At the Gates of Sheol

Holocaust literature has grown in recent years. Many books have been written by Holocaust survivors, providing us with harrowing stories of suffering and brutality, as well as courage and compassion. Other authors tell the stories of righteous Gentiles who risked their lives to rescue strangers or hide their Jewish neighbors.

Unfortunately, many contemporary books and movies utilize the Holocaust as thematic background to tell stories that have little or nothing to do with Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Other works minimize the horror and moral outrage of the Holocaust by revising historical facts or by downplaying Gentile accountability.

While it is essential to the hear the stories of children who were rescued or escaped death during the Holocaust, powerful autobiographical accounts by survivors who are now adults, very little has been written about Jewish children who were systematically murdered in the Holocaust.

Because these murdered children cannot speak for themselves, their stories have remained largely untold. In a world of increasing Jew hatred and antisemitism, the voices of one and half million Jewish children are notably silent. I believe their silence is an unacceptable breach in our humanity. To stand in the breach, for the last four years, I have been engaged in Holocaust research. At the Gates of Sheol is the result: a historical play that tells the stories of forgotten Jewish children.

If Jewish children of the Holocaust, or HaShoah, could speak, they would express their horror and sorrow about being separated from their parents and families, as well as their will to live, learn, play, create, and love. But what would happen if they met their murderers in positions of supernatural authority, from above, higher than any earthly court or tribunal? What would children say? And how would Jewish children approach justice?

What would the innocent say about the adult world, where children were murdered because they were born Jewish? Or Sinti? Or Roma? Or Slavic? Is mercy and forgiveness ever possible? Or must impartiality deny mercy to serve justice? Will a better world rise from the ashes of one and a half million Jewish children, rounded up and exterminated by the good Christian people of Europe?

The most vulnerable and powerless victims of the Holocaust were children. At the Gates of Sheol, a play in three acts with an Epilogue Prologue, is expected to be published in 2026. The play tells the stories of children murdered in the Holocaust from their own perspectives.

At the Gates of Sheol is based on true accounts of Jewish children. Their individual experiences are threads woven into a tapestry of remembrance and courage. Through dramatic reconstruction, actual events, and painful emotions, many Jewish children tell their stories together as one. Children who have been silent for so long now have voices to speak the truth.

Meet the accused: a Gentile Polish neighbor, Mrs. Mara Kostos, a Vatican priest and cardinal running Nazi Ratlines, Father Giovanni Mudal, and a Nazi extermination camp superior, Commander Reinhard Zyklaus, as they face Eva, Mendel, Lina, and Joshua, the Jewish Council of Children at The Gates of Sheol.

Hear and see the testimonies of Jewish children brutally murdered in HaShoah. Celebrate their stories of courage and determination in the face of unbearable circumstances. Justice is long overdue. And not just for Nazis or Europeans, but for humanity. Until now.