Shocking Israeli play about lesbian Nazi officer affair with Jewish prisoner comes to the UK
A shocking Israeli play about a relationship between a lesbian Nazi officer and a female Jewish prisoner is coming to the UK.
Under The Skin by Yonatan Calderon is set in two places and time periods – in Germany during the Holocaust in and in Tel Aviv during the first Gulf War.
It centres on the relationship between real-life SS Camp Guard Anneliese Kohlmann and a Jewish prisoner at a concentration camp in Hamburg.
Related: The lessons we should learn from the Nazi persecution of gay people
Born in March 1921, Kohlmann became a Nazi party member in 1940, but worked only as a streetcar conductor until late 1944, towards the end of the war, when she joined the SS Women’s Auxiliary.
She was appointed as Aufseherin (a female concentration camp guard) at the Neugraben subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp system, before working at Bergen-Belsen.
Kohlmann was tried in Lüneburg in 1945.
The production of Under the Skin from the Tik-Sho-Ret Theatre Company was first played at the Tel Aviv Gay Centre in 2013.
It makes its UK debut at the Etcetera Theatre on Tuesday, August 22 at 4.30pm as part of the Camden Fringe.
A second performance takes place on Wednesday, August 23 at 4:30pm. Tickets are available now.
The play is based on Kohlmann Belsen trial protocol and the testimony of Holocaust survivors.
Related: How the Nazis destroyed the first gay rights movement
The 2017 Camden Fringe incorporates a range of live art, including classic theatre, new writing, stand-up, improv, spoken word, dance, circus, horses, robots and sock puppets.
It began on July 31 and runs through till August 27 at venues in and around the Camden area.
Watch the shocking trailer for Under the Skin below:
