Young Adolph Hitler
from Picryl
Young Adolph Hitler
from Picryl
A Play In Two Acts
By Father John R. Green
Copyright © by John R. Green
Shown with his blessing
Adolf Hitler
Mimi Reiter
Otto Burkhardt
Hans Dietrich
Helen Heinz
Geli Raubel
General Frans Halder
Rev. Fr. Ludwig Schmidt
Rev. Frederick Schiller
Eva Braun
SETTING: Summer, 1926, Midafternoon
A SPLIT SCENE: A grave site has light focused upon it as scene opens.
A small woodland adjacent to grave site is darkened. A cluster of small
trees shields woodland from grave site. Adolf Hitler, age 37, and Mimi
Reiter, age 16, are viewing the grave of Hitler's mother, Klara Hitler.
Hitler dressed in a brown suit with a riding whip attached to his hip.
He is five feet, nine inches tall, weighs about 150 pounds, some of which
is flabby. His shoulders are narrow, his chest somewhat sunken. His legs
are unusually short, his knees slightly knocked and he is wearing huge
Jackboots. His hair is dark brown, almost black. He parts it on the right
side - his famous forelock fallover the left temple. He wears a Charlie
Chaplin mustache. His eyes are very piercing. Mimi,a comely lass, is
clothed in light blue. Hitler is absorbed in grief. Sympathetic but
inadequate to the situation, Mimi glances helplessly toward Hitler and
then back toward grave. After three minutes, Hitler breathes heavily and
points toward grave.
HITLER (shaking his head) Ach, I am not like that yet! (As Mimi attempts to question him, he turns toward her, takes the whip from his hip and cracks it vigorously.) I want you to call me Wolf! (Again a mystified Mimi tries to query him, but after returning the whip to his hip, he turns his back toward grave site, elevates his right arm toward the horizon beyond the woodland and speaks with oratorical passion.) Oh celestial bodies of morning and night! Oh brilliant sun! Oh magnificent trees of the forest! You cannot rival (pointing left hand back toward the grave site) the glory of the one lying there, who is the very epitome of ideal German womanhood! (He then embraces a startled but relieved Mimi. ) It is now time that we should play. (Light is focused upon woodland with the grave site darker. The background music of Percy Grainger's Country Gardens is heard. They enter the woodland and romp like little children - laughing, shouting, squealing, giggle, clown, somersault, hide and seek and merrily whirl each other around. To any onlookers, Hitler appears ludicrous due to the grotesque shape of his body and clothing. During the midst of the frolic, Hitler takes a hand full of chocolates and feeds them into the mouth of Mimi and his own mouth. Then three minutes later, Hitler halts the festivity, the music ceases, and he leads Mimi to a tree and places her back near the trunk of the tree. He then proceeds to turn her body right and left and then front.) Stay perfectly still as though you are a model, posing for an artist. (After surveying her body intensively, he shakes his head as though puzzled or something.) A magnificent picture! (After staring at her feet and legs again, Hitler gazes at tree behind her. He then beckons to Mimi and she joins him in embrace.) Do you know what you are now? Now you are my Woodland Sprite!
MIMI (laughing) What in the world is a Woodland Sprite? Why do you call me a Woodland Sprite? (Hitler releases his embrace with Mimi, steps a few paces backward, takes whip from hip and cracks it before the dismayed Mimi.)
HITLER (Returning whip to hip, speaks sternly) You are to never laugh at me, my little Mimi. None dare laugh at me! You will understand later on why I call you my Woodland Sprite. (He the proceeds to smother Mimi with kisses.) (pause) You are a perfect specimen of ideal German womanhood. And I want you to know that you will always be with me (with oratorical passion) as I proceed to nullify that shameful Treaty of Versailles, restore prosperity to our beloved Motherland and rid her of the Jewish blood which contaminates our destiny! You shall always be at my side! (Mimi gazes adoringly into his face, and he proceeds to feed her with chocolates.)
TIME: 1928
PLACE: In the bedroom of Mimi Reiter; in her mother's home in
Berchtesgaden. The room comfortably though plainly furnished.
A bed is near the left wall with a bureau of drawers and a mirror
at the rear center wall. A washing basin and stand are at the foot
of the bed. A couch is to the short rear of center of room while
several pictures adorn the right and left rear wall. An entrance
door is located in right center wall. Two sturdy but comfortable
chairs are situated to the right and left and shortly frontward
of couch. As the scene opens Helene Heinz, a beautiful woman -
age 26, is seated on couch with an unconscious Mimi's head resting
on her lap. Otto Burkhardt, age 26, of tall and sturdy build,
and Hans Dietrich, age 26, tall and slender, are in center of
room examining the rope utilized by Mimi in her suicide attempt.
OTTO (shaking his head) Lucky we arrived in time.
HANS (nodding his head toward Mimi) She may not feel so lucky once she regains conscious. She didn't expect us. (pause - points toward ceiling.) I wonder how she managed to get up there. (pause) I wonder why Adolf dropped her so suddenly.
OTTO I heard that he considered her detrimental to his political aspirations There were also raised eyebrows about his affair with an eighteen year old woman. (sighing) I wonder why she found Adolf so attractive.
HELENE (stroking Mimi's hair) Why do women throughout Germany swoon over Adolf Hitler? Is it strange that a girl of eighteen would be captivated by his attention toward her. (sighing) It is very sad but so very true. (Suddenly Mimi squirms on couch. Hans rushes rope from room then returns near right of couch. Otto moves near left of couch. Mimi opens her eyes and looks hazily toward center room. Startled to see herself alive and on couch with her head in Helene's lap and, seeing Otto and Hans, she utters a painful gasping and rasping sound and sits up on couch.)
MIMI Oh God! Oh God Almighty! (pounds her hands on her knees) And I believed it was all over with! (pause, crying and looking intensely at others in room) Why have you prolonged my misery? You told me that we wouldn't meet again until Autumn. Why did you come?
HELENE (tenderly) Your mother called us. She is worried about you. She reported that you were hysterical last night.
MIMI (shaking her head) Well, I am in no grateful mood.
HANS (soothingly) Perhaps, you would like to rest a while. After all you have been through, sleep might be a comforting companion.
MIMI (after looking intensely three times at each in room) I have a question for you. (again looks intensely at each in room) Is Adolf Jewish? (the three are startled by question and exchange mutual glances; then lean eagerly toward Mimi)
OTTO Now why do you ask such a question?
MIMI You three know Adolf better than anyone I know of. (pause) I heard people talking about him as being Jewish.
HANS What people, Mimi?
MIMI People down in Linz.
OTTO Adolf and I are natives of Linz.
HANS What did you think about what they were saying of Adolf?
MIMI I paid no attention to them. I was too much in love with Adolf to think about anything else.
HANS Did you hear any reason given for declaring him to be Jewish?
MIMI I only heard them in passing but some said that Adolf's father's mother was seduced by a Jewish employer, became pregnant and gave birth to his father.
OTTO (shaking his head vigorously) I have heard that tale time after time, and there is nothing true about it. I have investigated it thoroughly as have some other people.
MIMI (cautiously) Then you don't believe that Adolf is Jewish?
OTTO (chuckling) I didn't say that, Mimi. (glances toward Hans and Helene and then back to Mimi) We are not certain whether he is Jewish or not Jewish. We have a hunch that he might be, and we have conferred with some people not given to idle gossip who strongly believe that Adolf's body contains Jewish blood. We intend to keep exploring this matter. (goes to couch and sits himself beside Mimi. Hans seats himself in chair near right of couch) What is more important, Mimi dear, is that Adolf himself believes that he might have Jewish blood in his system.
MIMI (puzzled - shaking her head) He never said anything to me about his having Jewish blood.
OTTO Oh, he only speaks about Jewish blood with those whom he suspects have some knowledge, pertaining to his blood being Jewish.
HANS (to Mimi) You discussed with us the leeches Adolf utilizes to suck blood from his body. Why do you suppose he wants his blood drawn by leeches?
MIMI He said it was to purify his blood.
HANS Well, he told us that the leeches were to draw from his body blood that might be Jewish.
MIMI (perplexed, innocently) Then why doesn't he have leeches draw blood from Jewish people? Then they would no longer be Jewish. (sympathetic laughter from the three)
HANS (jovially) Maybe we should ask him about this, Mimi. (seriously) But Adolf wants Jewish people to retain their blood. He needs the Jews as scapegoats on whom he can place blame for all of Germany's miseries and woes. And I suspect he needs the Jews to vent upon them the hatred he holds for his father.
OTTO (to Mimi) What would have been your reaction had you correctly determined that Adolf is Jewish?
MIMI (shaking her head and throwing her arms upward) I don't know! I really don't know! I love him so very much. I asked you about his being Jewish because I am grasping at straws, trying to understand what happened to our relationship. (pauses, rises and paces about center of room) What should I think about a man who mercilessly flogs a dog, loves little children, plays like a child, feeds bread to birds, calls Snow White his favorite movie and Shirley Temple his favorite actress, loves opera, is fascinated with the beheading of people, vindictive and unpredictably cruel. He would become deliriously happy when I led him to believe I liked his political orations, but you can never joke with him about anything. I heard that a publisher was offering an award to anyone who could prove that Adolf joked or changed his mind about anything. (ceases pacing and faces the three) There is something you might be able to shed some light upon. While we were at his mother's grave, he pointed toward her grave and said, "Ach, I am not like that yet."
OTTO I believe Adolf was saying, "I am not dead yet." He has an obsession with death.
MIMI (shaking her head) I don't understand.
OTTO (chuckling) I don't pretend to comprehend the complexity of the character known as Adolf Hitler, but he loves to discuss about how people die. You have mentioned his fascination with decapitation.
HANS He is likewise anxious about his own death. He thinks that time is running out on his own life; that he won't have time to accomplish his goals.
MIMI I know you three don't approve of Adolf's preachings and actions. He doesn't look kindly upon some of your actions, but in some respects he admires each of you.
HELENE (eagerly) Tell us about it, Mimi.
MIMI (to Helene) He admires you as a brilliant actress, but he is critical of your refusal to perform in dramas which glorify the Nazi movement.
HELENE (triumphantly) The crowning achievement of my life, thus far!
MIMI (to Hans) He admires you as a potentially great anthropologist, but he is critical of you for not devoting your research toward Aryan roots.
HANS (beaming) I share in your glory, Helene?
MIMI (to Otto) He admires you as a highly competent journalist, but he is critical of you for refusing to advance the Nazi cause.
OTTO (exuberantly, throwing his arms in air) Hooray for me!
MIMI Well, I don't know much about these things, but why did Adolf ask me to call him "Wolf"?
