David Lan’s play takes us into a fascinating corridor of history: that of displaced people, or DPs, in the aftermath of the second world war. The focus is on displaced minors, some of whom are German, others Slavic. There is talk of a third category of “special” children who were stolen by the Nazis as part of their campaign to create a breed of Aryan “pure bloods”. This, we hear, consisted of abducting mostly Slavic children and habilitating them into German families – if they met the “genetic” requirements.
Young Thomas is among this category, his previous Polish identity having been erased. He was given a new name, mother, tongue and Bavarian home, but we meet him as he is torn from this second, adoptive family to become a temporary charge of Ruth (Juliet Stevenson), a UN relief worker working with the American forces to return the children to their original towns, villages and homes.
