The Yiddish Art Theatre in Paris after the Holocaust, 1944–1950

• Published in: Theatre survey Vol. 61; no. 3; pp. 351 - 371
• Main Author: Underwood, Nick
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.09.2020
• Subjects: Actors; Advertisements; Antisemitism; Assimilation; Holocaust; Jewish culture; Jewish life & ethics; Jewish people; Postwar history; Theater; Yiddish language; France
• ISSN: 0040-5574; 1475-4533
• DOI: 10.1017/S0040557420000277

Almost as soon as Paris was liberated from Nazi Occupation on 25 August 1944, Yiddish actors took back the stages on which they had once performed. In fact, on 20 December 1944, while war and the Holocaust still raged, a small cohort of actors produced what they advertised in the Naye prese as the “first grand performance by the ‘Yiddish folks-bine.’” This performance was to take place at the four-hundred-seat Théâtre Lancry, a performance space located in Paris's 10th arrondissement, not far from the Place de la République and the Marais. “Lancry,” as it was known, had played host to Yiddish theatre as early as 1903 and, during the interwar years, it was the center of Parisian Yiddish cultural activity: dozens of theatre performances occurred there and it was where the Kultur-lige pariz was based, among other institutions. During the postwar years, it also went by the name Théâtre de la République after 1947 and Théâtre du Nouveau-Lancry after 1951, but many still referred to it simply as “Lancry.”