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Jewish Teacher Puts On Holocaust Play
The play was written and directed by Lisa Rule, a Chillicothe High
English and drama teacher who befriended Erika Mandler.
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Erika Mandel Marries A Dentist
Nazi rule ripped apart her carefree life in Vienna. She managed
a hair-raising escape into Czechoslovakia, fell in love and
married a dentist, planned a move to Palestine and had it
thwarted, and saw her husband of six months “relocated” to
Auschwitz. “We hugged and kissed very warmly, and I never saw him
again,” Mandler remembers.
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The Dentist Gets Gassed
Of seeing her first true love and husband of less than one year
sent to die at Auschwitz.
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Erika Marries Again
With her parents and brother, she reported to a work camp and found
love a second time, with George Mandler,
a doctor. Her parents died in concentration camps, but
Erika and George escaped and hide in
the mountains.
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The Mandlers Lived In Caves In The Mountains
Of giving birth to a child who died after just two days because of
malnourishment from spending months hiding in mountain bunkers.
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The Mandlers Appear In America
The Mandlers came to Chillicothe in 1951. George Mandler, a
physician before the war broke out, had already earned his medical
license in the two Eastern states.
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The Local School Puts On A Play About Her Life
In one scene Erika says she saw Nazis light a Jew's beard on fire.
Another scene has her husband haggling with Nazis over going to the
gas chamber, the Nazis let the Mandlers live, but they threw another
Jew in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. .
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Kids Laughed At Holocaust Play
During the two scenes the kids broke unto laughter, and Mrs Mandler
was outraged.
While many in the audience sat rapt, other students laughed loudly.
Mandler would like to believe that the students reacted out of
excitement or immaturity, not prejudice. Still, she cannot help but
wonder.
"I was stunned," she said. "I was afraid to even admit that
I thought they were happy the Jews were being beaten. ... I don't want
to admit it."
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Anti Semitic Punks
Mrs Mandel is outraged
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