When special needs teacher Linda Mea met Andree Parker on holiday, they first thought they had nothing more in common than their West Midlands home. But the two women had backgrounds that meant they would either flee each other's company or forge something remarkable. Ms Mae, from Kingshurst, is a playwright and the daughter of a recalcitrant Nazi. Mrs Parker, born a Slavic gipsy Jew, spent her early youth in concentration camps, and lost most of her family in the Second World War. Their meeting sparked a friendship that blossomed into a play by Ms Mae about her friend's experiences and is now being taken to schools around the country. Linda Mae was completing an MA a year ago in contemporary theatre practice when, she said, she had felt the need to write something about a Jewish prisoner. She remembered the woman she had met in Malta three years ago and contacted her to see if she would be interviewed for material for the play. Jude Zigguener is the true story of a child who survived Hitler's massacre of the Jewish population in Central Europe. As Jude prepares to celebrate Passover her mind goes back and she remembers. As she sets the places around the table she asks - could it happen again? Ms Mae's father had been a member of Hitler Youth in East Germany and had been a prisoner of war at a camp in Middleton, near Coleshill. He died 15 years ago, still clinging to the beliefs he had been indoctrinated with as a youngster she said. "I felt guilty for being part of the German race, for years I felt guilty about it," said Ms Mae. "But I now realise that I am not guilty for the sins of the fathers. "Writing as if I am read-dressing the balance. Not out of guilt, but because the story needs to be told so it doesn't happen again." Four years ago, Ms Mae went on holiday and she thinks that in some way their meeting was preordained. "I met Andree and she doesn't normally tell her story to anybody but she opened up to me and became a friend. Mrs Parker, who lives in Coventry, sometimes tours with Ms Mae and answers questions on her experiences. Mrs Parker does not know her exact age or maiden name because her papers were forged and her family died in the war. The family escaped into the Bavarian mountains where they joined her mother's gipsy people when she was about two years old. Eventually she was taken to Birkenau for helping the resistance. "The way we were treated... it was just dehumanisation," she said. "We were incarcerated into pens with concrete floors for days, all crowded into it with no clothes. "Then we were taken into the snow with nothing on. "They would use cattle-goaders. It was anything to dehumanise us." She and her twin brother were taken to an experimental hospital run by the infamous Dr Mengeles where they were injected with typhoid and witnessed many atrocities. "We got so hardened to it we just stopped thinking. You go into survival mode so it's just another incident. "Even now, when somebody dies I can't cry. I act like it's not happening." In her 20s, she moved to England and married her husband Bryan. She has five children. n Any schools, who would like to book Ms Mae can email linda@soloplus.fs.net.co.uk | 
