International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed annually on January 27 and marks the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.
The Israeli embassy in Ghana, headed by Ambassador Shlomit Sufa, held a special memorial assembly on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was attended by many local residents, as well as ambassadors and diplomatic staff from various countries.
The culmination of the event was a lecture by Dr. Roy Horovitz of Bar Ilan University, entitled “The Holocaust in Israeli Theater.” Horovitz , who is both an academic and an active and well-known actor and director, demonstrated how Israeli playwrights regularly return to the horrific scene of the Holocaust and how at any given moment, at least one “Holocaust play” can be found on Israeli theater stages.
Horovitz combined filmed excerpts from the various productions of “Ghetto,” the most successful Israeli play of all time, by Joshua Sobol, which tells the story of the Jewish theater group that operated in the Vilna ghetto until its liquidation. More than 80 productions of the play have been produced around the world, including at the Royal National Theater in London and the Burgtheater in Vienna.
He also discussed “The Timekeepers,” a play by Dan Clancy, which deals with the friendship between a Jewish prisoner and a homosexual prisoner in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and whose Israeli production has become an international success story, performed in Israel and around the world.
Following Horovitz’s remarks, the German Ambassador to Ghana and a local UNESCO representative spoke, both of whom could not hide their emotions. Those in attendance promised that International Holocaust Remembrance Day would become an annual Ghanian observance.