HANS (musing) Adolf has a deadly fear of wolves. He is likely kidding himself.
MIMI (returns to her seat on couch) I am becoming numb. I don't know what to ask. I once refused Adolf a good-night kiss, and he flew into a rage, grasped his crotch and flogged himself with his whip.
HANS I believe his whips and whippings have great significance, but I don't believe we should discuss it at this time.
MIMI (shaking her head mournfully) He has such a strange way of showing affection and asking for it. (placing her hands over her eyes) I am not going to say anything about this! (pause, removes hands from her eyes.) Adolf would close my eyelids and run his fingers over them. Why? Oh Why?
OTTO Always be aware that Adolf Hitler looks for his mother in every woman who attracts him. He closed the eyes of his mother and soothed them with his fingers.
MIMI Is this why he mothers me at times, or wants me to mother him?
HELENE Can you think of any other reason? Most Germans refer to our country as the Fatherland, but to Adolf it is the Motherland. He adores his mother, but he hates his father.
HANS (to Mimi) Did you ever wince when Adolf spoke of destroying the Jews?
MIMI Well, many in Germany disliked the Jews, but I hated politics and pretended otherwise when I was with him. (shaking her head) Sometimes I thought his eyes were piercing through me. Have any of you been haunted by his eyes?
HELENE I know what you mean, dear. (pause) What will you do now, Mimi?
MIMI I am returning to mother, and I suppose I will try to bring together the pieces of my shattered life.
HELENE We will go with you, Mimi. Your mother has the most charming dress shop in all of Germany.
HANS One more question, please, Mimi. Should Adolf return to you, would you accept him?
MIMI (rises from couch and walks three paces forward) I shall always love him. In my heart there will always be a pleading, "Adolf come back to Mimi!" (Otto, Hans, and Helene exchange ominous glances; then they exit from room with Mimi)
TIME: September, 1931
PLACE: The same woodland as in Scene 1
SETTING: Adolf Hitler, now 42 years of age, and Geli Raubel, age 20, are seated on ground while enjoying a picnic meal. Geli, a pretty young woman, is clad in light brown. As scene opens Hitler is feeding Geli from his fist full of chocolates.
HITLER (consuming some chocolates) No picnic is complete without chocolates.
GELI (laughing) Don't you mean that no meal is complete without chocolates, Uncle Alfi? I happen to know that you eat a packet of chocolates every day, and you are always devouring them when you are with me.
HITLER I reckon it is no secret that chocolate is my favorite food. (gazing adoringly into Geli's face) Have I ever told you how happy I am that you attend Mass regularly, just as my mother did?
GELI (sighing and shaking her head) It seems as though you see your mother every time you look at me. It sort of haunts me, Uncle Alfi. (Hitler bows his head) (pause) I have never seen you at Mass. And you are a Catholic, aren't you?
HITLER (slowly raising his head) I was born into Catholicism and continued to be a Catholic for many years. And it may surprise you to hear that I once wanted to become an Abbot.
GELI Wonderful Uncle Alfi! (pause) But what happened?
HITLER (elevating Geli and himself from ground) I now have a religion of my own; a religion which I have created.
GELI (irritated) Now, why would a Catholic create a religion? It doesn't make sense!
HITLER While I was in that military hospital recovering from the wounds I received during the War, I experienced a divine vision commanding me to save Germany.
GELI (bewildered) To save Germany from what?
HITLER (triumphantly) From Jewry, my little Geli, my lovely niece!
GELI (moving away from Hitler) Is not the God of the Catholics also the God of the Jews?
HITLER (attempting to placate Geli) Jesus was a Messiah who saved people from their sins. As a Messiah, I shall save Germany from destruction. (After painfully searching Hitler's face, Geli breaks into wild and furious dancing with the background music of Brahn's Hungarian dances. She seems oblivious to the amazed Hitler. The music fades somewhat as she lightly dances toward Hitler with open arms.)
GELI Come Adolf, our lives will dance! Come Adolf, our lives will sing! Let us be merry! Let us be joyful! (ceases dancing and extends arms toward Hitler) Come and dance with me, Uncle Alfi!
HITLER (defensively) Now you know, my little niece, Geli, that I never learned to dance.
GELI (gaily) Oh, I am a wonderful teacher; just try me.
HITLER (shaking his head determinedly) Dancing is out of the question for me. I shall always strive to share much greater things with you. (music ceases)
GELI (frustrated) You and I live in different worlds. You want me to live in your world, but I cannot do so and remain true to myself.
HITLER (pleading) What can your world begin to offer me that even begins to compare with what my world holds for you?
GELI (desperately) Remember the time you were in the world of art. You were selling your paintings. Think of how you could paint the background of the opera you love, all of Wagner's operas. I could have my music career if you would allow me to study music in Vienna. And between your art and my music our lives together could be happy and fulfilled.
HITLER (smiling broadly) My dear little niece, I know what is best for us.
GELI (holding her arms upward in despair) I am weary and depressed due to your arranging my life for me, Uncle Alfi. You are with me everywhere I go. You chose the very clothes I wear.
HITLER (continuing to smile broadly) My little Geli, I want you to have the finest of everything - befitting one of the body and charm I see in you.
GELI (furiously) I hate your keeping me from seeing the people I want to be with - your becoming upset with every man who is attracted toward me, and your raging when I speak to some Jewish person!
HITLER (ceases smiling but resumes pleading) But I want you to know the great people of the Aryan race. And I am the only man in Germany who is worthy of you.
GELI (dropping her arms and shaking her lowered head in dejection) I cannot even window shop without feeling your presence. You hover over every move I make and insist on joining me at every opera I attend. (sobbing) I am only twenty and people are wondering why I appear everywhere with a man who is old enough to be my father and happens to be my uncle.
HITLER (elevating his arms toward Geli) Can't you see beyond all of this how much you mean to me; how you captivate and charm me? You make me feel young again. I am relaxed and carefree when I am with you. You are the ideal of young German womanhood!
GELI (smiling a little toward Hitler) You do seem to be happy, relaxed and gentle when you are with me. I don't see much of this when you are with other people. (pause) Uncle Alfi, when men and women whom I know show affection for each other, it is different from what you and I experience.
HITLER (chuckling) My little niece, you now have my permission to study music in Vienna. (Geli stares at him with incredulity for several moments; in happy wonderment for a brief moment and then rushes to embrace him.)
GELI You really mean this, Uncle Alfi? Oh, you make me so happy!
HITLER Go and rapture in your music joy and then return to my world, our world! (Geli leaves Hitler's embrace and her body quivers as she covers her face with her hands.)
TIME: One week following the conclusion of Scene 3
PLACE: A room in Adolf Hitler's apartment in Munich. The room is plainly furnished with a round table at rear center wall. Several sturdy chairs are situated in various places. Pictures of Frederick The Great and Klara Hitler adorn rear walls. Doors are located at right and left center walls. As the scene opens Otto, Hans and Helene are strolling about room and viewing the pictures of Frederick The Great and Klara Hitler.
HELENE Adolf always manages to keep us waiting when he wants to see us.
HANS By his so doing he hopes to command our respect for him.
OTTO Off hand, I can name ten different ways for him to attain this goal.
HELENE I am saving my breath.
OTTO This occasion marks the first time Adolf has called us about something which has nothing to do with the possibility of his being Jewish.
HANS Of all the women who have committed suicide following an affair with Adolf, the suicide of Geli is the only one that has agonized him. (pause) I wonder how he expects us to help him. We were friends of Geli but Adolf knows we never approved of her relationship with him. (enters a weary Hitler through right center wall door and in agitation paces to and about center of room, glancing toward Otto, Hans and Helene)
HITLER Why did she do it? Why? Why? Why? I loved her! Other than my mother, she is the only woman I ever loved!
OTTO (incredibility) You have no clue whatsoever?
HITLER (violently shaking his head as he continues pacing) The last time I saw her she was beaming with happiness. She was going to Vienna to study music.
HANS What about that suicide note?
HITLER I haven't the slightest notion with whom she planned to travel. I was the only man in her life; of this I am certain!
HANS (softly) I believe that in your fashion you did love Geli. But is it possible she didn't love you?
HITLER (ceases pacing and faces Hans - desperately) Why wouldn't she love me? Look at all the splendor I heaped upon her. Any girl in Germany would have loved to have been in her shoes!
HANS We heard from Geli about the luxury you showered upon her and that she enjoyed some of the times you shared together, but in other ways you made her most unhappy.
HITLER (sharply) What are you trying to tell me?
HELENS Geli said that you possessed her, smothered her, took over her life and tried to mould her in the way you wanted; contrary to what she wanted her life to be.
HANS (to Helene) Can you imagine a gay, fun-loving girl like Geli comfortable with Adolf's political career? (Hitler begins wobbly to pace about. Others in room rush to assist him but he motions them away. Otto stares at Hitler as Hans and Helene seat themselves in center of room)
HITLER (staggering) But she was so happy when I gave her permission to go to Vienna.
HELENE She was happy because she was going to be away from you for some time, hoping you would change your attitude toward her life before she returned to you.
HITLER (nearly collapsing, sinks into a chair) None of this is helping me. (pause) I wonder why I called you about Geli's demise.
HANS (tenderly) It might be helpful for you to dwell a moment on what Geli held in common with the other women who attempted suicide following their sexual relations with you.
HITLER (weakly, shaking his head) I loved my Geli!
HELENE Did she experience sex with you as did the other women? (Hitler struggles to rise, his body shaking. Upon reaching his feet he moves wobbly toward left center wall door. Otto, Hans, and Helene follow him)
HITLER You are witnessing farewell to my political and military career. Only Geli matters to me now. (pause, struggling to avoid collapsing) You may remain as long as you like to confabulate about me, as you will surely do. (opens door, staggers head long through it and shuts it behind him)
OTTO (staring toward door) I haven't seen him like this since the death of his mother. (pause) I wonder how he kept from collapsing while he was with us.
HELENE Should we call his physician?
OTTO (shaking his head) No, at times like this, Adolf doesn't want to see anyone!
HELENE But might he kill himself?
HANS I believe Adolf might commit suicide, but not now. He hates the Jews more than he loved Geli. (waving their arms and hands in resignation, the three seat themselves in center of room)
OTTO (to Helene) It seems that I am more naive and less sophisticated than I have considered myself to be, but why were you grilling Adolf about the relationship of Geli to other women who suicided?
HELENE This is hardly a mystery. Adolf had abnormal sexual relations with each of them.
OTTO (stunned) You mean he is a pervert?
HELENE Precisely.
