jewish life continued despite Nazi attempts to stamp it out.  Her delivery of her grandmother’s testimony on stage in London received much praise.  Saul Reichlin, a veteran actor whose one-man play Sholom Aleichem has been performed to great acclaim, embodies the spirit and determination of Milos.  He became a successful family man, rugby player and the first Jewish president of the Czech Rugby Union, shattering Nazi racist stereotypes upon which they based their genocidal actions.

Following opening statements to be made at the preview by Nathalie Leroy, Chief of the Educational Outreach Section, Outreach Division, United Nations Department of Public Information; David Červenka, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the United Nations; and Director Daniel Hrbek, Ms. Pravda and Mr. Reichlin will perform select segments of the play.  Artistic Director Brian Daniels, who adapted the play into English, will join the actors, Petr Papoušek, the grandson of Milos Dobry, and the Holocaust Programme Manager, Kimberly Mann, for a discussion with the audience.

Registration is required of all guests at http://bit.ly/AugUNand seating is limited.  Journalists interested in covering the event should visit www.un.org/en/media/accreditation.  For further details on the play and the actors, please visit www.goodandtrueplay.com.

The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme was established by General Assembly resolution 60/7 on 1 November 2005 to encourage remembrance of and education about the Holocaust in order to prevent future acts of genocide.  For more information on the programme, please visit www.un.org/holocaustremembrance.

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For information media • not an official record