Helena Weinstock Weinrauch, now 98, was born in 1924 in Dusseldorf, Germany. Her mother was a pianist and her father an engineer. The family soon moved to Poland and flourished. Then came 1939 and the horrific assault on Jews. Helena’s parents and her sister Erna went into hiding; she still went to school and worked. Her family returned, only to be rounded up by the Nazis; Helena never saw them again. Her boss got her counterfeit papers and she passed as Aryan, only to be betrayed by a former friend. She was taken to the Gestapo, then endured three concentration camps, narrowly avoiding death umpteen times. Helena recovered in Sweden and then moved to New York City, met her husband, and embraced life. Kirk Gostkowski has adapted her memoir into a one-woman play. Masha King stars as the indomitable Helena. —Laura Jacobs
The Arts Intel Report
A Will to Live
When
Aug 18 – Sept 16, 2023