Herschel

 Herschel is a story of heroism amongst ordinary and extraordinary people, of impotence in the face of national and personal brutality, and of gestures, both meaningless and poignant which have resonated with historical developments. This is a play about a boy who responded to a situation of tragedy and horror for his family and his people by taking an extreme step, the same sort of step that a boy in similar circumstances today might take by becoming a suicide bomber. 

Herschel was 17 when he shot and killed 'the highest Nazi official' in Paris in 1938. His extraordinary actions led directly to Kristallnacht and precipitated the Holocaust. But what happened to the boy. Jailed in France and caught in a battle to extradite him to Nazi Germany, Herschel and his lawyer Moro, fight unsuccessfully to avoid the inevitable. Once in Sachsenhausen, in Germany, a court case, masterminded by Goebbels is planned. But Herschel, now far less naive, has a little trick up his sleeve.