Synopsis
The one-woman documentary play, Hell on Earth: Manya Frydman Perel's Shoah Experience presents Manya's own words to bring life to her testimony and to honor her life in which she spent almost fifty years telling her story to thousands of people throughout the Philadelphia. PA area. Manya Frydman Perel (1924-2020) was born in Radom, Poland, one of ten children. As a teenager she attended a public school and hoped to go to college. However these plans were obliterated in September 1939 when the Nazi army marched into the city and confiscated homes and businesses, and eventually imprisoned all the Jewish people.
In April 1941 she was imprisoned in the Radom ghetto and then later deported to several concentration and death camps including Majdanek, Ravensbrück, Plaszow, Rechlin, Gundelsdorf, and Auschwitz. She performed hard labor and nearly starved to death. Despite the horrible living conditions, scarce food rations and the constant threat of the gas chambers and death, Manya risked her life to save others. Her bravery, in the face of such destitution, inspired generations of people.
In 1945, Manya and a friend escaped a death march from Auschwitz by fleeing into a forest where, on May 5, the Russians liberated them. In July 1945 she was taken to a displaced-persons camp in Stuttgart, Germany where she was reunited with the remaining members of her family. She recuperated there and waited for her turn to leave Europe and immigrate to Montreal, Canada.
In 1958, she moved with her husband to Philadelphia, PA and raised a family and eventually became a proud grandmother. She said, “I hope that my life will be an example for others not to take life for granted, not to be prejudiced toward others, and to respect one another.”
Content Warning: Description of trauma, violence, and death.
About the Performer
Darby Pumphrey is a fourth generation Holocaust survivor and 2019 Graduate of Rowan University with a degree in Theatre and a concentration in Musical Theatre. Previous credits: Godspell, Rocky Horror Picture Show (Milton Theatre), The Last 5 Years, My Way, The Shape of Things, Ragtime (Eagle Theatre), Carrie, Hair (Rowan University). She would like to thank Manya for letting her share this powerful and important story, as well as Anthony for trusting her to perform and give justice to this piece.