The Gift of Happy Memories: A World War II Christmas Puppet Play in Ravensbrück

Abstract

Szopki, Polish musical nativity puppet plays, were a widespread but relatively unstudied artistic response to Nazi occupation among Polish Catholics in Nazi concentration camps. As the nativity story is only a small portion of a szopka production, the Polish inmates had opportunities to subvert censorship during the rest of the performance. The artist Maja Berezowska and the actress Jadwiga Kopijowska wrote and performed Szopka Polska in the Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1942, 1943, and 1944. This article examines the adaptation of traditional carols and puppets in the context of social ritual to facilitate a purposeful recreation of happy and comforting prewar memories in the play. Building on scholarship that focuses on less visible forms and sites of resistance, the present article’s approach frames the sharing of positive memories as a form of caretaking. These activities, especially communal activities led by women, are often overlooked in scholarship in favor of more overt or dramatic actions. The Szopka Polska writers drew strength from representations of childhood and motherhood. Parodied traditional songs and altered stock szopki scenes promoted Polish heritage and normalcy, using Poland’s past triumphs as hope for future liberation. Three modern puppets, the Soldier, Polish Mother, and a Häftling (inmate), attend the nativity and directly address the inmates’ World War II experiences, a phenomenon that rarely occurred in other forms of concentration camp theater. In the play, these three puppets, the 19th-century folk character Wiarus, and a skit for two children promote survival and resistance by modeling productive reactions to oppression