‘Hidden’ world premiere to be at Gratz College Theater [Video]

MELROSE PARK, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Jenkintown resident Ruth Kapp Hartz has shared her life story in speech and writing, but never expected to see it on stage.

“Hidden,” getting its world premiere next month with M7 Productions at Gratz College Theater, is the story of Hartz’s childhood spent in hiding in France during World War II.

Her family was originally from Germany, but before Hartz was born, her parents tried to escape Adolf Hitler’s growing power. They couldn’t get an affidavit to emigrate to the United States, so they went to what was then Palestine — an area that later became Israel — and that’s where Hartz was born.

They relocated to France when Hartz was around 2 years old.

“My mother had a brother living in France, and that’s how they decided to go to France,” she said, “literally from the frying pan into the fire because World War II broke out right after they …