We joined Charlotte and Frank in attending the University of Miami’s performance of Cabaret in the Ring Theater yesterday.  The rain which dogged us all the way from North Miami Beach didn’t dampen our partnership with the actors on the stage in reliving a slice of German life in the 1930’s while the NAZI Party was beginning to take over the minds and government of a country that had not recovered from its losses in World War I.

The student performance of Cabaret was pretty flawless.  It was different from my memory of the classic movie with Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey. Time had softened my memories of the story line but we were sharply reminded of those times when a whole country became subject to a military dictatorship and its signature internal accomplishment was the attempt to become “Judenfrei”.  The moral decadence of that time was captured by the student actors and actresses who were the Germans withdrawing into the false life of a Cabaret in which there was no unhappiness but only freedom of expression – that is, until the NAZIS began to take over public life.

I cannot stress too strongly my personal hurt and anger which the performers (who were only acting out the lines they had memorized) were able to engender in me.  I squirmed in my seat even as I realized that this was just a play.  It was just a play, a musical, which raised the hair on the back of my head while sharply delineating the characters who were the Germans trying to forget their troubles while the German Jews were beginning to understand that they were the targets of this new political power testing its strength.

There was a book by Sinclair Lewis at the same time the NAZIS were rising to power which was entitled, It Can’t Happen Here.  That book and subsequent history proved that it has happened in many places around the world.  Democracy is NOT a given even in democracies.  It is so easy for one party to blind the eyes of gullible voters and play on their prejudices in order to gain power – this time.  It takes a very long time for the damage done to democratic procedures to be overcome.  It takes just enough excess of super-patriotism to overcome common sense and allow fanatics to erase the years of sacrifice of workers who had brought about good doctrines and good institutions to care for the poor, afflicted and the unlucky among us.

It is important to revive from time to time “entertainment” like Cabaret.  It gave me uncomfortable memories but they must be kept alive.