OTTO (rising and pacing about) I had no idea! I lived and played with Adolf during childhood and have observed him closely in adulthood. (ceases pacing and faces Helene) What kind of pervert?
HELENE Our film star, Renate Mueller, who killed herself after a sexual experience with Adolf, told how she was invited to spend the night with Hitler. He described in great detail the medieval technique of torturing victims. Then after they were undressed, Adolf laid on the floor and condemned himself as unworthy, heaped all kinds of accusations on his own head, and groveled around in an agonizing manner. He begged her to kick him. The scene became intolerable to her, but she finally gave in to his wishes to kick him. This excited him greatly, and he became more and more excited. The other women who suicided reported that Adolf wanted them to urinate upon his head or to whip him. Small wonder they were traumatized. Small wonder they committed suicide.
OTTO (throwing his arms upward) Whew! (pause) How did he get to be this way?
HELENE (shaking her head) Don't ask me.
OTTO (motioning toward Hans) What about you? You have been indulging yourself with Freud and those other psychologists floating about; any chance you can enlighten us?
HANS (rising, pretending to be startled, points his right arm out and upward) Did you hear that out there, Sigmund Freud: Your arch critic seeks your assistance. (places his right hand above his right ear - pause) Hearken! Doctor Freud expresses admiration for Otto as a journalist, commenting that the only thing Otto and his bigoted editor shared in common was that Sigmund Freud was a farce! (Otto slumps in chair - satisfied but numb. Hans removes his hand from his ear)
HELENE (laughing, apologetically) Please inform Doctor Freud that I now repent my performance in the drama which satirized him.
HANS (holding hand above ear again - pause) Doctor Freud accepts your apology and commends you for refusing to play roles which advance Nazi propaganda. (seats himself)
OTTO Great! Now treat us with your pearls of wisdom, I humbly beseech you.
HANS (with alacrity) First, let me remind you that Doctor Freud receives generous remittance for such sessions as this.
HELENE (to Otto) I wasn't expecting Doctor Freud to give a lecture here tonight. Were you?
OTTO Why, no. What made you think otherwise, Hans?
HANS Even if the good doctor was here tonight, you deadbeats would find some way to keep from paying him. (pause) Now hear this: In your superficial observations of Freud, you likely came across the term "Sadomasochism".
OTTO (nodding his head) Oh, yeah.
HELENE Sadomasochism refers to the giving and receiving of sexual pleasure through pain.
HANS Right! Of course, it has ramifications beyond the realm of sex.
HELENE I take it that you are declaring Adolf to be a sadomasochist.
HANS Definitely so.
OTTO Well, this terminology does seem to fit him. (pause) I think I understand how he received sexual pleasure by being kicked or whipped, but how does he gain pleasure by inflicting pain on others?
HANS By inducing the woman with whom he is having sexual relations to kick or whip him, he is inflicting humiliation upon her, as she is acting in a way contrary to her very nature.
OTTO (shaking his head in wonderment) Was Adolf born this way?
HELENE Let us not blame God for the phenomenon of Adolf Hitler!
HANS If you so desire, I shall attempt to explain the development of Sadomasochism in Adolf.
HELENE (brightly) Oh, we shall be in your debt, we assure you!
HANS According to Freud, we have both a conscious mind and an unconscious mind. In his conscious mind Adolf hated his father for the savage beatings he received from him, but in his unconscious mind he sought these beatings as he perceived them to be a token of his father's affection for him. Likewise, he felt unworthy and believed the beatings to be what he should receive.
HELENE In the same way he felt unworthy when he begged the women to kick or whip him?
HANS Exactly.
OTTO But Adolf's sexual relations are with women?
HANS (to Otto) You will recall your telling me how Adolf witnessed his father and mother engaged in sexual intercourse. (Otto nods head in affirmation) Adolf, as a tot of three, observed that his father seemed to be raping his mother. Although the process was very painful for her and she groaned in agony, she appeared to be receiving pleasure from this experience. She was having a masochistic sexual experience. Thus, Adolf associated pain with pleasure in sexual encounters in his unconscious mind.
HELENE I believe you remarked that sadomasochism has ramifications beyond sexual encounters.
HANS (chuckling) Oh, how mightily it does! Adolf received his sadism from his father and vents it upon the Jews and other perceived enemies. He would likely be anti-Semitic if he was not sadistic, but the bestial and hideous he seeks to inflict upon them depicts his sadism. On the other hand, masochism can cause his triumphs to result in failures.
OTTO In what way?
HANS It is a little early in Adolf's life and career to illustrate this in any major way.
HELENE Can you give any clue?
HANS (carefully, thoughtfully) When Adolf attempted to seize power in Germany through the Beer Hall Putch, triumphant results appeared to be a sure thing; but then he blew it. No one has a logical explanation for this failure. (pause) There will be greater illogical failures in the future; you can depend on that! (pause) Well, there you have it from a student of Freud. The great doctor would have presented the anatomy of Sadomasochism much more profoundly.
HELENE (beaming) Now don't you go masochistic, Hans. Freud would be proud of his student.
OTTO So be it. But before we leave the sexual adventures of Adolf Hitler, what do you make of that missing testicle which agitates Adolf so greatly?
HANS I believe Adolf blames his otherwise beloved mother for the fact that one of his testicles is missing. And I speculate that his mother was very anxious about that missing testicle and fingered the scrotum to see whether damage was evident. This couldn't help but arouse infantile sexual passions in the mother-child relationship.
OTTO Well, I am sure I would feel inadequate if one of my testicles was missing. How about Adolf?
HANS Oh, no doubt, the missing testicle challenged his masculinity. I believe he flogged the dog to assert his masculinity.
HELENE You can't help but notice how he grasps his crotch at times.
HANS Especially when he feels his masculinity threatened and is in the company of attractive women. Sometimes I feel a bit apprehensive when Adolf raptures about the affection he holds for his mother. I have heard him agonize bitterly and express hostility toward her for not protecting him against the brutal beatings from his father. And I believe he is still angry over her failure to be at the graveside when his brother, Edmund, was buried.
HELENE I was told that his father prevented her being there due to his animosity toward the priest who conducted the burial service, but I have been under the impression that Adolf resented Edmund.
HANS He blamed his mother for giving birth to Edmund, whom he looked upon as a rival for his mother's affection, but also he had a warm place in his heart for Edmund. (pause) You know, I don't think a day goes by without his cursing her for that missing testicle. I think it is fair to say that Adolf has both love and hatred for his mother but that his love for her predominates.
OTTO Adolf was a sickly baby and his mother was worried that he would die in infancy as his brother and sister had done. I always thought that her caring and protectiveness was excessive. He called her "mother darling."
HANS (to Otto) Didn't you tell me that Adolf regarded being in bed with his mother as being one of the happiest experiences of his childhood? (Otto nods his head in affirmation) I believe that incest is likely in the picture, somehow, somewhat.
HELENE Well, on that note I suggest that we leave Adolf and call upon Geli's mother.
OTTO Yes, I have been wondering how she now feels about her brother, Adolf.
HELENE We are leaving Adolf. How will he weather this crisis?
HANS Oh, he will go to the place where he always goes when he is in a great emotional crisis and be nursed to recovery. He will return to the German scene. (exit the three through right center wall door)
TIME: 1938 - Adolf Hitler is now forty-nine years of age.
PLACE: A room in Adolf Hitler's apartment in Munich. Although the apartment has luxurious features, this meeting room is attractive and comfortable. Two large and beautifully upholstered chairs are located a short distance from both right and left center of room. Attractive scattered rugs adorn the floor. A large sofa is situated a short distance rear of center room. A round table holding refreshments is positioned near rear center wall. Pictures of Frederick The Great, Klara Hitler, Richard Wagner and Otto Bismarck hang on rear wall. As scene opens Otto, Hans and Helene are inspecting refreshments on round table. Wagnerian music is heard from background. Doors to room are in right and left center walls.
HANS Something most unusual is happening here today. Although Adolf is keeping us waiting, he has sent word for us to enjoy the refreshments.
OTTO (shaking his head) I wonder why he thinks I would enjoy these raw vegetables. Oh Adolf, you vegetarian! (pause) Well, you can't eat a square meal on a round table. (groans from Hans and Helene)
HANS (to Otto) Has Adolf always been a vegetarian?
OTTO Heavens No! I remember when he devoured large chunks of fat pork. (pause, browsing over vegetables) Well, I guess I will settle for a stick of celery. (proceeds to take and chew celery)
HANS His pastries appear to be delicious. I'll try one of these small cakes. (begins to nibble on cake)
HELEN Well, chocolate is about the only thing Adolf and I have in common. (begins munching on chocolates as the three move to front center of room)
OTTO It has been five years now since Adolf came to power. He claims that the majority of the German people wanted him to be their Chancellor, although he lost the election to Hindenburg.
HANS Still he came to power through democratic means. With all the warring factions struggling for power: the Communists, the social democrats, conservative rightists, midst deadly inflation, towering unemployment and national shame, Hindenburg had little choice but to appoint him Chancellor. And now the vast majority of German people completely support him.
HELENE Small wonder. He has restored prosperity to Germany, degraded the Jews and once again Germany is a military power. Few Germans are going to argue with this, particularly in view of Germany's traditional love affair with totalitarianism, (enter Hitler from right center wall door and gives the Nazi salute from which he receives no response from Otto, Hans and Helene. A furious Hitler cracks his whip ferociously)
OTTO We do not salute dictators! (Hitler whirls whip in circles above his head and paces about. He roars in non-understandable vocal utterances. He then ceases pacing, returns whip to hip and moves toward refreshment table.)
HITLER Have not the rulers of great nations the right to demand respect from their subjects?
HANS If they have earned respect.
HITLER (at table) I shall refrain from further comment on this matter, but it will haunt you for the remainder of your lives. I promise you! (proceeds to munch on chocolates)
OTTO Why are you now a vegetarian?
HITLER Look at elephants - great vegetarians. They live longer than lions, and horses out run dogs. Then, too, Wagner has been a vegetarian, and I don't touch meat because of what he says on the subject.
HANS Ah, yes, Wagner - your hero! (pointing toward rear wall) He is very much with us.
OTTO We listen to Wagner's music - great music - but we hate what it represents.
HITLER Wagner is a great composer and a great German. His music reflects the glory of Germany and the Aryan race!
HANS He should be hailed as a genius, but his music can be irksome, down right aggravating at times.
HITLER (moving toward center of room) We shall now proceed to the matter specified. Be concise! Be brief! (Otto, Hans and Helene exchange glances and shrug. Hitler again roars and cracks his whip)
HANS You are not addressing your mother now, Adolf. She gave into your temper tantrums.
