That's how Fred Cephas in FRED & FRIEDA describes what he saw at Orhdruf concentration camp on April 4, 1945, when his 761st Tank Battalion smashed through an electric fence. It was a scene so horrific that hardened combat soldiers fell to their knees and vomited. We can't comprehend 42 million dead from Nazism, or 30 million dead from Stalinism, or 55 million dead from Maoism, but we can grasp the life of a single young girl saved. "You save a life, it's as if you've saved the whole world." (Talmud) To tell this story, we focus on one liberator and one survivor, revealing their intertwined story in the presence of a son and a granddaughter. Stories untold are stillborn offspring but stories shared are fertile progenitors of peace. FRED & FRIEDA, April 15-18, 2010. Reservations and information at Greenbelt Arts Center.
Nicole J. Burton