MELROSE PARK, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Jenkintown resident Ruth Kapp Hartz has shared her life story in speech and writing, but never expected to see it on stage.
“Hidden,” getting its world premiere next month with M7 Productions at Gratz College Theater, is the story of Hartz’s childhood spent in hiding in France during World War II.
Her family was originally from Germany, but before Hartz was born, her parents tried to escape Adolf Hitler’s growing power. They couldn’t get an affidavit to emigrate to the United States, so they went to what was then Palestine — an area that later became Israel — and that’s where Hartz was born.
They relocated to France when Hartz was around 2 years old.
“My mother had a brother living in France, and that's how they decided to go to France,” she said, “literally from the frying pan into the fire because World War II broke out right after they arrived.”
Nazi forces moved in and occupied France, building concentration camps there.
“All the Jews had to wear a yellow star,” Hartz remembered. “They would be sent to the camp near Paris, called the Drancy, and from there they would be deported to the death camps. So my parents decided that we weren't going to wear a yellow star, and we were going to change our name and try to go into hiding.”
She said her earliest memories are arriving in a large city in southern France called Toulouse.
“And there I had an older cousin, Jeanette, who told me, ‘From now on, your name is Renée.’”
That name change stuck with Hartz so much that she later named her memoir “Your Name is Renée.” There’s also a song in the musical with the same title, depicting that moment.
After the war ended, Hartz still faced antisemitism in school.
“I was treated as a dirty Jew,” she said. “‘I thought they took all the Jews,’ some of the children said. So back in hiding I went, which is true of many Jewish children who survived. … I didn't talk about it for 40 years.”
Eventually, she did talk about it, and write about it. After school, Hartz moved to the Philadelphia region because she had friends there. Hartz’s story is preserved in Gratz College’s Holocaust Oral History Archive. She speaks at schools, and her children are now spreading her legacy.
“I feel almost obligated to tell my story and my family's story,” Hartz said, thinking of how few Holocaust survivors are left. “But so do my children, and that's happening a lot, the second generation and the third generation now.”
The idea for a musical came about when Hartz met Jenny Heitler-Klevans, who is part of a children’s music duo with her husband David, called “Two of a Kind.” They met through David’s family, and when Jenny read Hartz’s memoir, she pictured it as a musical.
"So we reached out to her, and she said yes, we could write this musical, and she said, ‘You should come with me to France and meet the family that rescued me,’” Heitler-Klevans said.
They began their research for the show in France, visiting the places Hartz spent her childhood, and meeting the people and descendants of people who helped her.
Heitler-Klevans said she wanted to put this story on stage because it has a hopeful message.
“It focuses on the heroes and the rescuers and the help that this family got to survive, and their will to survive as well,” she said.
After five years of development, “Hidden” will take the stage on Sept. 6 and 7, and 20-22. There will be an accompanying art exhibit called “Revealing the Hidden: A Curated Exploration of Identity and Resilience” on display in The Leona P. Kramer Gallery at Gratz College from Sept. 6-22.
Heitler-Klevans said, “The idea of the art show was to really delve deeper into that idea of hidden identity in all different kinds of ways, and not just for Jews, but anybody who is dealing with hidden identity.”
Some of the proceeds from ticket sales will benefit Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. More information and tickets can be found at hiddenthemusical.com.