Letters To Sala - Sala's Gift

04/04/2026

Like Adolescence, INNOCENCE takes a scalpel to family and friend relationship, peeling back layer after layer until all is revealed — and you are left gasping and thinking long after the curtain falls. Fantastic set, magnificent performances, thrilling score. Between this, Kavalier, and Tristan, a remarkable season !

10/03/2026

Could be the most exciting performance I ever saw. Lise Davidson in Tristan und Isolde — the best five hours of music, acting, creativity ever! Just read the NYT review and for once, they got it right. “Lise Davidsen’s voice can rattle your skull and leave you awed by power you almost never hear in a human voice.”

25/02/2026

I am so thrilled to share with you the New York Public Library announcement of the premiere of Sala, the documentary film about my mother.

Here’s the special link to register for the screening on March 24 at 630 pm at the main library.

https://www.showclix.com/tickets/sala-documentary/tag/guest

So long in the making, and so worth waiting for!

Please join me, our wonderful filmmakers, Eddie Marritz and Tim Messler, and our distinguished moderator, Annette Insdorf.

https://www.showclix.com/tickets/sala-documentary/tag/guest

>>>In 1940, sixteen-year-old Sala volunteered to work in a N**i slave labor camp. She thought she would be there for six weeks. Over the next five years, Sala received more than 350 letters from home or from other camps. Along with photographs and her diary, they were the only connection to her lost family and friends. Today, these documents comprise a major collection in the Library’s Dorot Jewish Division. Sala’s story has inspired a book by her daughter, Ann Kirschner, and a play by Arlene Hutton, and now filmmakers Eddie Marritz, Tim Messler, and Sian Evans have created a documentary portrait of Sala. Drawing on conversations recorded in her later years, the film traces both the horrors she endured and the life she built, illuminating how courage, memory, and family define an enduring legacy.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring the filmmakers, Ann Kirschner, and moderator Annette Insdorf.>>>

Sala Film Screening and Talkback in New York - Checkout. As a young teenager, Sala Garncarz survived the Holocaust in seven N**i labor camps. A new documentary about the life she made for herself from that trauma and loss tells a remarkable story of the power of love to sustain life. In 1940, sixte

16/12/2025

From my aunt Raizel Garncarz [Lange] to my mother, Sala Garncarz [Kirschner] on the first night of Chanukah. Sala was a captive in the first of seven slave labor camps, 1940-1945.

Can't you just hear my aunt's voice and picture this scene? "Shall we not believe in that?"

With thanks to Jeffry Cymbler for always posting this. And what a Chanukah this is, when we need lights, kindness, compassion more than ever.

11/12/2025

congrats to the Milken School and Audrey Tischler! thanks always to our playwright and my friend Beth Lincks.

All of us at Milken are taught the history of the Holocaust, especially those of us whose relatives experienced it. Most of us are even introduced to it in elementary school, so what makes putting on a play about the Holocaust any different than learning about it in a classroom? “Letters to Sala.....

22/08/2025

Beautiful night in Berkeley….celebrating the new presidency of JB Milliken at University of California. Higher ed never more in peril, never more in need of great leaders like Pres Milliken.

04/08/2025

Picture perfect picnic night in Saltaire.

06/04/2025

Recommending…..

For years, my friend’s father asked me to recount his childhood escape from the N**is. Why did it take me this long?

19/01/2025

I diligently googled this place in fabulous Napier New Zealand to see if it was named in homage to Shel Silverstein’s unforgettable poem Hungry Mungry (you don’t know it? My grandson Dylan will recite it for you with feeling) but can’t see anything about the name!

16/01/2025

Happy and lucky travelers are we…..

17/11/2024

14/11/2024

TWO Connecticut productions of LETTERS TO SALA this week, one at Stonington High School, one at Newtown High School, where playwright Arlene Hutton and I will be visiting cast, crew, and teachers tomorrow.

Here's what I wrote to the students at Stonington.

I am overjoyed to hear that Stonington High School is bringing my mother's story to life through Arlene Hutton's LETTERS TO SALA. My mother Sala would have wanted to meet every one of you—each student actor, crew member, teacher, and advisor involved in this production. She would have marveled at how deeply you've connected with her story.

Sala had an extraordinary gift for connecting with people. In even the briefest encounters, she could see into someone's heart and mind. She cared about your struggles, celebrated your dreams, and treasured your deepest thoughts. This genuine interest in others never dimmed, even after all she had endured.

She always said the letters saved her life—they gave her a reason to survive when hope seemed lost. Today, through your dedication to telling her story, you've become part of that enduring legacy. In our current world, often filled with division and darkness, you are sharing a powerful message of compassion, resilience, and hope that survived humanity's darkest chapter.

Thank you for becoming part of our family's story, and for ensuring that Sala's voice continues to be heard.