Haman’s Downfall
Chaim Sloves
1940
A Judgment Day on you and all the Hamans, today and forevermore—
Amen! Mordecai, I think you and I will yet be good friends—yes, Motya? [Maudlin.] Come closer, Motya, and I’ll tell you the secret of my success. [Opens his mouth wide.] Look. Motya, look inside!
Your beautiful white teeth?
Only a front!
Your…
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Creator Bio
Chaim Sloves
Playwright Chaim (Henri) Sloves was born in Bialystok and attended Yiddish secular school. After spending time in Moscow, he joined the Communist Party and was arrested in Warsaw upon his return to Poland. Sloves then studied law at the Sorbonne, graduating in 1935. He was an organizer of the World Congress for Yiddish Culture and a founder of the Yidishe Kultur Farband. During World War II, he was active in the French underground. His play Haman’s Downfall, with Haman an obvious stand-in for Hitler, was particularly popular in the immediate aftermath of the war.