Under the stage lights of Colts Neck High School, students in the Law and Public Service Program (LPS)—a magnet, application-based, exclusive program New Jersey high school—confronted the realities of loss, displacement, and survival through Diane Samuels’s Kindertransport, transforming history lessons into a powerful live experience that resonated far beyond the theater.
Unfortunately, in 2026, Holocaust education in New Jersey remains a privilege rather than a guaranteed right. For students who have been granted access to immersive, hands-on learning, that opportunity carries weight and responsibility. Those students did not take it for granted, instead using their education to inform their performances and to spark conversation, awareness, and reflection among their peers.
The play follows the physical and emotional journey of nine-year-old Eva, a German Jewish girl who is forced to leave behind everything she has ever known. In a desperate effort to save her from the looming Holocaust, her parents send her to England on the Kindertransport, hoping she will find safety with a foster family.
Told across multiple time periods and locations, including 1930s Germany, 1940s England, and 1980s England, Kindertransport explores the long-lasting effects of Eva’s childhood trauma. As Eva grows into Evelyn, the audience witnesses how her experiences shape not only her own life but also the lives of those around her, including her 20-year-old daughter. The story underscores the enduring and generational impact of displacement, loss, and survival.
The weight of the subject matter was not lost on the cast. For many students, the history portrayed on stage was deeply familiar. Just one year earlier, students in LPS experienced the Hate Ends Now Holocaust education Cattle Car and the Darrell English Artifact exhibit through CARMA Center to Combat Antisemitism and Reinforce Multicultural Acceptance, an initiative of Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey. This experience shaped how they approached their roles in Kindertransport.
The Hate Ends Now mobile Holocaust exhibit and original artifact collection is an educational experience that raises awareness about the Holocaust, antisemitism, and all forms of hate. Housed in an exact replica WWII era cattle car as was used to transport Jews and other targeted groups to concentration and death camps during the Holocaust, it is a powerful 360-degree immersive presentation. Accompanying the exhibit is a rare collection of original Holocaust artifacts from the Darrell English Collection.
Cast members who took part in the immersive experience were able to draw on what they learned to deepen their understanding of Kindertransport and the characters they portrayed.
“The immersive experience that we had last year, it just really put [the Holocaust] into perspective. Obviously, we read books, we see movies, we learn about the Holocaust, but seeing it and being in the cattle car where everything is around us just really affected me and I feel like it really showed me how horrible it really was,” said Rebecca, who played Helga in Kindertransport. “And then just taking that with me into this, I had the background to be able to play my character, who went through it.”
CARMA Center to Combat Antisemitism and Reinforce Multicultural Acceptance is proud to have brought the Hate Ends Now Holocaust education Cattle Car immersive presentation to Freehold Regional High School District’s Law and Public Service magnet program at Colts Neck High School.
The production comes after incidents of antisemitism within the school district. Through performance, the cast aimed to educate their peers and emphasize that the Holocaust’s legacy is not confined to the past.
“Something really important that I would want my classmates to take from the show is that the Holocaust happened a long time ago, World War II happened a long time ago, but the effects of it are still happening today because it’s generational trauma,” said Rebecca.
That generational trauma is made visible through Kindertransport’s structure, which divides Eva/Evelyn into three versions of herself: Eva as a child, Eva as a teenager, and Evelyn as an adult and mother. This allows the audience to see how unaddressed trauma evolves across a lifetime.
“You can see the growth and you can see how they’re each distinct characters, so you can see how letting [the trauma] fester as an open wound, it was never closed, it was never properly treated, so you can see how much it affected her,” said Sophie, who played teen Eva. “It affected young Eva, but maybe it affected Evelyn more.”
By tracing Eva’s story across generations, Kindertransport helps bridge the gap between knowing that the Holocaust happened and fully understanding how its impact continues long after the events themselves.
“People are uncomfortable with what they don’t know, but I think people aren’t willing to be uncomfortable in order to learn. I think that’s the one thing we need to fix because if you don’t let yourself feel uncomfortable and learn about what actually happened, you create a barrier between yourself and what actually happened, and that creates apathy,” said Ami, who played Lil. “I think it is a responsibility to make sure we make people uncomfortable.”
The cast embraced that responsibility, using performance to confront audiences with painful truths rather than allowing history to fade into abstraction. For many viewers, the visual portrayal of trauma made the lessons of Holocaust education feel urgent and personal.
“We need to learn from the experiences we’ve had so that it can never happen again,” said Nika, who played Evelyn.
Several students also stressed that Holocaust education must be accessible to all students, and deserves more funding, particularly in a time when harmful language and ideas can spread quickly among young people.
“It’s so important now more than ever to remind people how powerful their voices are in both a positive and negative way, and that we need to educate…that is how these horrible things get stopped,” said Sean, who played the Ratcatcher, a frightening character inspired by a fictional story Eva read as a child. “We all just need to make sure that people know what they’re saying.”
Mrs. Allyson Descy, director of Kindertransport, emphasized that the lessons of the play extend beyond the stage. “It is up to all of us to do something about it. To fight against all the prejudice and hate we see. We cannot undo the atrocities, but we can do everything in our power to not let more occur. We must do more than have the desire for the world to be better; we must try to make it so,” she said.
That sentiment was echoed by leaders outside the theater, who emphasized the broader role of education and community support.
“Learning about the Holocaust prepares students to be informed, responsible citizens by connecting historical lessons to democratic values and human rights, while also warning of the dangers of hatred, indifference, and unchecked power seen during World War II,” shared Susan Antman, Executive Director of Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey. Federation provides educational opportunities, a helpline, support and resources for schools and their students.
Clearly, through both immersive Holocaust education and performance, these students engaged with history in ways that extended beyond the classroom. Their participation in multiple forms of experiential learning, from artifacts and exhibits to live theater, reflects the impact that comprehensive Holocaust education can have when students are given the opportunity to encounter history directly and thoughtfully.
Jaden Riveles is the Marketing and Communications Associate for Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey and a contributing writer to Jlife Magazine.
