The Investigation E-Book

Peter Weiß

• Herausgeber: Marion Boyars
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

The Investigation is a dramatic reconstruction of the Frankfurt War Crimes trials, based on the actual evidence given. This testimony, concerning Auschwitz and the atrocities which were enacted there, has been edited and extracted by Peter Weiss into a dramatic document that relies solely and completely on the facts for its effectiveness. There is no artistic license, no manipulation of facts and figures, no rearrangement of events for theatrical effect. Nameless witnesses stand and recall their appalling memories of Auschwitz, allowing us to bear witness to their painful and painstaking search for truth and ultimately justice. What emerges is a chastening and purging documentary of deeply moving power.

Leseprobe

THE INVESTIGATION

By the same author

The Marat/Sade (a play)

Leavetaking and Vanishing Point (two novels)

The Conversation of the Three Walkers and The Shadow of the Coachman’s Body (two novels)

Discourse on Vietnam (a play)

Notes on the Cultural Life of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (essays)

First published in the United Kingdom in 1966 by Calder & Boyars Ltd.

Re-issued in Great Britain and the United States in 2012 by Marion Boyars Publishers.

Reprinted in 1982, 1996, 2005, 2012, 2015, 2020 by Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd.

Marion Boyars Publishers

26 Parke Road

London SW13 9NG

www.marionboyars.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2020

All rights reserved :

© Translation copyright Marion Boyars Publishers for the translation by by Alexander Gross 1966, 1982, 1996, 2005, 2012, 2015, 2020

© Surhkamp Verlag. All rights reserved by and controlled through Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin, Germany.

The moral rights of the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

10 digit ISBN: 0-7145-2011-X

13 digit ISBN: 978-0-7145-2011-7

CANTO ONE:

The Loading Ramp

CANTO TWO:

The Camp

CANTO THREE:

The Swing

CANTO FOUR:

The Possibility of Survival

CANTO FIVE:

The End of Lili Tofler

CANTO SIX:

Unterscharführer Stark

CANTO SEVEN:

The Black Wall

CANTO EIGHT:

Phenol

CANTO NINE:

The Bunkerblock

CANTO TEN:

Cyclone B

CANTO ELEVEN:

The Fire-Ovens

The Investigation was first presented as a play simultaneously in thirteen theatres in both East and West Germany on October 19th 1965 and had a public midnight reading by the Royal Shakespeare Company under the direction of Peter Brook that same night at the Aldwych Theatre, London.

CHARACTERS

JUDGE

COUNSEL FOR THE PROSECUTION

representing the Public Prosecutor

and the Co-Plaintiff*

COUNSEL FOR THE DEFENCE

DEFENDANTS 1 - 18

representing actual people

WITNESSES 1 - 9

representing successively quite

diverse and anonymous witnesses

* One of the most interesting aspects of the Auchwitz trials in Frankfurt was the presence of a legal emissary from East Germany, whom the author here refers to as the co-plaintiff.

Translator.

REMARKS

In presenting this play no attempt should be made to reconstruct the courtroom before which the deliberations over the camp actually took place. Such a representation seems just as impossible to the author as a representation of the camp on stage would be.

Hundreds of witnesses appeared before the Court of Justice. The confrontation of witnesses and defendants, like the speeches for and against, was loaded to the breaking point with emotional power.

From all this only the central core of the evidence can remain on stage.

This can contain nothing but the facts as they came to be expressed in words during the course of the trial. The personal experiences and confrontations must be softened into anonymity. Which means that the witnesses in the play lose their names and become little more than megaphones. The nine witnesses report only what hundreds expressed. The different experiences can be at most indicated by alterations in voice and posture.

Witnesses 1 and 2 are witnesses who sided with the camp authorities.

Witnesses 4 and 5 are female witnesses, the others being male, from among the ranks of the surviving prisoners.

Each of the 18 Defendants represents a definite person. They bear names that are taken over from the actual trial. That they have their own names is significant, for they also bore their names during the time that is the subject of this hearing, while the prisoners had lost their names.

But in the play it is not the bearers of the names who should once again be accused. They lend the author only their names, which here stand as symbols for a system which conferred guilt on those many others who never appeared before this court. For the purpose of stage production an interval can be inserted after the Sixth Canto.