OTTO But it won't work with us. (Hitler returns whip to. hip and furiously paces back and forth) Yes, we know why you called us here, but we want to hear it from you. (Hitler ceases pacing and bows his head)
HITLER I want to put this matter to rest. (raises his head and glances intensely toward Otto, Hans and Helene) Have you further to report on the Jewish matter?
OTTO Perhaps, we should be refreshed as to why you think you might be Jewish.
HITLER Why should I think anything so outrageous? How and where did such nonsense originate?
OTTO Oh come now, Adolf, if you want to be an actor why don't you go on the stage instead of practicing the art before us? How many times have you pursued this subject with us? Why did you have the Gestapo check into your family background to determine that you are not Jewish, only to learn that the Gestapo couldn't find proof that you are not Jewish? (Hitler's body shakes)
HANS And what about that little village of Dollersheim where your father was born and his grandmother was buried? You had its inhabitants evacuated and then heavy artillery crashed into the village, demolishing its buildings and rendering graves in the little cemetery unrecognizable. Thereby, you sought to assure yourself that no physical evidence or documented records existed of your possible Jewish ancestry. (Hitler's body continues to shake, as does his head)
OTTO And above all, your having leeches draw blood from you, fearing that your blood might be Jewish.
HITLER (In frustration waves his whip above his shaking body) If I have Jewish blood in my system, so does the bodies of all German people! They must all be free from Jewish blood. (returns whip to hip)
HELENE How about having leeches parties! You could distribute cartons of leeches throughout the nation and have merry blood sucking festivity! (Otto and Hans wave their hands and shout in agreement)
HITLER (thundering) There will be no Jewish blood in Germany after my mission for God is complete!
HANS (casually) Let us dwell for a moment upon those Jews who benefited you while you were pursuing studies in Vienna. There was the Epstien family who financed the hostel where you were fed bread and soup and given a bed for sleeping. (pause) You likewise received free food from the Warming House thanks to the generous endowment of another Jew, Baron Moritz Konigswarder. You might have starved if it hadn't been for their kindness.
OTTO We would remind you that you sold copies of your water colors to Jews who paid you generously. Your Jewish benefactors were such men as Altenberg, Neuman, Feingold, Morgenstern and Landesberger. If this is not true, why has such great efforts been launched by your government, The Third Reich, to recover these paintings from Jewish owners?
HELENE (pointedly, sternly) You either acknowledge the goodness of these Jews to you, or you are the biggest hypocrite on this planet!
HITLER (shaking, desperately) Let us not forget that I was a German hero in the War! I received the Iron Cross First Class Award!
OTTO (gleefully) I am delighted that you called this to our attention. Your Commanding Officer wrote that you would have never received the award had it not been for the efforts of the Regimental Adjutant, Hugo Gutmann, a Jew!
HANS And before we leave this subject, we remind you that Germany was saved from economic collapse following the war by the infusion of Jewish money.
HITLER (cracking his whip and bellowing) Lies! Lies! Lies! My patience is exhausted! (Music to the German National Anthem is heard in background. The music alone is first heard, followed by music and words. Hitler stands rigidly and salutes. Otto, Hans and Helene stand respectfully at attention.)
(Following the last words and music strains of Franz Joseph Haydn's music Hitler relaxes his salute and looks triumphantly toward the three) I do observe that you have an ounce of patriotism to display.
HELENE We deeply love and honor our country, but not necessarily its rulers, and particularly the one who stands before us. You are not true to the spirit of our anthem. You degrade its very words. Where in the Nazi movement do we find unity, right and freedom?
HITLER (thundering) I am Germany!
HANS (bitterly) You seem to have lost the capacity to distinguish between truth and falsehood. You sorely need a reintroduction to truth. (pause. shakes finger toward Hitler) You have the unmitigated gall to compare yourself with Jesus, while Jesus was Jewish!
HITLER (sarcastically, defensively) Jesus was not a Jew! The Jews called him the son of a whore!
HANS Well, your bosom friends, Wagner and Luther declared him to be a Jew!
HELENE (jabbing satirically at Hitler) If Jesus was not Jewish, who was he: the son of Wotan, the brother-in-law of Siefried, the cousin of Lohengrin (39 times removed), or the uncle of Parsifal?
HITLER (hostilely) He was not Jewish!
HANS You tell a lie so often that you come to believe it. (chuckling) But you have successfully lied to yourself. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here today.
HITLER (sharply) Who are saying that I am a Jew?
OTTO There are knowledgeable people with logical minds who believe that you have Jewish blood. They are aware of your family background. At the present, we are not saying whether or not your blood is Jewish.
HELENE (walking about Hitler and surveying his physical features) We have no desire to foster you upon the Jewish race, a great people (pointing toward Hitler's nose) but look at that nose! It looks to me like the kind of nose you say belongs to Jews!
HITLER (to Helene, furiously) I have made an exception for you because you are an actress, but the place for the woman is in the home. And henceforth this applies to you! (Hitler begins pacing about) I am not Jewish! I shall show you by destroying all Jews!
HELENS And to show you are not a meat eater, shall you exterminate all butchers?
HANS I remember how you threatened to kill all homosexuals to prove you were not homosexual, as some thought you might be at one time.
HELENE (as she and Hans place their arms around each other's back) Wagner believed his father might be Jewish, just as you believe your father may have been. And many people in his day believed that Wagner, himself, was Jewish. Hans and I shall wed in the near future, but there will be no Wagner music in the marriage ceremony. I will have a Jewish bridesmaid.
HITLER (startled, rages) How dare you! (furiously paces about) I forbid it! I forbid it! (cracks his whip) I warn you; this is my decision!
HANS (forcefully) We have made our choice. The decision is ours, not yours. (pause, as Hitler ceases pacing and in rigid stance faces Hans) By the way, Wagner has Lohengrin in love with Venus.
HITLER Venus is Aryan. (howling laughter from the three)
HANS Do the Greeks know about this?
HELENE There will be some at our wedding who believe you are Jewish. Would you care to be in attendance and meet them?
HITLER In due time I shall silence these Jewish blood rumors. (waving his whip in their direction) With this accomplished, I shall deal with you; you can depend upon that! (Hitler exits through left center wall door)
HELENE (sighing) I wonder how much longer Adolf will tolerate us.
OTTO As long as he is anxious about our having proof that he might be a Jew. Nothing is changed.
TIME: September, 1942
PLACE: The living room of Han's and Helene's Berlin apartment. The large room is comfortably furnished. Two sofas are arranged in semi-circle left and right of center room. Two large chairs
are in semi-circle adjacent to left and right of sofas. A piano is situated in rear of near left wall. A stand holding a pitcher of beer and a tray of pretzels occupies a place near rear center
wall. A rug adorns center floor. The door to entrance to room is at center right wall.
As scene opens, Hans and Helene are dancing to the background music of a Strauss waltz in left portion of room. Otto is seated with a glass of beer in one hand and a pretzel in the other hand. He gaily waves the dancers onward. After one minute the music and dancing ceases; Hans and Helene curtsey to each other. Then after Otto deposits beer glass on stand, they stroll to the center of room.
HELENE I do hope we can be of some comfort and cheer to General Halder.
HANS I believe he wants to open himself to us regarding the turn of events in his life and military career.
OTTO I keep wondering what caused Adolf to dismiss such a great and brilliant General as Franz Halder, the chief commandant of the German army. His victories were most impressive.
HELENE As much as I detest warfare, I admire General Halder as a military leader. He was simply too good for Adolf!
OTTO I fear Adolf is after his head; that he will deal with him as he deals with his enemies.
HELENE I attached a note to the door inviting him to come directly to us. (Enters General Halder in military uniform. Helene hastens to embrace him followed by Otto and Hans.)
GENERAL HALDER (merrily) Ah, I spy beer and pretzels, Franz Halder's staff of life!
HELENE (delightfully) They are there for your pleasure. (General Halder happily smacks his hands together as he advances to the refreshment stand where he procures for himself a glass of beer and a pretzel.)
GENERAL HALDER I salute your hospitality, my dear friend, but I hope that my visit here will not put you in jeopardy. I felt as though I had to come to you.
OTTO (cheerily) We shall be in no greater danger when you depart from us than we are already facing. Our hope is for your safety in coming to us.
GENERAL HALDER I realize my days are likely numbered, and I have often wondered how the three of you have managed to escape the wrath of Adolf Hitler. You are aware of the friends as well as enemies he has disposed of.
OTTO There is an anxiety about which Adolf consults us from time to time.
GENERAL HALDER I heard that he spares you because of your father's wealth and industrial power. And I know how much he admires men of riches and industrial might. He flatters the lower middle class but in his heart he honors wealth.
HANS This is a part of it, to be sure. As you know, my father owns a large pharmaceutical industry; and Adolf wants pharmaceutical products available to all Germans, and not the least to himself.
GENERAL HALDER (as he places beer glass on stand and moves to join Otto, Hans and Helene in center of room) How well I know how Hitler demands medications for his hypochondria needs, as well as genuine physical ailments. Judging from the way he shakes he may have Parkinson's disease. I understand that he has been diagnosed as having liver, heart and stomach troubles.
HELENE (laughing) And my father's clothing industry seems to be dear to the heart of Adolf. He wants all German people, especially women, to have access to the best of apparel. This is why I am a fashion designer for my father, as I refuse to grace the theatre in Nazi roles.
OTTO He has never requested my father to restructure his jewelry manufacturing to military production.
GENERAL HALDER (sadly) Hitler has not required German industries to transform to fulltime military production as has the United States. Yes, he wants to shower all these luxuries upon the civilian population while the military men and machine is deprived of essentials. Young German soldiers wearing summer clothing perished in the devastating winter weather of Russia. (pause as in pondering and reflecting) With the exception of your active opposition to Hitler, and work with your parents, what are your pursuits, if any?
OTTO I won't be an agent of Nazi. propaganda. I manage to get some of my journalism smuggled out of Germany.
HANS I am able to carry on some of my anthropology research, but I am hampered by Nazi control of vital material.
HELENE I have to confine my activity to fashion designing as long as the Nazi are in power.
GENERAL HALDER (to Otto) I believe that you have known Hitler longer than Hans and Helene here?
OTTO I spent some time with him when we were boys, and I slept in the home of Adolf's aunt while he and his mother and her other children were visiting there during the summer months. Also, I visited in Adolf's home from time to time. (shaking his head) I didn't know him then, and I don't know him now. He had only one intimate friend arid that was August Kubizek, whom he often treated shamefully. Kubizek was very good to Adolf, but he said that Adolf was a mystery to him.
