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Fall 2001

FLARR Pages #25: Rolf Hochhuth's Der Stellvertreter and the Culture of Death

Edith Borchardt University of Minnesota - Morris

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Recommended Citation Borchardt, Edith, "FLARR Pages #25: Rolf Hochhuth's Der Stellvertreter and the Culture of Death" (2001). FLARR Pages. 21. https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/flarr/21

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well. It has been accepted for inclusion in FLARR Pages by an authorized administrator of University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Pile Under LARR PAGES #25 (F, '01) German Litera­ ture he Journal of the Foreign Language Hochhuth ssociation of the Red River Der Stellvertreter

"Rolf Hochhuth's Der Stell­ vertreter and the Culture of Death," Edith Borchardt, UMM Hochhuth's play Der Siellvertre­ ter () similarly raises In his convocation address to the moral issues and questions, speci­ Freshman Year Seminar at UMM in fically about the responsibility of in­ September 2001, Zev Kedem from dividuals as part of greater entities (an Auschwitz survivor on (such as the medical profession, the Schindler' s List) referred to the defense apparatus, and the Church). holocaust during the time of It is a very dark and controversial National Socialism as "the culture of play from the 1960' s, dealing with death." "the culture of death" by using re­ presentations of figures from the As a child in , he experienced Ghetto life holocaust of WWII in Europe and n the Jewish Quarter in Krakow and the suspen­ Central Europe as characters, and it ion of civil rights for the . He spoke of the has sparked a great deal of debate, eportations out of the Ghetto and resettlement in ncentration camps, mass executions and the which continues to this day. ndustrialization of the killing process with rolleys, gas chambers, and ovens for the pur- ee hutb confro t bjs audi­ se of destroying the Jewish minority. The nce through his interpretation azis had control over life and death of their _f documentary evidence, re- ictims, depersonalizing and dehumanizing them, -uJting in much soul-searching nd finally killing them, at first with bullets, or those involved. His play hen with carbon monoxide, and finally with s led to an investigation by yklon B, the "Endlt>sung" or "" h1:i Catholic Church about the greed upon at the Wannesee Conference in 1942. , eracUy of the accusations the culture of death such as this, in Zev Kedem's rmna articulates, specifically iew, operates by destroying freedom and life, ,~e stance of Pope Pius XII and stablishing a totalitarian government and be Nuncio for the Vatican, ilencing the oppostion, imposing its own views rserugo, toward the Concordat n minorities. He discussed the following itb Hitler and the Church's uestions: 1) How does one respond to such a lleged silence in view of the ulture of death? 2) What strategies are available? eporta.fions and mass annihila- ) Have we come to terms with the culture of ions of Jews and Catholic eath or does it continue to grow (in KosovQ, ·ests who spoke out against roatia, and with the recent attacks on the \forld itler's atrocities. rade Center in New York and the Pentagon in ashington? 4) Are we dehumanizing people in ther parts of the world? 5) How does the rocess of work through hnology and mega-corporations? • ..- The cast of characters includes .. , Professor August Hirt, and (though he remains unnamed, simply called the •" troops and killed himself shortly after that. The fic­ .. Doctor). Their outward appear­ tional Hirt justifies his preoccupation with coJJecting ance while they entertain themselves skulls for his anatomical research as necessary for • bowling in the Jagerkeller in posterity: "in days to come, our grandchildren/ should .. Falkensee outside of is know why the final solution of the was absolutely necessary and in the nature of things/ from deceptive. • the scientific point of view as weJJ as others" (53). • Mengele. Dr. Josef Mengele appears in the third ichmann. Adolf Eichmann, whom the stage in­ scene of the first act bearing the brains of Jewish twins - tructions characterize as an "amiable bureaucrat, who in formaldehyde instead of bringing flowers when visit­ • id his job with so little of the sinister glamor of a ing Gerstein, an SS officer and engineer responsible for .. rand Inquisitor that in 1945, no one even bothered to storing and delivering chemicals for the final solution. earch for him" (29) is revealed by documentary evi­ In the preceding bowling scene, the Doctor is described • ence "to be the most diJigent shipping agent who ever as "cool and cheery" (31), a dandy with a cane, which he • abored in the employ of Death" (29). He liked to used to make his selections in Auschwitz when a train tudy railroad schedules, most appropriate for the head or truck filled with people arrived, indicating whether • f the Department of Jewish Affairs in the they must go to the right or to the left, to Jive or to die . • rom 1941 to 1945 and chief of operations in the de-­ Hochhuth compares him to a puppet player puJJing rtation of three million Jews to extermination invisible strings. He is the embodiment of evil. • mps. In 1935, while working in the Jewish section Outwardly, though, he is extremely charming, belying • f the SD as a member of the SS, he was investiga­ his arrogance. It is a matter of record that he promised ing possible solutions to "the Jewish question" and children pudding or sweets in the most pleasant way • ven sent to Palestine to discuss with Arab leaders "the before sending them to the gas chambers. On the rail­ • iabiJity of large scale immigration to the Middle road platform, he solicitously asked new arrivals if they t" (USHMM). In 1938, Eichmann set up the felt ill, and when they admitted they did, touched by so • ntralstelle jUr jUdische Auswanderung (Center for much "persuasive kindness" (32), they were the first to • ewish ), which resulted in the establish­ be killed. Prisoners in Auschwitz called Mengele "a ent of similar offices in and Berlin. It was devil who took pleasure in his work" (32). At th~ time • ichmann who organized the Conference in the play was written, Dr. Josef Mengele had not been • anuary 1942 in regard to the "final solution of the found. He fled Auschwitz on January 18, 1945, when ewish question" (USHMM). At the end of the war, the Soviet Army arrived. In June of that year, he was • ·chmann escaped from an American internment camp captured by the Americans but not identified as a war • d fled to , where he lived under an assumed criminal. He escaped and made his way to Argentina, me until Israeli agents found him in 1960 Jiving in hiding there, in and in Brazil, until • d abducted him to to stand trial. He was January 24, 1979. He drowned while swimming in the • entenced to death and executed in 1962. ocean in , l3razil. Mengele is notorious for his research on twins in Ausc,;hwitz: They escaped irt. Professor Hirt is the "life of the party" in the immediate death but became the subject of horrendous • nd scene of Act I. He is an "anatomist and experiments which they often did not survive. He was ollector of skulls at the University of Strasbourg" obsessed with the nature vs. nurture controversy and • 30). According to Hochhuth, "the idiocy and cruelty wanted to demonstrate that heredity was more important e pursued in the guise of science went beyond the than environment. He is perhaps best known as the imits common to the practice of many SS doctors" "Angel of Death." 30). At the time the play was written, Hochhuth lieved that Hirt was probably practicing medicine nder an assumed name. Recent documentation about (fo be continued in FI.ARR PAGES, S captain Dr. August Hirt indicates that he was #26) ptured in StrasboQTg by French (cont) •