When he was 9

Young Chang

George Rothman’s life allows him to be picky about the kind of watch

he buys.

It cannot be digital because he is 67, and his vision is blurred. It

must illuminate, so he can read time in the dark. It must show standard

and military time, which Europeans go by. It must set easily -- with a

simple dial at the right that needs just a light tug and turn.

The timepiece, however, cannot give him back the time he has lost.

Time with his parents. Time that he has only in the last 20 years been

able to speak about.

His friends have been surprised to learn of the retired dentist’s

dramatic past: He is a Holocaust survivor. His Jewish French background

was something he hid. Being seen as American -- as just like everyone

else -- was his goal.

Today, he flaunts his heritage. It’s in his speech, in his thoughts,

in the words that make up his theatrical writings. Students from Orange

Coast College will perform “Where Were You on Your Ninth Birthday?” a

one-act play that touches upon his experiences, this weekend. This will

be the first production of “Where Were You,” which is taking second

billing to Jason Miller’s “Lou Gehrig Did Not Die of Cancer.”

“Where Were You” is set in both 1942 and 1972. A Paris couple in 1942

tries to protect their 9-year-old son from being taken by the Nazis

during World War II. The 1972 couple lives in Los Angeles. Their dilemma

is whether to take their son to Israel or Washington, D.C., for his ninth

birthday.

“It’s about a man who’s carrying around a lot of guilt and a lot of

demons,” said Alex Golson, a theater professor at OCC and the show’s

director. “And he finally comes to grips with it.”

The guilt and demons were once Rothman’s. When he was 9, Rothman’s

parents, Emmanuel and Esfira Bardenstein, were arrested by the Nazis in

Paris. They were taken to Auschwitz, where they died.

The Jewish couple had suspected they might be arrested so they had

sent their son to live with an elderly Parisian couple -- the Lequiens,

whose house Esfira Bardenstein sometimes cleaned.

The couple later placed Rothman in an orphanage and made sure he was

cared for. He was adopted by an American uncle -- whose name Rothman

bears -- soon after the war and brought to the United States.

Rothman grew up trying to be American, trying to ignore his haunted

past. But when he turned 39, Rothman realized he was the same age his

father had been when he died in the concentration camp.

Still he struggled with his identity -- traveling to Israel in 1979 to

learn more about being Jewish, visiting the Lequiens’ relatives in France

in the 1980s. In the midst of his turmoil, he began studying and then

sharing his past.

Documents from the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., have told

Rothman the following: His mother and father traveled east on the same

train after they were arrested. His mother probably died as soon as she

arrived in Auschwitz. His father probably lived a month more because he

was used for labor.

Then there are the things he can only guess at.

He thinks the Lequiens chose to risk their lives to protect him

because they were good people.

“It was probably because they had a wonderful heart,” he said, “and

they just wanted to do something because they couldn’t stand not doing

anything.”

He thinks his parents’ final thoughts were probably grim.

“I imagine two things,” said Rothman, who is a father and grandfather

himself. “They were trying to deal with the horrible conditions, and No.

2, saying, ‘Thank God’ [that] I didn’t have to go through this.”

Rothman wonders whether his father thought about him during his last

month.

“He probably did, but he was probably trying to survive. Or maybe he

was so weak that he--” Rothman trailed off. “There are so many

possibilities. I can create 50 scenarios.”

Five years ago, he traveled to Auschwitz and left a photo of his son,

daughter, their spouses and their children at the foot of a cluster of

chimneys memorializing the prisoner barracks.

It was his way of telling his parents, “Even though you died early in

your life, you did leave something,” he said.

“In the last 15 years, I’ve thought a lot about my parents and what

they must’ve gone through,” Rothman added. “Although it’s many, many more

years later, I feel more emotion and more pain.”

Golson admires the playwright.

“I think it’s remarkable that he lived through that -- feeling guilty

about not feeling guilty, being so anguished about it,” he said.

Though the past will never go away, the Irvine resident has a

comfortable, retired, suburban life to tend to today. He and wife Gail

are about to celebrate their 40th anniversary. He has two children who

love him and grandchildren he often sees.

He has partially written novels at the bottom of his drawers, a new

play he is working on now, classes at Orange Coast College -- he’s taken

every course in the theater department but one, which he will start in

the spring -- and goals to enter play festivals and contests.

After completing “Where Were You on Your Ninth Birthday?” in 1997, he

submitted it to a playwriting competition in Iowa and won an award.

Though he’s in his late 60s and watching the clock -- yes, his

four-feature watch -- he doesn’t plan to slow down.

“I’m going to win the Tony and the Pulitzer Prize,” Rothman said,

laughing but serious. “If you don’t have a dream, how are you going to

have a dream to come true? If you’re going to have a dream, might as well

have a good one.”

FYI

WHAT: “Where Were You on Your Ninth Birthday?” and “Lou Gehrig Did Not

Die of Cancer.”

WHEN: 8 p.m. today, Friday and Feb. 3, and 2 p.m. Sunday and Feb. 4

WHERE: Orange Coast College’s Drama Lab Studio, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa

COST: $5 or $6

CALL: (714) 432-5725