POLAND: Polish authorities said yesterday they had withdrawn permission for the musical Jesus Christ Superstar to be performed at Majdanek, the former Nazi extermination camp, after protests by Jewish groups.
The culture ministry and the camp's management said the performance by a local Polish theatre group could not go ahead. "The play was to break down barriers between people, but it turns out that it only creates them," the state press agency quoted camp museum director Edward Balawejder as saying. "With regret I have to refuse to give permission to use Majdanek for presentation of this spectacle."
The plan to stage the play at the former camp in eastern Poland had gained the approval of a group representing former Majdanek prisoners. But the Anti-Defamation League, a US-based Jewish group, said earlier this week it was appalled by the plan to stage the musical at Majdanek and appealed to the organisers to move it. - (Reuters)