Conversation Series Schedule and Panelists

McCarter and Tectonic have partnered with the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE), the production’s Content & Conversation partner, to curate a series of post-show discussions with leading ethicists and scholars to discuss the complex issues raised in the play—and consider their relevance for today. Conversations take place directly after the matinee performances on January 26, February 1, February 2, and February 8.  

Sunday, January 26 at 2:00 PM

How do you make a play from an album of photographs? Go behind the scenes with the real museum archivist at the center of this story and creative team members.

Panelists: Rebecca Erbelding, Historian, US Holocaust Memorial Museum; Tectonic Theater Project’s Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich, moderated by McCarter’s Julie Felise Dubiner.

Why Continue to Study the Holocaust? Auschwitz was liberated 80 years ago; we have seen genocides since 1945. Why do we continue to study the Holocaust; why does the Holocaust remain so much a part of contemporary pedagogy, literature, ethics and more? What is the role of Holocaust study in a post-survivor world?

Panelists: Rabbi Gil Steinlauf, CJL Executive Director and Jewish Chaplain at Princeton University and Consul General Till Knorn, German Consulate New York. 

Photo: Thorsten Wagner and Elizabeth Levy Paluck

The Transformation of Norms and Complicity as the New Normal - The play opens a window into the norms of Nazi perpetrators and complicit professionals.  In the 1930s and 1940s, German society experienced a gradual, comprehensive, ever-accelerating transformation of its system of ethical and moral values among doctors, lawyers, accountants, and more. Their role is central to the play, and raises pressing questions about contemporary professional ethics. 

Panelists: Thorsten Wagner, Executive Director Strategy and Academics, FASPE and Elizabeth Levy Paluck, Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, Princeton University.

The Next Generation: How Do We Deal with the Sins of Our Fathers? How can seemingly normal people commit horrific acts during weekdays and enjoy family and professional relaxation on weekends? Can evil be compartmentalized? Could the Kommandant of Auschwitz have been a good father to his children—who lived in a comfortable villa a short distance from their father’s office at Auschwitz? 

Panelists: David Goldman, Chairman, FASPE and Jonathan Lee Walton, President, Princeton Theological Seminary, moderated by Jill S. Dolan, Annan Professor of English, former Dean of the College, Princeton University.