GENERAL HALDER Well, I hope you three might shed some light for me on Adolf Hitler, the great military leader who has led the German army into such catastrophic defeats. (Otto, Hans and Helene smile weakly to one another, seat themselves and General Halder begins to pace in circles) Dunkirk! Dunkirk! Dunkirk! (pause) When General Guderian's forces were with eyesight of Dunkirk, Hitler ordered him to stop. We could have had Dunkirk! He could have destroyed the British forces; they wouldn't have been able to rally in England, continued the war and man the coasts to thwart our invasion. The United States would not have had England as a base in Europe for warring against us. Why before the Dunkirk debacle the people of England were preparing to live under the Nazis. (Ceases pacing and faces the three) I'll be damned if I don't think that we lost the war right there at Dunkirk! (swings his arms in agitation and begins to slowly walk about) In the Summer of 1941 Hitler had the European continent in his grasp. He had only to invade England to make it absolute. (pause - walks about for a moment and then faces the three again) What did he do? What did he do? (shouting) He invaded Russia! (paces around furiously and then faces the three) I am told that he was plagued with doubt about what he should do about Russia prior to the invasion, but he turned to his old Mentor, Richard Wagner, for inspiration and direction. So on July 23, 1941, he attended a performance of Gotterdarirnerung and once again Wagner worked his magic on him. Hitler was confirmed in his conviction of heroic destiny. (smiling painfully) In the darkness of the Loge he passionately kissed the hand of Frau Winifred Wagner, his mind made up. (breathing heavily and shaking his head) Within the week he issued the order that would lead to his own Gotterdanmerung. (pause, breathes heavily and walks slowly about as he muses) You know when he declared war on the Soviet Union, Russia was his most valued ally, shipping him thousands upon thousands of tons of vital war supplies, such as, iron, rubber, crone, platinum and huge stocks of oil which the Russians purchased from the United States and sent on to Germany through Vladivostok and across Siberia. (ceases walking, faces the three, then speaks slowly but forcefully) And as Hitler's soldiers moved eastward into Russia, they saw Soviet freight trains traveling westward, loaded with supplies for the German army! (sinks into a chair as Otto, Hans and Helene groan with laughter) Why, oh, why did he attack Russia?
OTTO I heard that he wanted the wheat of the Ukraine and oil of the Caucus.
GENERAL HALDER (wearily) He would have had only to ask the Soviets for these.
HELENE Some say that he feared Russia was about to attack Germany.
GENERAL HALDER (shaking his head) There is not the slightest evidence for that. Hitler and Stalin had their Non Aggression Pact which enabled them to divide Poland between them.
HANS There was talk that he wanted to make slaves of the Russian people, that he detested the Slavs, but I think his reason for attacking the Soviet Union runs deeper, much deeper.
GENERAL HALDER Why does Hitler insist that any nation he affiliates with be of the Aryan Race? If the Italians and Japanese are Aryan than I am Walt Disney!
OTTO And I am Jacob Grimm!
HANS And I am Hans Anderson!
HELENE And I am Queen Victoria! (pause) What went wrong with the Russian Campaign?
GENERAL HALDER Our German army was within eyesight of Moscow which had heroic defenders. Suddenly Hitler signaled for a split in the army against the advice of his generals. He sent half of the army to seize the Ukraine and again he proved to be a military fool. The people of the Ukraine, who had suffered greatly under Stalin, greeted the German army as liberators; but Hitler ordered their general shot and brutalized the population. But the Russians of the Ukraine fought back and Hitler lost both the Ukraine and Moscow.
HANS And he discharged an excellent general, the one standing noble before us.
GENERAL HALDER (smiling faintly) My criticism of the way he conducted the Russian campaign was stinging, and Hitler doesn't tolerate being stung; hence, I had to go. (pause in reflection) I must confess that once the warfare on Russia began, I was enthusiastic about having a successful operation. Without such enthusiasm a general becomes a liability. Hitler had some doubts about our being victorious, but his damnable pride overruled his logic. (paces about again) But as disastrous as Russia proved to be, he embarked upon an even greater calamity.
HANS You mean his going to war with the United States?
GENERAL HALDER Precisely! He declared war on the only person he feared, Franklin Roosevelt. Oh, in public he scorned Roosevelt, but privately he held him in dread esteem. (ceases pacing and faces the three) He had nothing but contempt for Churchill and he ridiculed Stalin. He knew that Roosevelt had long wanted to do battle with him but was held back by the isolation bound American people. But Hitler played right into Roosevelt's hand, who by then had the full support of the American people! (pause - places palms of hands over his face in agitation)
HELEN But as an ally of Japan, wasn't Germany obliged to war on the United States?
GENERAL HALDER (slowly removing hands from his face) Only in the event that the United States attacked Japan which was hardly the case at Pearl Harbor. (walks about) Why Hitler did not let Japan take care of the United States and draw Roosevelt away from his monumental support of Great Britain, I do not know! Help me God, I do not know! (drops into chair, covers his face with his hands and breathes heavily for several moments. The three approach him offering comfort, but he gratefully waves them to return to their seats)
HANS Adolf avows that the Jews in America are the reason for Roosevelt wanting to defeat Germany.
GENERAL HALDER Oh, he rants and raves about the Jews being responsible for America's entry into the first Great War and the defeat of our Fatherland. (shaking his head and breathing heavily) You know, I wonder what the reason really is for the allied nations fighting the Fatherland. The answer seems to be simple yet, not so simple.
HANS Obviously, to defend their sovereignty.
GENERAL HALDER (slowly) Well, they are not fighting to destroy totalitarianism. Soviet Russia is totalitarian as Germany, and they are not fighting to save the Jews. Jews are presently undergoing persecution in Russia, and they were persecuted under the Tsars. If the United States was fighting to save the Jews, it would have entered the war much earlier!
HANS (rising from his seat) I believe you are entirely right. I have an elderly friend in America named Herman who emigrated there from Germany many years ago. He is very happy to be an American, and he loves to sing a song about God blessing America and the American National Anthem, which describes America as the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. But he says that not all people in the United States fully enjoy the fruits of freedom. (pauses in reflection) He told me about two Jewish lads entering a work camp for American youth and being treated so miserably that they had to leave the camp. Herman describes an organization in America known as the Ku Klux Klan which agonizes Catholics, Jews and Negroes. He reports that there has been lynching of Negroes; that one town of Negroes was completely wiped out. (begins walking about) Herman said that during the great Depression foreigners were blamed for the loss of jobs by American workers. Italian immigrants were called whops, Hungarians were referred to as Hunkies and Poles were called Pollocks. It seems that to be free from such prejudice and bigotry one had to be Anglo Saxon, Protestant and white! (pause, shakes head) Herman said that one of the most sorrowful times of his life occurred when a shipload of Jewish refugees were not permitted to enter America and, thereby, consigned to the death camps of Hitler. (ceases walking and faces the two) Well, you know that great American Negro Olympic Star, Jesse Owens, Adolf snubbed him, but we greatly admired him here in Germany. Herman reported that he returned to the United States a second-class citizen. And that when our prize fighter, Max Schmeling, knocked out the great American Negro, Joe Louis, there was about as much joy in America as there was here in Germany; when Louis defeated Schmeling in a return match, there was the same kind of weeping in America as we had here. And Herman hates to drive by towns in America which display signs on the town's borders "Niggers don't show your face in town after sundown." Nigger is aderogatory term for Negroes in America. (tossing his hands in the air in frustration) As bad as it is, it would be infinitely worse if Adolf had power over America! Also, Herman tells me about an organization in America which defends the rights of minority races and the freedom of everyone whose liberty is threatened. He named this organization Civil Liberties - No, that's not it. (brief pause) Civil Liberties Union? (shaking his head negatively) The American Civil Liberties Union, that's it! Herman mentions that it is a respected but not very popular organization.
HELENE Protecting everyone's freedom is seldom popular. How well we know!
GENERAL HALDER It's far too late for such an organization to function in the Fatherland. It wouldn't last a fortnight today. (pause, shaking his head) I am completely baffled by Hitler. While in some ways he is a brilliant military leader, he makes shambles out of successful military conquests. I wonder whether anyone understands him. Some of the generals were discussing a famous American criminal lawyer named Darrow, who urged before Hitler seized power, to put him away. Darrow labeled Hitler a very sick and dangerous man. His main objective now seems to be the destruction of the Jews.
HANS I, too, believe that Adolf is sick, although I don't think that he is insane. I place him at the borderline between sanity and insanity. The American poet, Auden, refers to Adolf as "The Psychopathic God." Have you heard of Auden? (General Halder nods his head negatively.
OTTO Do I correctly surmise that you wish us to shed light on the mystery of Adolf?
GENERAL HALDER (mournfully) Well, you know him better than anyone I know of; of this I am certain. He told me that no one could guess what he was going to do.
OTTO (waving toward Hans) He understands Adolf better than Helene or myself.
HANS (laughing) Well, I am indebted to Freud and some other psychologists for whatever insights I may have. But unless your opinion of Freud has undergone a revision I don't see how I can be of much help to you.
GENERAL HALDER (smiling dubiously) How many Prussian generals change their minds about anything other than military matters? (pause) Normally, we generals are not politicians. We are agents of the government, and we do as commanded. In times past I shared the bias of Hitler and the Nazis toward the Jews, but now (shaking his head mournfully) I weep because of the bestial havoc Hitler has visited upon the Jews and other unfortunate people. I know little about Freud, but I hope I am ripe for learning, but keep it simple. I am hardly an intellectual. (waving to Hans) Onward! Onward! (Otto, Hans and Helene wave encouragement towards the General)
HANS (rising from his seat) I shall be as elementary as possible in presenting Dr. Freud to you. Now you see, Adolf has a conscious and an unconscious mind which is true of everyone. In his conscious mind Adolf wants great victories, but in his unconscious mind desires ghastly defeats. He is what Freud describes Masochistic. (to General Halder) Am I making myself clear?
GENERAL HALDER (nodding his head in the affirmative) I have heard of sadists but not of masochists.
HANS Some of Adolf's sadistic actions result from his conscious mind and some from his unconscious mind while all of his masochistic self-defeating actions stem from his unconscious mind.
GENERAL HALDER (waving his hands) But if this is true, why is he this way?
HANS Perhaps, I shouldn't elaborate on that at this time, but Adolf's father was very sadistic. He beat little Adolf savagely at the slightest provocation. These beatings made a deep impression upon Adolf. He in turn became greatly sadistic. In his conscious mind he hates his father for those beatings but in his unconscious mind he feels that he deserves them and considers them as a token of his father's affection for him, an affection he desperately wanted and grievously needed. (pause, observes a stunned General Halder) So consciously he wishes great victory while unconsciously he seeks defeat; hence, he has victories which are followed by defeats.
