October 1, 2015
"As the daughter of immigrants who shrouded their origins in an uneasy silence, I developed a voracious appetite for stories, especially the way historical events – cataclysmic events – affect personal lives."
Professor Satie’s play entitled, “Silent Witnesses,” is based on interviews and conversations with child survivors of the Holocaust. Decades after World War II, a group of women meet, moderated by a therapist. All, including the therapist, survived the Holocaust as children, hiding in ghettos, in forests, in rural towns pretending to be Christians, or in the camps. After the war, expected to quietly assimilate and not dwell on the past, they remained silent. Now, in the safety of the group, they begin the daunting task of processing their traumatic childhoods by telling their stories for the first time.