Canto One: THE LOADING RAMP

I

JUDGE:

Herr Witness

You were the head of the railway station

where the shipments arrived

How far was the station from the camp

WITNESS 1:

A mile from the old barracks

and about 3 miles from the main camp

JUDGE:

Did you work in the camps

WITNESS 1:

No

I was only supposed to make sure

the train lines were in order

and that trains came in and out

according to time-table

JUDGE:

What condition were the lines in

WITNESS 1:

They were in extremely good condition

very well laid-out tracks

JUDGE:

Did you have anything to do

with arranging the time-tables

WITNESS 1:

No

I was only supposed to take care

of the technical details

connected with the shuttle service

between the station and the camp

JUDGE:

The court is in possession

of time-table forms signed by you

WITNESS 1:

Maybe once it happened I had

to sign them on someone else’s behalf

JUDGE:

Were you aware of the purpose

of these shipments

WITNESS 1:

That was outside of my field

JUDGE:

You knew the trains were loaded with people

WITNESS 1:

We were told only

that it had to do with resettling

people who were under the protection

of the State

JUDGE:

And the empty trains

coming back so regularly

you didn’t think about that

WITNESS 1:

They sent the people off to resettle there

PROSECUTOR:

Herr Witness

you have today a leading position

in the direction of the government railways

We can assume therefore

that you are familiar with questions

of fitting out and loading trains

How were the trains arriving at your station

fitted out and loaded

WITNESS 1:

These were freight trains

That means the bills of lading

were for about 60 people per car in transit

PROSECUTOR:

Were these freight cars

or cattle cars

WITNESS 1:

There were also cars

used for shipping cattle

PROSECUTOR:

Were there sanitary arrangements

in these cars

WITNESS 1:

I couldn’t tell you

PROSECUTOR:

How often did these trains arrive

WITNESS 1:

I really can’t say

PROSECUTOR:

Did they come frequently

WITNESS 1:

Yes of course

It was an important terminus

PROSECUTOR:

Didn’t you notice

that the shipments came

from almost every country in Europe

WITNESS 1:

We were so busy

we couldn’t bother

with that sort of thing

PROSECUTOR:

Didn’t you ask yourself

what was going to happen

to all those evacuees

WITNESS 1:

They were supposed to be sent

on work assignments

PROSECUTOR:

But there weren’t just workers

there were whole families

with old people and children

WITNESS 1:

I didn’t have any time

to check what was in the train

PROSECUTOR:

Where were you living

WITNESS 1:

In the village

PROSECUTOR:

Who else was living there

WITNESS 1:

The village was cleared

of its original inhabitants

Officers of the camp lived there

and personnel from the factories

PROSECUTOR:

What kind of factories

WITNESS 1:

There were branches

of IG Farben Company

and Krupp and Siemens

PROSECUTOR:

Did you see any prisoners

working there

WITNESS 1:

I saw them coming and going to work

PROSECUTOR:

What was their condition

WITNESS 1:

They marched in step and they sang

PROSECUTOR:

You learned nothing

about conditions in the camp

WITNESS 1:

You heard a lot of nonsense

but you never knew what to make of it

PROSECUTOR:

You heard nothing

about people being exterminated

WITNESS 1:

How could anyone believe something like that

JUDGE:

Herr Witness

You were responsible

for the goods trains

WITNESS: 2

I was only supposed

to hand over the trains

to the people in the shunting yard

JUDGE:

And what were their duties

WITNESS: 2

They put on the switching engine

and took the train to the camp

JUDGE:

According to your estimate

how many people

were in a goods wagon

WITNESS: 2

I can’t tell you that

It was strictly forbidden

to examine the trains

JUDGE:

Who stopped you

WITNESS: 2

The guards

JUDGE:

Was there a bill of lading

for each shipment

WITNESS: 2

There were rarely any documents

Only chalk figures written

on the cars

JUDGE:

What sort of figures

WITNESS: 2

60 or 80 sometimes

depending

JUDGE:

When did the trains arrive

WITNESS: 2

Usually at night

PROSECUTOR:

What impression did you have of these carloads

WITNESS: 2

I don’t understand the question

PROSECUTOR:

Herr Witness

you are an Inspector for the railway

and know something about travel conditions

Did nothing you saw through the hatches

or heard from the goods wagons

tell you that something was amiss

WITNESS: 2

Once I saw a woman

who held a little child near the air hatch

and cried out incessantly for water

I went for a can of water

and wanted to give it to her

As I held it up to her

a guard came along

and said

If I didn’t go away at once

I would be shot

JUDGE:

Herr Witness

How many trains do you estimate

came to the station

WITNESS: 2

On an average I’d say one a day

When things got rushed

there might be two or three

JUDGE:

How long were the trains

WITNESS: 2

They could be 60 cars

JUDGE:

Herr Witness

were you ever in the camp

WITNESS: 2

I went along once with the switching engine

because there was something to discuss

about a bill of lading

Right behind the entrance tower

I left the train and went into the office

I almost didn’t make it out again

because I had no permit

JUDGE:

What did you see of the camp

WITNESS: 2

Nothing

I was happy to get out again

JUDGE:

Did you see the chimneys

at the end of the ramp

and smoke and the glare of fire

WITNESS: 2

Yes

I saw smoke

JUDGE:

What did you make of it

WITNESS: 2

I thought

those were the bakeries

They told me

bread was baked by night and day

It was a very big camp