GENERAL HALDER (waving his arms and shaking his head) I am dumbfounded! I fear that if I presented your explanation to the generals I would become the laughing stock of the military!
HANS Well, how else can you explain his defeats? In a Dunkirk situation would Napoleon have let England escape? Would Napoleon have split his army at Moscow? Remember, Napoleon entered Moscow as a conqueror, having routed the Russian army. How could anyone have imagined that the government and people of Moscow would desert their Capitol and set it on fire? (pause) Would Napoleon have declared war on the United States? At the time the United States was an unofficial ally of Napoleon; it, too, was fighting England.
GENERAL HALDER (pounding his fists upon his knees) Well, I'll be damned! Who would believe that the fiasco at Dunkirk, Moscow and the folly with the United States originated in the nursery and childhood of Adolf Hitler; in the home of Adolf Hitler?
HANS Why should this be surprising? Isn't the family the basic institution of society? Doesn't the world mirror the family and the home?
GENERAL HALDER It may be a while before all of this sinks into my system. (rises, laughing) And Hitler claims to be doing the Will of God! I have seen him rage viciously toward those who questioned whether he was doing the Will of God. (pause) Belatedly, I wish I had concentrated as much on Hitler's social impact as on his military conquests. It makes me wonder about the meaning of my life. (pauses, shakes his head) Hitler labels Germany a Fascist state, functioning through what he terms National Socialism. But where is there socialism in Germany? We are deadly enemies of Communism which seems to have some relationship to socialism.
HANS National Socialism is pseudo-socialism. In National Socialism the masses are fed acceptable crumbs but the power and wealth are in the hands of the industrialists, the military and the agrarian elite. Combine this with racial and ethnic bigotry and you have full bloom fascism. Of course, during years of warfare the government may take over the industries, but the wealth produced remains with the industrialists.
GENERAL HALDER Then fascism is the reign of the wealthy and affluent, adorned with the glory and might of the military and enhanced by racial and ethnic bigotry!
OTTO (jovially) You indeed hit the mark, General! I wonder why no one in Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain has composed an ode to fascism? What about you, Hans?
HANS (chuckling) I haven't the beat for composing an ode, but how about prayers and intercessions to fascism? Let's all join the chorus! (pause) "Oh disciplining fascism, we beseech you to end the bickerings and clashes of competing interests in our parliamentary and legislative halls; assume the power and resolve our social and economic woes. Yours to reign forever! Amen! Amen!"
OTTO "Oh noble fascism, our unemployed are desperate for your crowning of their destiny; with lightning swiftness disperse with sword and pain those racial and ethnic minorities who compete for our nation's material resources. Welcome! Oh accept our welcome to you!"
HELENE "Oh avenging fascism, come and vanquish the racial and ethnic minorities who frustrate our national youth. Thou hast the power to relieve their despair and restore them to the ranks of the employed. So be it! So be it!"
GENERAL HALDER (painfully - slowly) "Oh beloved fascism, you crown our military with glory. Make our military to reign supreme, and may our nation's people glorify in its conquests and achievements!" (smiles awkwardly as the three wave him their cheers)
HANS "Oh firm fascism, make our streets safe from crime. Your security is more precious than our freedom. What greater honor can our request heap upon you?"
OTTO "Oh gracious fascism, we of wealth cry for you to quell the surge of labor unions and social legislation for which we are grievously taxed. Have we not earned or inherited the right to dictate terms to laboring people? Disperse the poor, the handicapped and non-productive; they are expendable. Help us to be at peace with and glorify genocide. Oh almighty fascism, make haste to help us, and we will give you the glory and praise!"
HANS (as the three laugh in exhaustion) If Adolf heard us he would suffer a fatal stroke.
HELENE Or double his intake of chocolates.
GENERAL HALDER I wonder if democracy will return to the Fatherland. (shaking his head) We have never experienced it for long.
HANS Germany had well educated, highly cultured, scientific minded and socially progressive people and still yielded to fascism. (pause) Fascism is Hitler's legacy to the world. May I repeat? Fascism is Hitler's legacy to the world! Yes, Democracy and Communism may occupy center stage, but fascism awaits eagerly and impatiently in the wings. This is true in every nation. We shall see what lesson our German people have learned from their fascist experience. (pause) With the Russian army soon to be on our soil, I dread the reality that we may have to endure for many years the barbarous tyranny of Communism before a choice between democracy and fascism confronts our nation again.
TIME: Mid-summer, 1943
PLACE: The Reception Office in the Parish Church of the Reverend Father Ludwig Schmidt. The office is attractively furnished. A large, elaborate brown desk is at the far right center of office. Pictures of Jesus, Luther and Wagner adorn the rear walls. A beautiful divan is placed near rear center wall and six lavish, upholstered chairs are on each side of office. The entrance door
is in the middle of the left wall. Wagner's Parsifal music is heard in background.
As scene opens The Rev. Fr. Ludwig Schmidt and The Rev. Frederick Schiller are standing side by side in center of office. Otto, Hans and Helene enter office and proceed to center of office where Fr. Schmidt and Pastor Schiller extend their hands in greeting; but Otto, Hans and Helene do not reciprocate. A startled Fr. Schmidt and Pastor Schiller exchange anxious glances.
FATHER SCHMIDT I must say your greeting to us is indeed cool, while our reception to you was cordial.
HANS We are not lacking in Christian graces, but our relationship with you and Pastor Schiller can't help but be strained.
FATHER SCHMIDT (glancing toward a puzzled Pastor Schiller) We don't understand.
HANS Stated concisely, we deem your relationship with Adolf Hitler to be unacceptable.
PASTOR SCHILLER We are Christians, and we also are Germans.
HANS (nodding toward Otto and Helene) We three consider ourselves to be Germans who are in opposition to the corruption and evil the Nazis are heaping upon our nation and the Church.
OTTO How can you claim to be Christian and approve of the policies and actions of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis? How can you condone the persecution of Jews?
PASTOR SCHILLER We are not conscious of any injustice inflicted upon the Jews.
OTTO (explodes with rage and Fr. Schmidt and Pastor Schiller embrace each other in fright) Herding them into concentration camps, denying them of the right to be employed and seizing their property; who in the name of all the demons in Hell are you trying to fool? (Fr. Schmidt and Pastor Schiller release their embrace)
PASTOR SCHILLER But the Jews have betrayed the Fatherland!
OTTO (fuming) Oh whale piss, Pastor, the Still Waters are on fire!
HANS Germany lost the first great war because of the overwhelming superiority of the Allied Forces and especially the United States. And it was Jewish money which saved Germany from economic collapse following the war.
PASTOR SCHILLER But the great founder of our Lutheran Church was condemnatory toward the Jews.
HELENE (flashing a book) I am reading from Martin Luther's program for dealing with the Jews: First, set fire to their synagogues or schools. Second, I advise that their houses be razed and destroyed. Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such adultery, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. Fourth, I advise that their Rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. Fifth, I advise that safe conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. Sixth, I advise that all cash and treasures of silver and gold be taken from them. Seventh, let whosoever can, throw brimstone and pitch upon them, so much the better, and if this be not enough, let them be driven like mad dogs out of the land. (points book toward the two clergymen) And Hitler has carried out Luther's program in every detail. Is it more than a coincidence that the burning of the synagogues took place on November 1, 1938 - on Luther's birthday? (removes book from her possession)
PASTOR SCHILLER But did not the Jews crucify our Lord?
HELENE (places right arm above her right ear and stretches her left arm outward and downward) Oh Pontius Pilate down there, did you hear what Pastor Schiller just claimed? You did not put Jesus Christ to death, the Jews did it! (pauses as though listening to Pontius Pilate; then returns limbs to their normal positions, and addresses Pastor Schiller) Pilate asked me to remind you that the Jews had no authority to execute Jesus; that, as an agent of Rome, he issued the order for the execution. He added that if this explanation is not satisfactory he will try to do a better job when you join him (pointing downward) down there. (Pastor Schiller and Fr. Schmidt recoil in horror)
FATHER SCHMIDT (crosses himself) What you just did was blasphemy!
HANS Wait a minute, here! I thought blasphemy was calling something evil good and something good evil. It seems to me that this definition describes you - not Helene.
HELEN Was it not Jews who first followed our Lord and founded the Church?
PASTOR SCHILLER Martin Luther declared that all Jews who converted to Christianity should be spared punishment!
HELENE Well, that was arrogant of Luther, but he did give the Jews a way out; something not true of Adolf Hitler. But our Lord never coerced anyone to follow him. He gave an invitation, and I challenge you to show me any place in the Gospels where Jesus inflicted pain on anyone who didn't become a follower of him. He looked lovingly and sorrowing upon the rich young ruler who would not depart from his wealth to join him.
HANS Martin Luther was a great reformer. As a Catholic, I say this. He did much good for the Church and as tragically anti-Semitic as he was, I am more than convinced that he would be appalled at Hitler's destruction of the Jews, although he unwittingly laid the foundation for it. Unfortunately, he also provided the foundation for totalitarianism here in Germany, in powerfully advocating State tyranny over Church tyranny. The latter was already doomed by the overall reformation sweeping Europe at the time, and Germany long has had a love affair with totalitarianism.
FATHER SCHMIDT Can't you see that we are servants of God; not politicians?
HELENE (sarcastically) Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's, I suppose?
FATHER SCHMIDT Exactly, my child.
HELENE (satirical) And God gets short changed!
FATHER SCHMIDT (sharply) Are we short changing God?
HELENE (tossing arms in air in disgust) What are you rendering to Hitler? War! Pestilence! Starvation! Racism! Totalitarianism! (pause) And what are you rendering to God?
FATHER SCHMIDT (triumphantly) We celebrate Mass regularly!
HANS Helene and I receive the Body of Christ in the Mass because Christ is in the Sacrament; not because you celebrate the Sacrament.
HELENE (waving a hand toward Father Schmidt) Jesus taught us that everyone on earth is our neighbor, and that includes the Jews, and that we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. How are you obeying this Commandment?
FATHER SCHMIDT The majority of the people in Germany are affiliated with our churches.
HELENE At one time the majority of the people thought that our earth was flat as a tea leaf, and they were confirmed in such belief by your Church. (tossing her arms in the air, she paces about) Why can't Christians be Christians: Why can't the Church be Christian? Why do Christians rationalize their failure to confront and eradicate sin, evil and prejudice? (ceases pacing and faces Fr. Schmidt and Pastor Schiller) You know, I believe there is a place in Hell that is reserved for rationalizers. (Fr. Schmidt and Pastor Schiller embrace each other)
PASTOR SCHILLER We are not tools of the State; we serve our Lord! Herr Hitler himself was reared a Catholic.
