(Noises? A pause?)
Wannsee Conference—
Heard nothing of it.
Final solution—
Heard nothing of it.
Sonderkommando—
Heard nothing of it.
Sonderbehandlung—
Heard nothing of it.
Operation Reinhard—
Heard nothing of it.
Extinguished,
all of it, extinguished.
(Pause)—Extinguished.
(Pause)—All of it, extinguished.
(Pause)—Extinguished.
(Pause)—Extinguished.
(Pause)—All of it, extinguished.
Wannsee Conference—
Beach volleyball!
Final solution—
Beach volleyball!
Sonderkommando—
Beach volleyball!
Sonderbehandlung—
Beach volleyball!
Operation Reinhard—
Beach volleyball!
—Can’t hear anything anymore.
NOTHING! (Noises—clinking)
—Don’t want to know anything anymore.
NOTHING! (Noises—clinking)
Nothing more about gas vans—
Gas vans—even if—
what then?
Nothing more of racial hygiene—
Racial hygiene—even if—
what then?
No more about disinfection via sanitations technology—
Disinfection via sanitations technology—even if—
what then?
No more about showers and disinfection chambers—
Showers and disinfection chambers —even if—
what then?
No more about dentists—
Dentists—even if—
what then?
Even if—what next?
(Change in rhythm)
Belzec—expired
Sobibor—expired
Treblinka—past the expiration
Lublin—expired
Majdanek—expired
Snow!
Belzec, six hundred thousand, up to fifteen thousand a day—
Snow, snow from the last millennium!
Sobibor, two hundred fifty thousand, up to twenty thousand a day—
Snow from the last millennium. Snow!
Treblinka, eight hundred seventy thousand, up to twenty five thousand a day—
Snow, snow from the last millennium!
Lublin—Majdanek, one hundred thousand—snow!
Snow, dead knowledge!
Operation Reinhard, final reckoning, one hundred seventy eight million Reichsmark—
Dead knowledge!
Textiles, forty six million; jewels and precious stones, forty three million Reichsmark—dead knowledge!
One hundred three thousand six hundred fourteen watches—dead knowledge!
Twenty nine thousand three hundred ninety two pairs of glasses—dead knowledge!
One hundred fourteen kilograms of pearls—dead knowledge, snow!
Snow from the last millennium!
History, not future!
Harry Piel!
(Rage, motion, noise, Monostatos?)
(Venomously, imitating, at the window) Joyful evenings, needful times . . . wartime winter settled over the land . . . to Café Lerch after the performance . . . staff director Lerch, home on leave . . . his duties in Lublin, a grave in the air . . . the most secret of all . . .
(Rage) Theater, nothing but theater!—Harry Piel!
It’s all theater, but it’s not a whole evening’s worth.
It’s not a whole evening’s worth!
Please, have a seat—
Theater, nothing but theater!
Please, have a seat,
said Globočnik,
patting the empty place
on the bench beside him;
Please, have a seat
and tell me
—So? So what?
Then what,
even if,
even if I’d heard, even if I’d known that
not even Stangl, the,
as Globočnik told Hitler,
best camp commandant in Poland,
that not even Stangl,
according to his own testimony,
wanted to have known what kind of camp
he was supposed to be building
and operating—
even if I knew that Stangl
himself wanted only
to recall that in Sobibor,
according to Globočnik,
they would be dealing with a kind of
SUPPLY CAMP;
if, then,
supposing I’d known
that not even Stangl
would have known
anything – then?
Then
I don’t want to know,
about that
I want to have known nothing!
Possibly Lerch, possibly von Mohrenschildt—
no!
Probably Lerch, though—
It’s not even a whole evening’s worth!
Supply camp—
So?
A supply camp—
So what?
Please have a seat—
No! Theater!
Nothing but theater!
—Or, even if I’d heard that
there is purported to have been
in Sobibor
a side track
from the ramp into
the extermination area
in order to transport
to the corpse pits
the non-gassable
and those who died during transport;
—Even if I’d known that
in Treblinka, in the arrival zone,
there had been a so-called lazarette
which was no more than a façade
with a Red Cross emblem on it,
behind which there was nothing
but a deep grave, and that
after the arrival of the transport,
the old, weak and sick,
who were presumed unable to make
their way through the so-called pipeline without
without disrupting the operation—
that these were delivered directly
to the lazarette in order that
they be shot;
—Or, if I’d known that
Stangl, as the new commandant,
had suggested to
LIEUTENANT WIRTH,
the new camp inspector,
that they put BUCKETS in the pipeline,
which would have proven helpful,
and that Wirth had yelled
that he did not give a damn
what he, Stangl, did with the shit
in Sobibor,
that they may as well shit themselves,
since afterward
it would all have to be cleaned up anyway;
even if,
if so,
if I’d heard anything at all,
then that,
certainly not!
Lazarette, pipeline, side track, bucket,
proven helpful,
Lieutenant Wirth—
no!
Not that!
Nothing!
Not lazarette
not pipeline
not side track
not Lieutenant Wirth
not buckets!
No!
Lazarette—façade!
Pipeline—evergreen tunnel!
Side track—heritage railway!
Lieutenant Wirth—police officer!
Buckets—helpful!
Helpful, yes? so?
Police officer, and? so what?
Heritage railway, yes? so?
Evergreens—and?
Façade—and?
And? So what?
(Pacing again)
SS Brigadeführer
SS Gruppenführer
SS Gruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS
SS Obergruppenführer Globočnik—
It’s not even a whole evening’s worth!
SS and police commander in the Lublin District,
Head of Operation Reinhard.
High-ranking SS and police commander in the Adriatic Theater—
It’s not an entire evening’s worth!
Dear Globus—Yours, Himmler
Dear Globus—Yours, Lerch
—not even an evening’s worth!
SS Hauptsturmführer
SS Sturmbannführer
SS Obersturmbannführer Ernst Lerch,
Adviser on Jewish affairs and staff director—
not even an evening’s worth!
Shop talk among mass murderers,
Mass murderers comparing themselves—
not even an evening’s worth!
The first and foremost
National Socialist
exaggeration artist
Globočnik—
it’s not an evening’s worth!
Deep breaths,
quick breaths,
these inhalations strengthen the lungs—
theater, but it’s not an evening’s worth!
Into the showers, women and children first—
theater, it’s all theater!
TWO MILLION, Krumpendorf, testimony, flight—
Theater, that’s it!
Harry Piel!
Dead knowledge!
History!
Snow!
The future. Now-time!
GOOD TIMES.