Theatre performance: Journey to Kreisau

A Journey to Kreisau

Thursday, 1 March, 19:30, at the Kloster Schule near Berliner Tor. (Westphalensweg 7)

This performance is being presented by Albion Productions in commemoration of Helmuth James von Moltke's 100th birthday.

The director (Mark Clifton), accompanying pianist (Matilde Graham) and the actors (Rebecca Garron, Jonathan Guss, John Kirby, Martin Mills, Elena Kaufman) hail from America, Ireland, Canada, France and Germany. Performance will be in English.

Written by American playwright Marc Smith, the play is based on interviews with Freya von Moltke and the letters Helmuth wrote her. Freya still lives in America, where she and the children escaped to after Helmuth was arrested . In recent years, she has travelled between the U.S. and Europe, setting up and promoting the Kreisau Foundations in Poland and Germany.

Marc has had more than a dozen plays produced in New York, Worcester, Los Angeles, Boston, Lenox, MA, and the O’Neill Center.

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The Kreisau Project ... The work has evolved into a multi-year creative effort for Marc, with the express cooperation of the von Moltke family. The first completed part of this project is the play, A Journey to Kreisau.

The Story—

Sixty years after the second World War, the amazing story of the anti-Nazi resistance group dubbed “The Kreisau Circle� by the Gestapo, is only now coming to light. Led by a young German aristocrat, Helmuth James von Moltke and his wife Freya, a group of visionary, courageous individuals met frequently at the von Moltke estate in Kreisau, Silesia, debating and defining the future of a democratic Germany in a democratic Europe. By envisioning and creating a plan for a post-Hitler Germany, these stubbornly brave individuals put their lives on the line for their beliefs. Few of the circle survived.

Refusing to flee the Third Reich, the von Moltkes laid claim to their heritage: “We are German, Christian, and European. And it is for this we must bear witness. We stay.� (from the play, A Journey to Kreisau, by Marc P. Smith © copyright 2005).

Helmuth James was arrested and imprisoned in January 1944 for warning a colleague who was about to be picked up by the Gestapo. He was able to smuggle letters from jail to his wife Freya through a fellow member of the resistance. Freya in turn stored the letters in beehives on the estate, gambling, accurately, that the Gestapo would never search there. She later was able to retrieve the letters when she fled the Russians. The play was largely based on these letters and on interviews and other documents made available to the author by the von Moltke family.

Helmuth James von Moltke was tried by the president of the People’s Court, Roland Freisler. Despite the many executions related to the plot to blow up Hitler on 20 July 1944, Helmuth James was perhaps the first and only German to be tried and sentenced to death for being a Christian. He was executed on 23 January 1945. Roland Freisler was killed in a bomb attack shortly after.

Hi Mark,

This sounds interesting. Do we need to purchase or reserve tickets for this performance? If so, how can I go about doing this?

Hi Shoegal,
You can reserve tickets by emailing Mark (M.Clifton@T-Online.de) and/or purchase at the door. No need to pay in advance.

Tickets are 10 euro/ 5 euro for students and seniors.

Janell (for Mark Clifton)

P.S. Yeah it is really interesting; a great story. One of those true life "untold" stories that is relevant to today's "times", so to speak. :-)