HELENE If you are claiming that Adolf Hitler is still a Catholic, you are dwelling in a fool's paradise. He now has a religion of his own, and he is in the process of making it the official religion of Germany. (opens a book) Listen to this: In place of holy scriptures Hitler has Mein Kampf in public schools, and it has replaced the Bible in the homes of thousands of Germans. The League of German Girls developed a new version of The Lord's Prayer which is a supplication not only for the Fuhrer but to him as a deity; it reads this way: "Adolf Hitler, You are our great 1eader. Thy name makes the enemy tremble. Thy Third Reich comes, thy will alone is Law upon earth. Let us hear daily thy voice and order us by thy leadership, for we will obey to the end even with our lives. We praise thee! Heil Hitler!" (pause, glares at the two clerics) And hear this: (reading from book) Smaller children are taught to use this grace before meals: "Fuhrer, my Fuhrer, sent to me from God, protect and maintain me throughout my life. Thou who hast saved Germany from deepest need, I thank thee today for my daily bread. Remain at my side and never leave me. Fuhrer, my Fuhrer, my faith, my light. Heil my Fuhrer!" I'll read one more Nazi religious gem. Observe how our beloved Silent Night, Holy Night is becoming distorted: "Silent Night! Holy Night! All is calm. All is bright. Only the Chancellor steadfast in fight Watches O'er Germany by day and by night always caring for us. Silent Night! Holy Nights All is calm. All is bright. Adolf Hitler is Germany's wealth, Brings us greatness, favor and health. Oh, give us Germans all power!" (relieves herself of book) Is this the religion with which you seek an accord?
HANS Adolf has an obsession with death. He proclaims that he has the capacity to order death, even his own. He declares that he can deliver millions unto their deaths, and the more who die, the better, Would either you men of the cloth deny that this constitutes blasphemy?
PASTOR SCHILLER I do believe you confuse religion with politics.
HELENE (shaking clinched fists in Irritation) There goes your damned rationalizing again! (Pastor Schiller and Fr. Schmidt release their embrace and begin walking about)
PASTOR SCHILLER (his voice quaking) You must realize that the Church is the people of God.
HELENE (shaking head in disgust) If the German Church is the people of God, God help God!
FATHER SCHMIDT (trembling) Have you no respect for the Church that was instituted by the Lord, himself? Have you no respect for those called to minister in his Church? (Pastor Schiller and Fr. Schmidt cease walking and face Helene)
HELENE We have no respect for the corruption we witness in its clergy and hierarchy.
HANS We don't entirely judge the German Church by what we witness here today. As weak as it is, the Church is the only institution in the Fatherland that has opposed Adolf Hitler in anyway whatsoever. We know there are some heroic Christians in our nation, but where are they? What about Pastor Niomeller? Why aren't you in the Concentration camps with them?
PASTOR SCHILLER (resentfully) Those men were resisting Der Fuhrer's message and actions. They surely could have made some accommodation with him. And Herr Hitler is fighting atheistic Communism in Russia!
HANS As bad as Communism is, it is no worse than Fascism. The Communists deny the existence of God while the Fascist recognize God and blaspheme him.
HELENE (looking and pointing toward Wagner's background music) Oh, that damn Wagner music!
OTTO Wagner hates the Jews as much as does Hitler. Small wonder you are comfortable with his music.
FATHER SCHMIDT In his composition "Parsifal" which you are now hearing, Wagner honors our Lord.
OTTO (waving his arms in the air and darting toward the two clerics who recoil in fear and embrace each other) Oh holy frog legs! Parsifal is not a praise of Christ; it is a glorification of the Aryan race. Wagner, himself, said that his reason for writing "Parsifal" was to deliver this racial message. He blasphemes our Lord! I say this as a Lutheran layman.
HANS (surveying the embraced clerics) Adolf Hitler has done what our Lord has been unable to do; he has brought Protestant and Catholic together. (Pastor Schiller and Father Schmidt rapidly release their embrace) (pause) Oh, we know you are afraid. You fear for your very lives. We have much fear in the Fatherland; it grips the nation like a fog envelops a valley. Prosperity and fear coexist with anxiety. (motioning toward Otto and Helene) The three of us are not immune to fear; the hangman's noose dangles above us.
FATHER SCHMIDT It is common knowledge that you three have been spared the fate visited upon other enemies of Hitler and the Nazis.
OTTO Only because Adolf finds it expedient not to deliver us to the gallows. He also is haunted with fear. (pause) you are either for or against Adolf Hitler; there is no middle ground!
HANS We three have a cause for which we are prepared to die. And when you are possessed with such a cause, you are truly living and living abundantly. (pause - approaches close to the two clerics) Jesus said that whoever loses his life for the Kingdom of Heaven, he will truly find his life. Why don't you try it?
PASTOR SCHILLER Please excuse us for a moment. (the two retreat a few steps and communicate with whispering. Then they return to an intrigued Otto, Hans and Helene) Will you join us in prayer?
HANS Well, what kind of prayer? For what or whom shall we be praying?
PASTOR SCHILLER For our beloved Fatherland.
HANS What about our Fatherland?
FATHER SCHMIDT We shall ask Almighty God to bless our Fatherland!
HANS (pointedly) As it is now under the evil jurisdiction of the Nazis?
FATHER SCHMIDT We shall ask our Heavenly Father to fashion the Fatherland in accordance with His will.
OTTO (incredulously) Oh, am I to believe what I am hearing?
HELENE (waving book in air) I have an idea. There is a hymn in this book which I believe speaks to the will of God for all peoples, for all nations. Why don't we say this hymn together, and then pray. We can't sing it due to Parsifal.
FATHER SCHMIDT (cautiously) Why don't you read the hymn for us. This will enable us to see how it relates to our prayer.
HELENE (reads hymn after receiving nods of approval from Otto and Hans)
"Where cross the crowded ways of life, where sound the
cries of race and clan, above the noise of selfish strife,
we hear thy voice, 0 Son of Man."
"In haunts of wretchedness and need, on shadowed thresholds
dark with fears, from paths where hide the lures of greed,
we catch the vision of thy tears."
"The cup of water given for thee still holds the freshness
of thy grace; yet long these multitudes to see the true
compassion of thy face."
"O Master from the mountainside, make haste to heal these
hearts of pain; among these restless throngs abide, O tread
the city's streets again;"
"Till all the world shall learn thy love and follow where
thy feet have trod; till glorious from thy heaven above,
shall come the city of our God."
(Pastor Schiller and Father Schmidt bow their heads and walk from room. Otto, Hans and Helene nod to one another knowingly and resigned)
TIME: April 27, 1945
PLACE: A small music room in the Berlin Bunker.
The room has a painted background scene of the majestic Bavarian mountains. The room is arranged for a small audience at a musical presentation, with several rows of chairs facing the mountain scene. A portrait of Frederick the Great adorns the left wall. Entrance door is at rear right wall of room. As scene opens Eva Braun, an attractive woman with blue eyes, is standing silently near rear right wall. Hitler is standing in front of large chair which is behind rows of chairs. He is enraptured with the music of Wagner, in the order of Parsifal, Lohengrin, Siegfried and Tristan Isolde. (Enter Otto, Hans and Helene)
EVA BRAUN (startled and shocked points toward the three) You! You!
OTTO (with jocularity) You appear to be viewing ghosts!
EVA BRAUN (struggling to regain her composure) You are dead! You are dead!
OTTO Oh, we know that Adolf ordered our executions (laughing) but here we are! (Otto, Hans and Helene move toward Hitler, who is standing in motion in front of his chair.) My God! What have we here?
EVA BRAUN Adolf is acting out Parsifal. He views himself as the Epitome of Parsifal whom I understand is a handsome, dashing young man. (Hitler symbolically lifts Holy Grail and moves it over the heads of symbolic Teutonic Knights. He then lashes his whip toward symbolic enemies of the Fatherland. Finally, he rescues a symbolic woman who has wiped his feet with her tear wet hair and passionately caresses her. With a body in physical deterioration, Hitler appears ludicrous.)
OTTO Ah yes, Parsifal the German knight who perverts the Christian message of love and redemption into one of Aryan racial superiority. He lifts the sacred Holy Grail of Christ over the heads of Teutonic knights. He defeats the enemies of the Fatherland and rescues the symbolic woman who wiped his feet with her tear wet hair and passionately caresses her. She reminds Adolf of his incestuous relationship with his mother. (laughing) Surely, Richard Wagner is turning in his grave. (music shifts to Lohengrin)
EVA BRAUN He is now acting out Lohengrin, his favorite Wagnerian hero. (Hitler motions outward and downward toward the symbolic enemies of the Fatherland and then proudly marches over their bodies and takes his symbolic mother in his arms)
OTTO Small wonder! Like Lohengrin, Adolf views himself as an immaculate young knight who rescues his beloved mother and the Fatherland from his lecherous and race contaminating father.
EVA BRAUN I just hear music. Adolf is my hero! He is my glorious German hero! (Music shifts to Siegfried. Hitler arches his arms and hands above his head symbolizing his triumph over death.)
OTTO Now don't tell me. (pause) He is acting out Siegfried, the magnificent hero who will save Germany from destruction and eliminate death by rising above it!
EVA BRAUN Music has such a soothing effect upon him, especially Wagnerian music. I have known it to make him calm, relaxed, gentle and kind.
OTTO Ah yes, Adolf loves to identify with the mythological creatures of Wagner. I suppose Adolf likes to turn to fantasy when in misfortune or defeat. Adolf's days of military glory are over.
EVA BRAUN Oh, Adolf has glorified in Wagnerian heroes for some time now. (shaking her head) Adolf doesn't deserve defeat. (forcefully) He is a great German warrior! He is a great German!
OTTO (angrily) Not to us, he is no great German! I am sure that the entire world has come to see your beloved Adolf as the greatest German evil!
EVA BRAUN (taken aback, hurting) I haven't understood Adolf's politics very well (tearfully), but I love him! (pointedly) Why have you come?
OTTO We are sorry, Eva, as we like you. But we have come to damn Adolf, not to praise him. (music shifts to Tristan and Isolde as Hitler ceases his acting and turns toward Otto, Hans and Helene and recoils from them in dismay)
OTTO (with Hans and Helene laughing) Oh, we are by no means the only ones alive in Germany whose executions you have ordered, Adolf.
