Telling Janka’s Story

By Cathie Campbell, The Sierra Star

(Fresno, CA) May 28, 2003 – Some stories take a while to be told or written down. Some stories need to be lived, to be inhaled and exhaled — sometimes with ease, sometimes with pain, but always with a sense of purpose.

Oscar Speace of Fresno knows all about “sense of purpose” and it shows in his work. He is a producer-director-writer for Valley Public Television and creator of Valley Press, KVPT-TV’s most important public affairs program, for which he produces and directs. His vast experience also includes having directed the Electric Light Orchestra at The Hilton Theater in Reno, Nevada (program will air on PBS), and the authoring of four screenplays as well as award-winning film- making and several other directing and producing projects, including the first season of the popular Ray Appleton Show.

Most recently, Oscar has been involved in developing a Holocaust documentary entitled, “Janka: One Minute of Perfect Happiness,” plus writing and directing a one-woman show based on the same material, “Janka.” The show is being performed by his wife, Janice Noga.

Oscar explains

Here, in Oscar’s own words, is his introduction to a story that was lived, breathed, and will soon be shared with Mountain Area residents:

“Can you pinpoint a day in your life when you knew your life would never be the same? Maybe it’s the day you got married. Or the day you completed your education. Or the day your first child was born. The day you learned purpose in life; the day that changes everything forever.

“Mine came in 1997 when my Aunt Betty told me she had my mother’s letter — a letter written October 7, 1945, telling the story of my mother and her two sisters and their journey through the Holocaust.

“The journey started on May 15, 1944 and took them from Sighet, Romania to Auschwitz to Dachau to Munich as Jewish slave laborers for the Nazis. Their journey would end May 1, 1945 in a railroad boxcar when the German SS guards laid down their weapons in the face of American tanks.

“My mother’s name was Janka Festinger. She died in 1994. She was 77 years old. She had immigrated to America in the summer of 1946 after marrying Bob Speace, a G.I. stationed in Germany. Their marriage was the first to be recognized by the U.S. Army.

Her letter is now a TV documentary script in search of financing. It is a moving and compelling story about the horrors the Jews faced at the hands of the Nazis. It is a story she would never tell her twin sons born in 1948. She viewed her boys as her victory over the tyranny that was Hitler’s Final Solution.

Today, her twins are accomplished filmmakers prepared to tell her story to the world. A story handed to them from beyond her grave. A story she would only speak of in the most general terms.

Janka the Play

But like all great stories, this story has taken another turn.

Janka’s letter is now a play entitled, “Janka,” starring Janice Noga, an accomplished singer and actress, which will be presented at The Studio (next to the library) in North Fork on Friday and Saturday, June 13 and 14, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20. Reservation requests may be made by calling Jamie, 877-2861.

“What inspired me to do it was the writing of my husband,” said Janice. “He wrote such an honest picture of his mother.”

Janice Noga was given a firsthand account of the horrors of the Holocaust by Janka herself during their earlier meetings together. “She wanted me to convert to Judaism,” explained Janice, a Catholic. “My heart saddened when she was telling me the story. She told me more than she ever told her sons.”

“The play came about because an agent in Los Angeles thought Janka’s story, her letter, could be a one-woman show.” said Oscar. “I concurred. So, I went to work and four months later ‘Janka, the Play’ was born. I also wrote the play because I felt we could take it on tour and it would help to raise the money needed to complete the documentary. And, my wife was willing to do it. So, I’ve written a play about my mother that my wife is performing. I wonder what Shakespeare would have said about that.

“Now that we’ve done the play a few times, and hearing the reaction, we both feel the play may be more important than the documentary. The documentary will come and go but “Janka, the Play” will be performed for generations to come. Performed to remind the next generation what hate and one man could do to a people and the world.

“When my brother and I make our trek through Eastern Europe, back to our mother’s home in Sighet, Romania, and follow her footsteps across Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia [now the Czech Republic], Poland and Germany, to complete the documentary, there is so much we will learn about her life. When you come to see the play, you will help us complete this journey that started in 1997.”