The Puppetmaster of Lodz April 19, 2007

'The Puppetmaster of Lodz' is a drama by Gilles Segal, translated from the French by Sara O'Connor. It is 1950 in Berlin and Samuel Finkelbaum, the puppetmaster, is afraid to leave his room because he does not believe WWII is over. Samuel escaped Birkenau in 1945. All day he rehearses his new puppet-show which dramatizes the horror of the death camp. For Samuel his puppets are as close as he can come to real humans. Even their horror is too much for him. His concierge tries to help by bringing in people to convince him it is safe to go out. At last she finds Schwartzkopf, another camp survivor and Samuel starts to listen.