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The Deputy, a Christian tragedy (German: Der Stellvertreter. Ein christliches Trauerspiel), also known as The Representative, is a controversial 1963 drama by Rolf Hochhuth which indicts Pope Pius XII for his failure to take action or speak out against The Holocaust. It is alleged to have been conceived by the KGB as part of a disinformation campaign against the Vatican. It has been translated into more than twenty languages.
An English translation by Richard and Clara Winston of the complete text was published as The Deputy: A Play, by Grove Press in 1964. A letter from Dr. Albert Schweitzer to Hochhuth's German publisher serves as the foreword to the Grove edition.
KGB colaboration in the play as part of a disinformation campaign
In February 1960, Nikita Khrushchev authorized a covert plan to discredit the Vatican's moral authority in Western Europe with a campaign of disinformation due to its fervent anticommunism, Pope Pius XII being the prime target. As part of that plan Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest ranking intelligence officer ever to defect from the USSR, reports that General Ivan Agayants, chief of the KGB’s disinformation department, created the outline for what was to become the play, that the research for the play was done not by Hochhuth but by KGB agents and that the play's producer, Erwin Piscator, founder of the Proletarian Theater in Berlin who had sought assylum in the USSR during the war, was a devout Communist who had long established ties with the USSR. The American producer was also a communist, many of the press who lauded the play had deep connections to leftist or Communist causes, a highly Communist influenced periodical helped to guarantee the Deputy played on Broadway, and even early reviews had communist links. Pacepa also relates that in 1974 Yuri Andropov admitted that had Soviets known in 1963 what they knew in 1974 (newly released information that Hitler was hostile to and plotted against Pius XII) they would never have gone after him.
A declassified British intelligence memorandum, dated January 10, 1969, surmises that Hochhuth may have played a knowing role in spreading communist propaganda, rather than having been a dupe, saying he “might perhaps be an ‘intellectual agent, writing either on behalf of the East Germans or the Soviets” and the British agents declined to “discount the possibility of long-term efforts by the communists to foster Hochhuth’s allegations until they become legend." The memorandum continued: “whether Hochhuth is motivated only by the urge to write historical plays, to rehabilitate the Germans or is up to some more sinister game is difficult to determine at this stage. But the Russians are certainly reaping some of the benefit.”
Writer and law professor, Ronald Rychlak, concluded that Hochhuth might not have been a knowing actor in the propaganda but was a "perfect candidate to be an unknowing dupe." As Rychlak noted: "his ideology was not far removed from Marxism. He also admitted that he was, at least at times, anticlerical. He was particularly opposed to priestly celibacy."
Referring to Pacepa' account, German historian Michael Feldkamp indicates that “Pacepa’s report is wholly credible. It fits like a missing piece in the puzzle of communist propaganda and disinformation aimed at discrediting the Catholic Church and its Pontiff."
Productions
The play was first performed in Berlin on February 20, 1963 under the direction of Erwin Piscator.
It received its first English production in London by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych Theatre in 1963. It was directed by Clifford Williams with Alan Webb/Eric Porter as Pius XII, Alec McCowen as Father Fontana, and Ian Richardson.
It has since been revived by the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow in 1986 and at the Finborough Theatre, London, in August 2006.
An abridged version opened on Broadway on 26 February, 1964 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre with Emlyn Williams as Pius XII and Jeremy Brett as Father Fontana. The play ran for 316 performances.
Plot
Act I
The play opens with a discussion between Gerstein and the Papal Nuncio of Berlin over whether Pope Pius XII should have abrogated the Reichskonkordat to protest the actions of the Nazis. Father Riccardo Fontana, the priest protagonist, and Gerstein meet for the first time.
A number of German aristrocrats, industrialists, and government officials (including Adolf Eichmann) spend an evening in an underground bowling alley. Despite the commonplace setting the scene is rather macabre: conversations alternate between lighthearted pleasantries and equally dismissive discussions of the treatment of Jews. An icy Catholic industrialist—played by the same actor as Pius—defends his use of slave labor.
