Aharon Appelfeld - Badenheim 1939

The play is about the devaluation of the human being both as an individual and as a community member. About destiny and eternal faith in the future. Nobody, even those the most stricken, reckons the existence of a conspiracy, to such an extent is it unimaginable. A naive hope that "some kind" of solution can be found persists until the last word in the play is said.

In Badenheim, an Austrian resort town famous for its annual music festival, the 1939 season opens as usual. The owner of the local pharmacy watches the arrival of dr. Pappenheim, the festival animator; regular vacationers representing affluent Jewish bourgeoisie flock to the hotel. It is April, people enjoy strawberry pies in pastry shops, local lady companions stroll down the promenade. The first warning comes when the pharmacy receives a visit from the Sanitation Department. Shortly afterwards decrees ordering all Jews to register for transfer to Poland are posted on town walls. Badenheim is cut off from the outside world. The vacationers, however, do not immediately spot or do not want to spot the growing danger – they quarrel, love and gossip, bargain and complain reluctant to see the impending disaster.
Appelfeld tells the story in a restrained style with irony and tenderness at the same time, the intricate plot moves on slowly, with small steps, each magnifying the inevitability of the threat. This is what the story is about, presented from the most down - to - earth perspective, which paradoxically embellishes it in a lyrical way but also intensifies the forthcoming tragedy.

Aharon Appelfeld, born in 1932 near Czernowitz in Ukraine, is recognised as one of the most eminent contemporary Israeli writers. His mother was killed by the Nazis whereas he was deported to a concentration camp at the age of nine. He managed to flee, then after three years of hiding in Ukrainian woods was taken in by the Red Army unit and employed in a cookhouse. In 1946 worked his way to Palestine where he enlisted in the army. Appelfeld graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and currently works as a lecturer on Hebrew literature at Ben Gurion University. He is an author of numerous essays, short stories and novels, e.g. Be-Et U-Be-Ona Ahat (At One and the Same Time, 1985), Katerina (1989) awarded the National Jewish Book Award, Mesilat barzel (The Iron Tracks, 1991), Michreh Ha-Kerah (The Ice Mine, 1997) and the autobiographical novel Sipur chaim (The Story of a Life, 1999). Appelfeld's works, translated into twenty-eight languages, earned him numerous international literary awards, including Bialik Prize, Harold U. Ribelow Prize, as well as Israel Prize and various literary awards throughout Europe.

Piotr Szalsza - born on May 26, 1944 in Bytom, an artist with all-round interests and creative personality: director, scriptwriter, writer, publicist, composer, coordinator of musical, theatrical and scientific projects. A qualified musician, graduate of the Academy of Music in Katowice (1962-1967), worked for many years as a journalist and musicologist for the press, radio, television and specialist periodicals (Ruch Muzyczny, Poglądy). Since 1983 a permanent resident of Vienna. In the years 1972-1996 Szalsza produced a few hundred TV shows, music broadcasts, documentaries and reports. The most important works comprise portraits of: Paul Badura-Skoda, Felicja Blumental, Alicja Boniuszko, Emin Khachaturian, Rosalia Chladek, Zdzisław Górzyński, Adam Harasiewicz, Siegfried Palm, Louis Lane, Witold Lutosławski, Bolesław Mierzejewski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Fryderyk Chopin or Karol Szymanowski. Szalsza directed a few dozen symphony, organ, chamber music and jazz concerts of artists such as: J.Garbarek, L. Hampton, F. Hubbard, S. Grapelli, D. Gillespi, F. Gulda, N. Kennedy, M. Makeba, A.Makowicz, W. Marsalis, J. Pass, O. Peterson, M. Petruccianio and J. Zawinul. He worked in dramatic and opera theatres in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Kielce, Katowice, Vienna and Moscow. Subsequent projects by Szalsza included: Ernest Bryll Wizard of Oz (1980), Stephen Poliakoff City Sugar (1981), Meinhard Rüdenauer Ein Liederspiel [Song-play] (1984), Giovanni Paisiello The Barber of Seville (1985), Gerald Fromme The Two Crowns (1986), Umberto Giordano Fedora (1994), Ferdinand Raimund Der Bauer als Millionär [Peasant Millionaire] (1996), Thomas Bernhard Heldenplatz (1997), Gerald Szyszkowitz Der Lieblingssänger des Führers [Führer's favourite songs] (2000), Michaela Ronzoni Die Schwestern Parry [Parry Sisters] (2002), Karol Szymanowski Die Räuberin [The Robber](2002), (2003), Anton Chekhov The Seagull (2008). He is the author of: Karol Szymanowski w Pradze [Karol Szymanowski in Prague] (1982), Bronisław Huberman – czyli pasje i namiętności zapomnianego geniusza [Bronisław Huberman, i. e. passions of a forgotten genius] (2001). Szalsza wrote a few dozen entries of the Austrian Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik [Great Encyclopedia of Music] and composed music for numerous theatre and tv performances. He received many awards for his contribution to culture, including the award of the Minister of Culture for Merits to Culture and Cavalier's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

source: materials of Teatr Ludowy

Badenheim 1939 by Aharon Appelfeld, translated by Henryk Szafir, published by W.A.B publishing house in 2006.