Professor David Peimer and Joanna Millan
An Interview with Holocaust Survivor Joanna Millan

David Peimer is a Professor of Literature, Film and Theatre in the UK. He has worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, New York University (Global Division) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing in New York, UK, Berlin, EU Parliament (Brussels), Athens, Budapest, Zululand and more. He has most recently directed Dame Janet Suzman in his own play, Joanna’s Story, at London Jewish Book Week. He has published widely with books including: Armed Response: Plays from South Africa, the digital book, Theatre in the Camps. He is on the board of the Pinter Centre (London), and has been involved with the Mandela Foundation, Vaclav Havel Foundation and directed a range of plays at Mr Havel’s Prague theatre.

Joanna Millan was born Bela Rosenthal in Berlin in 1942. When she was 8 months old, she and her mother were deported to Theresienstadt. Her mother died of typhus, leaving Joanna on her own until she was liberated and brought to the UK. Adopted at the age of six, Joanna was told to forget the past. Hers is a story of reconstructed memory. For the past 30 years Joanna has been telling her story in schools and universities both in the UK and abroad, particularly in China.