Although Dead Class makes no direct reference to Auschwitz, it relives the anguish of the Holocaust, which returns as flashes and bits of haunting memory: “Kantor negates both physical presence and the present, concluding that only thought and memory are important.” Thus, the references to the Holocaust are hidden behind the script and the visual landscape; they are and are not there, both visible and invisible. Memory is important because after a traumatic event, one lives only in memory, dwelling in the moment of trauma, reliving it over and over again. That is why the circular structure of Dead Class is important: the pupils parade round and round, always returning to the same point in time and space; they become lively and excited in one moment, only to dissolve in desperate cries in the next. There is a horrifying compulsion in those gestures. Repeated continuously, they become absurd and devoid of meaning. The characters seem to be stuck, unable to move on, to go forward, as if they are stuck in the moment of trauma and lost in it forever. Tish Dace vividly describes the experience: “The identity of the characters and the significance of their activities seems far less important than the compulsions; and the nightmare quality of their experiences – together with an occasional garish bit of humor – infects our psyches so forcibly that Kantor's precise intentions don't much matter.” Although Kantor occasionally allows characters to rebel and free themselves from their baggage, they are unable to free themselves from the objects’ hegemony.