Santa’s Story: Performing Holocaust postmemory on the world stage

Abstract

This account uses performance and critical analysis to investigate the entangled histories and multidirectional memories that entwine African colonialism and the Holocaust in Santa’s Story by Aviva Pelham. The paper spotlights the intersections between the memory of the Holocaust and colonial Africa by focussing on the memory of women survivors and children of survivors on the African continent. Drawing on Marianne Hirsch’s notion of ‘postmemory’ the paper interrogates the gendered intergenerational transmission of Holocaust and colonial memory through performance to address three interrelated concerns. First it responds to the limited scope of theatre and performance work produced and staged in Africa and elsewhere that engage with the memory and experience of Holocaust survivors on the African continent. Secondly this account responds to the dearth in critical commentary about the performance works created about women Holocaust survivors. Lastly, this dearth extends to creative works by Holocaust survivors’ children born and raised on the African continent who explore what it means to ‘perform’ as their parents on the world stage.