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November 7, 2003/Cheshvan 12 5764, Vol. 56, No. 7
The persistence of evil
BARRY COHEN
Editor
As a child, I enjoyed reading Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are," a playful book that was dark without being frightening.
I incorrectly believed he only wrote books for children.
Just a few days ago, listening to an interview of Sendak on "Fresh Air with Terri Gross," I learned he has illustrated a new children's book with a distinctly adult theme.
Teachers and parents alike can use his new work to communicate the painful lesson to our children that evil will always exist.
Working with Tony Kushner, Sendak adapted "Brundibar," a children's musical written in 1938 by Hans Krasa.
The musical tells the tale of a brother and sister who must go to the city to get money to buy milk to save their sick mother.
Though they beg, no adult will help them. Then they see Brundibar, an organ grinder, who sings and receives the adults' spare change.
The brother and sister try to sing, but they have terrible voices. Then a cat, dog and bird come to their rescue. The animals convince the town's children to help them out. When the children sing a lullaby, the adults are captivated and fill a large milk can with coins.
But then the jealous Brundibar steals the can and runs away. The townspeople chase after him, catch him, beat him up and return the money to the brother and sister. At last, they buy milk and save their mother.
During the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler ordered Krasa's "Brundibar" to be performed regularly in the concentration camp, Terezin.
With the show camp Terezin, Hitler attempted to prove to the Red Cross and diplomats "how well the children and the gypsies and the homosexuals were being treated," said Sendak on "Fresh Air." But by war's end, Krasa and nearly every one of the child performers were murdered in the camps.
Sendak explained that most of his mother's family and all of his father's family perished in the Holocaust. Having grown up in a home that was "in mourning all the time," he decided to illustrate the book and design the sets of its English musical adaptation to exorcise the ghosts of the Holocaust.
However, Sendak's and Kushner's adaptation departs from the original with Kushner's epilogue.
Kushner has Brundibar return to tell the children: "They believe they've won the fight; they believe I'm gone; not quite; nothing ever works out neatly; bullies don't give up completely; one departs, the next appears; and we shall meet again, my dears; though I go, I won't go far; I'll be back; love, Brundibar."
During "Fresh Air," Sendak noted that parents have the choice whether or not to read the epilogue to their children. But he hoped they would.
"Children are tough," said Sendak. "Children despair of you if you don't tell them the truth."
A truth is that evil persists in our world. Sendak has given us another tool to help our children grasp this painful lesson. And he has given us adults additional incentive to do all we can to keep evil at bay and protect our children - as long as we possibly can.
Contact the writer at barry_cohen@jewishaz.com.
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