Bidspirit auction | Official Program for the Production

Official Program for the Production of The Diary of Anne Frank in West Berlin - 1956 - DAS TAGEBUCH DER ANNE FRANK - Official program for the production of The Diary of Anne Frank, staged at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm in West Berlin in late 1956. A play based on the story of Anne Frank, written by the American playwrights Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett and directed by Boro Krause. The production was based on The Diary of Anne Frank, published by Fischer. On the cover of the program appears a photograph of the scene in which Anne Frank gazes out of a window. The German actress portraying Anne Frank is Gertrud Kückelmann.  The inner pages recount Anne's life, from her childhood in Frankfurt, through her emigration to the Netherlands and life in the Secret Annex, to her arrest and tragic death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945, only a few weeks before liberation. Alongside the biographical account, the program provides a list of the cast and creators of the Berlin production and includes stage photographs from the rehearsals and the performance itself, illustrating the realistic set design of the ”back house” (the hiding place) in Amsterdam, including the concealed entrance behind the movable bookcase, the family's life in hiding, and their capture by the Nazis.  The play marked the first time that German audiences confronted the atrocities of the Nazi regime in a direct, visual, and emotional manner through the story of the young girl from Amsterdam, only a few months after the play had achieved tremendous success and premiered on Broadway. The production at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm, as well as performances in other German cities that same year, is regarded as one of the significant psychological catalysts that opened the way for public discussion in West Germany regarding the guilt of the older generation and its role in the crimes of the Holocaust, and encouraged a departure from denial. [4] pages. Very good condition.