THE KING OF LAMPEDUSA

See Also: FRINGE THEATRES & SMALL THEATRES; THE KING OF CORSICA

Sidney Cohen had been an East End orphan who had become a tailor's cutter. During the Second World War he was called up for military service and joined the Royal Air Force. He rose to the rank of sergeant. He was posted to Malta. While he was stationed there, a report came in that a German plane had crashed into the Mediterranean. He took up a Swordfish biplane to see if there were any survivors who could be rescued.

While his aircraft was in flight, its compass became troublesome and its fuel began to run low. Cohen made for the nearest land. This proved to be Lampedusa, an Italian island that was located 205km to the south of Sicily and 113km to the east of Tunisia. A force of 4300 Italian soldiers had been deployed on it. The sergeant succeeded in landing the Swordfish. He was taken to see the commander of the garrison who promptly surrendered to him. His plane was refuelled and he was given a certificate to confirm to the authorities on Malta that the capitulation had occurred. Subsequently, the sergeant's fellow airmen dubbed him the King of Lampedusa .

The incident prompted's.J. Charendorf, a Czech-born journalist who worked for the Jewish Morning Journal of New York, to write a Yiddish language play about it. In the East End the Romanian-born Yiddish actor Meier Tzelniker adapted this into a musical that he mounted at The Grand Palais Jewish Folk Theatre. It was a hit.

The production enjoyed 200 consecutive performances. This was the highest number for any show that the venue had staged. The B.B.C. broadcast an English language version of it. Lord Haw-Haw felt the need to comment upon it in one of the propaganda broadcasts that he made from Germany. The run was only halted in June 1944 because London was being attacked by doodlebugs.

Cohen saw a version of the play that was performed in Jerusalem in 1944. He survived the war. However, the following year he was in a plane that crashed while it was being flown over the Straits of Dover. Its wreckage was never found.

Location: Grand Palais Yiddish Folk Theatre, 133 Commercial Road, E1 1PX (orange, purple)

David Backhouse 2024