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Northeastern Voice: Unit on Holocaust in France highlights interdisciplinary cooperation

By Staff Writer, Northeastern Voice

Earlier this semester, groups of Northeastern freshmen sat silently in Northeastern’s Studio Theatre as they viewed a sobering documentary play about the Holocaust in France, written by Inez Hedges, Stotsky Professor of Jewish historical and cultural studies.

Viewing the production “Children of Drancy� is just one way the freshmen are learning about the Holocaust in France.

They’re also analyzing the script in a course taught by theatre associate professor Nancy Kindelan, who directed and adapted the play and who cast upperclass students as actors. They’re looking at the historical, sociological, philosophical and cultural world of the play, and at the problems associated with transferring those ideas to the stage.

Other students worked on set design and filmed the production. The student actors threw their all into breathing life into the characters. Dozens of other freshmen who didn’t attend the play read the script to learn more about what happened in Drancy during the Holocaust. They’re also taking a course, team taught by Hedges and modern languages professor Holbrook Robinson, on French film and culture during the German occupation.

It’s all part of one of Northeastern’s new “learning communities,� in which groups of students examine topics in several linked courses, through the lens of different disciplines.

The play, which Hedges describes as a “montage of voices,� showcases prisoners’ actual accounts from Drancy, a transit camp outside Paris, run by the Vichy government during World War II. About 76,000 Jews were sent to Drancy; only 3 percent ultimately survived. Of the 2,000 children under the age of 6 who were deported from Drancy, none survived.

For the students, the point of seeing and studying the play, in conjunction with related courses, is “to bring art, history, politics and film together, so it’s very cross-disciplinary,� says Hedges.

Participating departments and programs include theatre, modern languages, cinema studies, Jewish studies, the honors program and the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.

“This is a perfect example of the kind of integration we are focused on at Northeastern,� said Gerald Herman, director of interdisciplinary studies. “This effort brings together faculty research, teaching, and experiential education.�

He added, “The new university core curriculum requires that all freshmen be involved in a learning community, in which they take two or more linked courses during their first year here, so as to better understand how subject matters are connected.�

As Stotsky professor, Hedges focuses on Holocaust-related research. She didn’t know anything about Drancy until about five years ago. After examining documents, letters, poems and drawings, though, “I started hearing voices and they began to haunt me,� Hedges said. “One day I said to myself, ‘I’ll see if I can tell the story through voices.’ �

The resulting play confronts head-on the harsh realities of the Holocaust in France. During play rehearsals, Kindelan often wondered to herself, “How can I put my students through this?� But she concluded that “there is a story to be told that is extraordinarily important.�

Because the play was intended to be part of a freshman learning experience, discussions were held after each performance. Participants included professors, student actors and, one night, even the Boston-based consul general of France.

Herman emphasized that the creation and production of “Children of Drancy� presented a unique opportunity to offer a multipronged approach to a complicated topic.

He explained: “Inez did research to compile the play — that’s the research angle. Then, students worked on the production —that’s experiential. And the discussions after every production were about teaching. It’s the perfect integration of all the academic aspects we want to emphasize at Northeastern.�

Source: This article was originally published in the December 11, 2007 edition of the Northeastern Voice.