Join the Lawrence Opera Theater, the LJCC, and the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education for this matinee performance of "The Path to Heaven." Premiered in 2018, "The Path to Heaven" is a powerful and moving one act opera with music by Adam Gorb and words by Ben Kaye. A tale of extremism, expedience and deceit, the work exposes the disintegration of the loves, lives and hopes of a family struggling to survive during the Holocaust.

The afternoon will begin with an optional pre-show talk at 1:30pm by Dr. Shelley Cline, educator at the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education and at KU.

The performance will follow at 2:30pm.

Concessions will be available for purchase.

Purchase tickets through the Lawrence Opera Theater

Synopsis of The Path to Heaven

The Path to Heaven premiered in 2017, and follows the stories of two sisters, Sarah and Hanna, and
their family friend Magda, along with Sarah’s fiancé, Dieter. The group have just returned from a
night of celebration for Sarah’s 18th birthday, and everyone looks forward to Sarah and Dieter’s
marriage. Everything comes crashing down, however, when Sarah and Hanna find a notice of
evacuation from the Jewish Cultural Association to Berlin on their door. Family and friends once again
convene, but the party atmosphere from the previous night is long gone. Sarah and Hanna are initially
confused- they are not Jewish, so there must be some mistake with them receiving an evacuation
notice. However, Magda reveals that the sisters, in fact, are. When the parents moved to Berlin, they
never engaged with the Jewish community, and swore Magda to secrecy that she would never tell.
They were, after all, “amongst good people now.” In the meantime, Deiter reveals that he received his
commission for the army only a week ago, so he is ‘safe’ and swears to use his new status as a Nazi
soldier to protect the sisters. Magda, Sarah, and Hanna attempt to hide from the SS officers in Berlin,
but are soon discovered and forced onto one of the many, many trains destined for the concentration
camps. Several scenes play out along the trio’s journey, highlighting the desperation and despair of
the women, the depravity of the Nazis, and the ignorance of the world to the genocide. In the end,
only Magda survives, and in the present day reflects on how complacent everyone was until it was
too late. She tells her story as a warning, and that “Silence is a true friend to wickedness.”