“Look, We’re Alive! (working title) by Dale Wasserman The following is not a docu-drama. It is a freely created story inspired by historical facts. All of the political material has been researched and is accurate” – Screenplay for an Unproduced Film About the Liberation of Dachau by Author and Playwright Dale Wasserman.
A Script for an Unproduced Film About the Liberation of Dachau, Written by Dale Wasserman. In the introduction, Wasserman describes the atmosphere and background: “The Dachau concentration camp was liberated by an American column on April 29, 1945. Hitler committed suicide on April 30. On May 7, Germany surrendered. The horrors of the concentration camps were a terrible shock to the Americans, who had heard rumors but never believed them. The death rate in the camps increased after liberation… Only those who clung to life aggressively survived. The war was over, and somewhere between twelve and fourteen million ‘displaced persons’ remained, many in the liberated camps, many wandering aimlessly along the roads of Europe…”.
The play opens with a scene of eating – gorging by starving prisoners at the end of the war. They cannot understand why they are no longer being beaten and almost expect someone to come and strike them, as that had become their reality during the war. Wasserman delves deeply into the minds of the liberated prisoners, capturing the complex emotions that haunted them at the war’s end. The scenes of the play are rooted in real experiences and deal with the psychological phenomenon of survivor guilt, a subject not fully explored at the time. Surprisingly, some of the liberated prisoners felt an overwhelming sense of guilt for surviving while their friends were murdered. For them, simply being alive was a source of shame, as they could not help their comrades who perished – and, at the very least, believed they should have died alongside them.
Dale Wasserman (1914–2008) was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants Samuel Wasserman and Bertha Feikel. Orphaned at the age of nine, he grew up in an orphanage in South Dakota. A self-taught autodidact, Wasserman taught himself to read and write and was drawn to the world of theater from a young age. Over his career, he wrote around 30 television dramas, making him one of the most recognized writers of television’s Golden Age. Wasserman is perhaps best known for his iconic play “Man of La Mancha”, a Broadway success that was later adapted into a celebrated musical. Known for his ability to blend humor, drama, and philosophical insights, Wasserman often dealt with themes of personal struggle, freedom, and individuality.
132 pages. Complete script. Condition: Very Good.
