Sigtuna Hospital Memories - The patient's monotonous, unidentifiable moaning voice is barely heard... - Anamnesis - Some words the doctor does not understand. What is a Aufseherinnen or Sperre

The doctor is alone with the patient who has just been taken to the hospital by an ambulance. A short distance, just from Kajplats 2 in Frihamnen. The patient, a woman 18 years old, has survived the Holocaust and arrived with the White Boat S/S Kastelholm from Lübeck. The patient weighs 28 kg and has a tattoo on her left arm. A number starting with A-234 .... The photo above was taken at Sigtuna emergency hospital.

The doctor may repeat the patient's response a number of times while slicing. It is about the number of years in the ghetto, then in concentration and labor camps such as Auschwitz, death marches and finally the time in Bergen-Belsen. It is about the fate of parents and siblings. The text will be authentic based on a document just like the ones in the pictures above. They must contain most of the terrible logistics of the industrial Holocaust. Ghettos, transports in cattle wagons, selections, labor camps and death marches. The text must all be written by hand (or an old typewriter) and be legible to the viewer.

We do not see the patient, we only see the doctor's curved back. The doctor is sitting in a semi-dark room on a stainless steel hospital stool that can be raised and lowered by twisting. The patient's monotonous, unidentifiable moaning voice is barely heard, but it continues all the time as background (recorded). The patient lies in a white hospital bed, with plywood board behind her, separating one patient from another, see top picture.
The doctor, asks questions and gets simple, scary answers that she repeats with a voice that is clearly heard. The doctor may repeat the patient's response a number of times while slicing. It is about the number of years in the ghetto, then in concentration and labor camps such as Auschwitz, death marches and finally the time in Bergen-Belsen. It is about the fate of parents and siblings.

My idea for a short film or a theatrical performance is of the type of a "play for one actor". I see a Swedish-Jewish doctor (e.g. Jessica Zandén) at an emergency hospital such as Sigtuna writing a medical history. Dr. Esther Lamm actually worked at Sigtuna. It can be at a hospital bed at the Epidemic Hospital at Roslagstull or at the emergency hospital in Sigtuna. The emergency hospitals (Beredskapssjukhus) that received Holocaust survivors were in many places in Sweden.

The doctor is alone with the patient who has just been taken to the hospital by an ambulance. A short distance, just from Kajplats 2 in Frihamnen. The patient, a woman 18 years old, has survived the Holocaust and arrived with UNRRA White Boat S/S Kastelholm from Lübeck. The patient weighs 28 kg and has a tattoo on her left arm. A number starting with A-234 .... We do not see the patient, we only see the doctor's curved back. The doctor is sitting in a semi-dark room on a stainless steel hospital stool that can be raised and lowered by twisting. The patient's monotonous, unidentifiable moaning voice is barely heard, but it continues all the time as background (recorded). The patient lies in a white hospital bed, with plywood board behind her, separating one patient from another.

The doctor, Jessica (Esther), asks questions and gets simple, scary answers that she repeats with a voice that is clearly heard. The doctor may repeat the patient's response a number of times while slicing. It is about the number of years in the ghetto, then in concentration and labor camps such as Auschwitz, death marches and finally the time in Bergen-Belsen. It is about the fate of parents and siblings. The text will be authentic based on a document just like the ones in the pictures above. They must contain most of the terrible logistics of the industrial Holocaust. Ghettos, transports in cattle wagons, selections, labor camps and death marches. The text must all be written by hand (or the old typewriter) and be legible to the viewer.

At the same time as you look at the slicing doctor's back, you see in the background on the right or left side of the stage how a written text appears, word after word and finally shapes the entire real anamnesis. Some words the doctor does not understand. What is a Aufseherinnen or Sperre . What is the meaning of an action or selection . If you come to such an unknown word as Aufseherinnen, the written text can be interrupted against an image of an Aufseherinnen, an SS woman (perhaps with a dog).

The situation with the patient is played out a number of times - 3-4. Each time before "changing the patient" it becomes completely dark and the bed, the pillows and the "patient's" position change slightly.

The alternative, the written text appears at the same time as the doctor writes and pronounces aloud what the survivor has said: Finally, you see the whole page of the real Doctor's card that was written in the summer of 1945.

On the left side of the stage a picture from the ghetto, Auschwitz, death marches and finally Bergen-Belsen and transport to Sweden.

One can start from Professor Halina Neujahr's doctor's card and her life.

You do not see the doctor's face, you concentrate on the voice, the words and the written text.

About Anamnes, or see the link here: https://jimbaotoday.blogspot.com/2019/01/anamnes-av-fd-koncentrationslagerfangar.html

You can also have a different angle and do the scenography as it would be on one of the five Swedish White Boats that were used for UNRRA transports between Germany and Sweden and have dr. Lisa Welander (from White Boat M/S Kronprinsessan Ingrid) as the one who examines the patient and writes the anamnesis.

Of course, if you make a film, you can start with the ship list of those who came with UNRRAs White Boats and "illuminate" one of the chosen people.

We do not see the patient, we only see the doctor's curved back. The doctor is sitting in a semi-dark room on a stainless steel hospital stool that can be raised and lowered by twisting. The patient's monotonous, unidentifiable moaning voice is barely heard, but it continues all the time as background (recorded). The patient lies in a white hospital bed, with plywood board behind her, separating one patient from another.

Thanks to the White Angels, will probably be the second part of this trilogy that starts with Anamnes. The second part will based on letters and notes in "memory books" addressed to the staff, mainly nurses and auxiliary nurses.

The last part of the trilogy will be about the fate of the various survivors who came to Sweden at the end of the war. That part will include information about their Last Stage, thus about the transportation from the latest concentration camp in Germany to Sweden, thus a story about White buses, White Ghost trains and the White Boats.




Thanks to the White Angels, will probably be the second part of this trilogy that starts with Anamnes. The second part will based on letters and notes in "memory books" addressed to the staff, mainly nurses and auxiliary nurses.