HITLER (heatedly) How dare my orders for execution be disobeyed!
OTTO You are no longer the sole authority in Berlin. We have our own security guardians and the Americans and Russians are on German soil. (fiercely) Oh how I could joyfully wring your despicable neck around your callous ankles, Adolf Hitler! (Hitler in fright motions to Eva Braun to summon assistance) It won't do you any good. How do you think we got in here? Oh, I am not going to end your hateful life; the Americans and Russians will do just that! Don't expect anyone to come to your assistance. There were Russian soldiers out there. (pointing to beyond door) We could have revealed your indulgent hiding place. (pause) Because of Your abominable life and actions a great race has been exterminated! Have you satisfied your hatred for your contemptible father?
HITLER (defensively) My father was an excellent Government employee!
OTTO (roaring with laughter) Oh, dispense the bull and fiction. We know that you hated your father with a vengeance! Remember, I was in your boyhood home from time to time. (pauses - walks about briefly and then faces Hitler again) Now I suppose you continue to declare that you have been doing the Will of God. Ha! Ha! Ha! (a furious Hitler takes his whip and lashes it toward Otto, Hans and Helene. He is shaking on his feet, trembling, weak and his head tends toward drooping. Otto seizes the whip and flings it deep into room. Eva Braun shaken and terror stricken moves toward entrance door) You would do well to forget about that whip. (a shocked Hitler stares numbly toward vanquished whip as Otto, Hans and Helene glare at him) If I hadn't known your mother, I would call you a son of a bitch! Even that is far too good a name for you. What under heaven do you name a beast like you? You make Nero and Ivan the Terrible look like bank robbers! (pause, walks about briefly and then faces Hitler) Oh hateful fool, not only did you exterminate the Jews, you ordered the deaths of the physically handicapped, tuberculosis patients, the mentally ill, the feeble-minded, prisoners of war - even you own sick and wounded soldiers! (breathing heavily with rage and pressing bodily to near Hitler) Those mothers and their babies you had placed in ditches and sprayed with flaming gasoline - when I think of how your mother nursed her little Adolf, the damnable little Adolf! (Steps back and points toward Hitler) What a specimen of German degeneracy or Aryan corruption, if you prefer! (Eva Braun weeping rushes from room) Your adored chocolates desecrate your uniform. It would be fitting if blood also was thereon. Chocolate and blood constitute the story of your contemptible and lamentable career! (pause - paces about) When you could no longer advance your military goals, you set out to destroy and to devastate the beautiful city of Paris, hospitals, churches, universities, schools, centers of culture; in fact, you planned the greatest Gotterdammerung in history, far surpassing the Gotterdammerung of your lord and master, Richard Wagner!
HITLER (bitterly) The German people are not worthy of me. I shall soon be with my colleagues in Valhalla!
OTTO Oh, I believe that in the life following death you will be with your colleagues, but not in Valhalla! I'll wager that Satan is furiously laboring to prepare the proper place for you in Hell; he has never ushered anyone like you into his diabolical domain.
HITLER (shaking) Remember, I am in charge of death. I have ordered the death of millions. I can order my own death!
OTTO Well, maybe you should be commanding your death soon, or the Americans and Russians will do the ordering for you. (pauses, laughing) Have you heard the song the British soldiers are singing about your missing testicle? (Hitler shakes arms in air) It goes something like this:
"Hitler has only got one ball,
Goring has two but very small;
Himmler's is very sim'lar,
And Goebbels has no balls at all."
(Hitler stomps feet in vexation) And do you know what they are singing about you in America? It is a composition of your adorable Walt Disney. Hans and Helene will sing it with me. (The three march in circles singing) "When Herr Hitler says we are the super race - We Heil! Heil! Heil! right in Der Fuhrer's face; Heil! Heil! Heil!. Heil! (Hitler shaking, wobbling on his feet, sinks into his chair) We observe that you are not openly raging as you did when those American college boys dressed like you and held that Hitler party. (points toward music background) Your Wagnerian protest is far too much to be acceptable. I know Jews and I have known you since the early years of your sordid life until now in its dark, degenerative and appalling ending. I shall leave your Jewish identity to God in Heaven! (Hitler rises, braces himself and walks lamely from room as Otto, Hans and Helene eye his departure from them.) (pause - Otto looking upward and voicing passionately) As a child of God I tried to love him, but love him I cannot! Please forgive me God! How well I know that you love him despite his union and perpetual rendezvous with sin. I, too, have sinned, and I have received mercy from you. Please forgive me God; please help me God; I know not how to love him!
TIME: April 30, 1945
PLACE: The Exclusive Room in the Berlin Bunker
Although the Bunker itself is lavishly furnished, the Exclusive Room is plainly adorned. Adolf Hitler deemed that only Eva Braun and himself be present in this room, except when he called for
others to briefly join him therein. A couch on which Eva Braun is seated is located in the center of the room. A plain wooden chair is situated on either side of couch in semi-circle fashion. A small desk with drawers stands to the right of couch and slightly forward. A stand bearing chocolates and pastries is at rear center of room. Pictures of Hitler's mother, Richard Wagner and Frederick the Great adorn the rear wall of room. The Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde is heard coming from the background. As scene opens Eva Braun is in vocal meditation, looking forward.
EVA BRAUN Within this fatal tragedy I have realized the dream of a lifetime come true. (beaming joyfully and with exhilaration) Adolf married me! With women throughout Germany swooning and cooing over him, he has chosen me. Oh yes, Adolf has only loved one. (emphatically and pointing outward) He loved you, Geli, but he married me! (pause) Oh, how I love you, Adolf! You didn't want me to be present with you here in the Bunker; you wanted to see me spared your fate. But in life or in death I demanded to be with you. (hysterical shrieks are heard coming from other rooms of the Bunker and artillery from beyond Bunker sound in the room) Ah yes, some are hysterical as death approaches but Adolf remains calm. (rises from chair and shakes her head in smiling sorrow) When Roosevelt died Adolf and his staff were ecstatic and drowned themselves in champagne. They were sure that America would withdraw from the war, as it was Roosevelt who engineered America into the war. What fools they were! Even one as politically naive as myself knew that America would continue the war under her new President. (begins to pace about) Mother asked me why Adolf and I didn't marry and have children. Adolf never wanted children; children would interfere with his mission to save Germany. (ceases pacing, faces forward and shakes her head) Our marriage hasn't been consummated. Adolf's sexual urges mystify me. I gratified him but inwardly I detested what we were doing. (seats herself and looks forward) Poor Otto, Hans and Helene, my heart weeps for them - killed in the artillery crossfire between Germany and Russia. They were in the crossfire between Communism and Fascism, and they hated both these forms of governing. They championed democracy over totalitarianism. (pause - shakes her head mournfully) Although they detested Adolf, they were always good to me. (places her hands over her face, sobs for an interval and then removes hands from face and looks forward) I always led Adolf to believe that I agreed with the proclamations of his political orations, but I seldom understood them and have been uncomfortable with the killings he has inflicted upon the world. Adolf's ravings about Aryan glory and the gods of Valhalla have caused me to have nightmares and morbid nocturnal dreams. (pause in reflection) Strange indeed, I could scold him openly, others wouldn't dare. Although I had attempted suicide before he became interested in me, he has been unswerving in his loyalty to our relationship. (rises, waving arms in air) Why do I love him? (pacing about) In some ways this is a mystery to me. Adolf has virtues as difficult as they are to comprehend. Initially, he was very good to Doctor Bloch, the Jewish physician, who cared for his mother but later blamed him for her death. He always sent flowers to his secretaries on their birthdays. When a former landlady became destitute, he arranged for her to have an allowance; when another former landlady became ill, he sat beside her, soothing her with his hands. He sent packages of food to the mother of his boyhood friend, August Kuzibek, although Kuzibek doesn't know to this day how Adolf learned the date of his mother's birthday. He would stand at the gravesites of the mothers of bereaved children, holding their hands and weeping with them. (seats herself and buries her hands in her face - pauses - removes hands from face as Hitler enters the room, trembling, weak and munching on chocolates. Eva hastens to embrace him, and they seat themselves on the couch.)
HITLER Everyone can see how my body has deteriorated. My limbs tremble. If I had longer life ahead of me I would hope it didn't become so I couldn't wiggle my head. (rising from couch) What irony, my heart remains ice cold. Now for the first time, I understand Frederick the Great so completely, who after the end of his military campaign came back home a sick and broken man. Just as Frederick the Great lived out the last years with bowed upper body and plagued with palsy and all other possible sufferings, so this war has left its deep marks upon me. (pointing toward picture of Frederick the Great) I have instructed that his picture be sent to Bavaria. (pause) I have trusted no one. No, I have not put my trust in anyone since childhood. (Eva Braun's face portrays pain) I never trusted Goring, although I admired his creation of our aerial power, nor have I trusted Himmler, not even Goebbels, or Speer who ardently pursued me to place my trust in him. (seats himself beside Eva Braun) And now, I can trust one who will see to it that my order for execution is carried out. I place you not in the category in which I have designated others. (Eva Braun smiles joyfully in relief and with affection) No one has ever been as loyal to me as evidenced by you. (rising again) You see, I have the power to take my own life. I can, therefore, order our lives and deaths. I turn defeat into victory. My spirit shall arise to hover over and inspire countless people toward racial purity and superiority. (pause - munches some chocolates) Totalitarian domination will reign supreme!
EVA BRAUN (rising and facing Hitler) For a moment you seemed like the Adolf Hitler of old. But as I have watched you prepare to die, I see you not as a Teutonic God, whom you want to be, but as Wotan, dark and brooding, and rising to the tragic height of willing your own destruction. And you shall die serenaded by your favorite music, the Liebstod from Tristan and Isolde. Wagner has been your life companion in spirit, and he will be with you in death. (pause) Passionately I love you Adolf Hitler! I have always loved you! I shall love you in death, in our own mutual dying! (Hitler and Eva Braun embrace)
HITLER Our hour has come. Have you the pistol? (Eva Braun leaves embrace, procures pistol from desk drawer and places it in Hitler's hands) Have you the cyanide? (Eva Braun brings cyanide from desk drawer to join Hitler) Are arrangements complete for the disposal of our bodies?
EVA BRAUN Yes, my love, as surely as you have commanded. (They sit together on couch. A voice comes sharply from the background)
VOICE "Are You A Jew?"
HITLER (turning toward Eva Braun) Did you hear anything?
EVA BRAUN I heard nothing, Adolf.
HITLER Nor did I. I refuse to be haunted in my death!
(The room becomes completely dark - there is silence for several moments - then a shot is heard.)
THE END