It's interesting that so many bks that I add to my bkshelves here can't be found in the already existing database. This particular play is important as a commentary on the political machinations invoking "patriotism" for the destruction of civil liberties. Given that it's inspired by the nazi rise to power thru civil-liberties-curtailing after the burning of the Reichstag (German Parliament) bldg in Germany in the early 1930s & that it was written when that subject was topical, it's educational to compare it to the parallel curtailing of civil liberties in the USA after the mayhem of September 11, 2001.

Anyway, 2 days after writing that intro, I just finished this bk. Because it's in a fictional context, it becomes more generally applicable to any time & not dependent on topicality. Do you ever wonder when the US government & the people of the US became aware of the concentration camps? This play was performed in New York City, at the Belasco Theater on September 12, 1934. One of the main protaganists, when denouncing the dictator, proclaims: "I charge him with the murder of the thousands of innocent men and women who have perished on the scaffold, in the torture chamber, and in the concentration camps." It seems to me that I was raised w/ the vague notion that the US didn't really know about the concentration camps (or the extent of them) until they were liberated in 1945. Makes a feller wonder, eh? ( )

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