The final scene ends with Riccardo meeting Gerstein at his apartment; at the latter's urging, he agrees to trade clothes and documents with a Jew, Jacobson, Gerstein has been hiding in order to help him escape.
Act II
Act II repeatedly attempts to drive home the point that Hitler feared Pius more than any of his contemporaries and that Pius's commercial interests preclude him from condemning Hitler.
One of the Cardinals argues that the Nazis are the last bulwark that remains against Soviet domination of Europe.
Act III
As the Jews are rounded up for deportations "under the Pope's windows," Riccardo declares "doing nothing is as bad as taking part God can forgive a hangman for such work, but not a priest, not the Pope!" and a German officer comments that the Pope has given "friendly audiences to thousands of members of the German army.. Riccardo first voices his idea to follow the example of Bernhard Lichtenberg and to follow the Jews to the death camps in the East, and possibly to share in their fate.
Act IV
Pius, with a "cold, smiling face," "aristocratic coldness," and an "icy glint" in his eyesvoices his concerns about the Vatican's financial assets and the Allied bombing of factories in Italy. Pius verbally reiterates his commitment to help the Jews but states that he must keep silent "'ad maioram mala vitanda" (to avoid greater evil). When angrily questioned by Riccardo, Pius pontificates on the geopolitical importance of a strong Germany vis-a-vis the Soviet threat. Ultimately, Riccardo shames the Pope into dictating a statement for public release; however, its wording is so vague that all are confident it will be ignored by the Germans.
Act V
Riccardo dons the yellow star and joins deportees to die at Auschwitz, where the rest of the act takes place. Although Gerstein appears at the camp in an unsanctioned attempt to rescue him. Unfortunately in the end they are found out, Riccardo shot, and Gerstein taken into custody.
The play ends with a quotation from German ambassador Weizsäcker:
- "Since further action on the Jewish problem is probably not to be expected here in Rome, it may be assumed that this question, so troublesome to German-Vatican relations, has been disposed of."
Criticism
Books such as Dr. Joseph Lichten's A Question of Judgment (1963), written in response to The Deputy, defended Pius XII's actions during the war. Lichten labelled any criticism of the Pope's actions during World War II as "a stupefying paradox" and said, "no one who reads the record of Pius XII's actions on behalf of Jews can subscribe to Hochhuth's accusation."
Rabbi David G. Dalin book The Myth of Hitler’s Pop and articles such as Friend to the Jews: Pius XII’s real wartime record written by New York Jewish author Gary L. Krupp also support the fact that Pope Pius XII helped saving the lives of more than 860000 jews during the WWII.
Hannah Arendt also discusses the play (and public reaction to it) in her 1964 essay "The Deputy: Guilt by Silence?".
In 2007, Ion Mihai Pacepa, a former Romanian spymaster, alleged that the play was part of a larger KGB campaign to discredit Pius XII. A leading German newspaper opined "that Hochhuth did not require any KGB assistance for his one-sided presentation of history.
Film adaptation
The Deputy was made into a film Amen. by Costa Gavras in 2002.
Literature
- Hannah Arendt: Responsibility and Judgment. New York: Schocken 2003. ISBN 0-8052-1162-4 (contains Arendt's 1964 essays The Deputy: Guilt by Silence? and Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship)
- Emanuela Barasch-Rubinstein: The devil, the saints, and the church: reading Hochhuth's The Deputy. New York: Peter Lang 2004.
- Eric Bentley: The storm over The Deputy. New York: Grove Press 1964.
- Lucinda Jane Rennison: Rolf Hochhuth's interpretation of history, and its effect on the content, form and reception of his dramatic work. Durham: University of Durham 1991.
- Margaret E. Ward: Rolf Hochhuth. Boston: Twayne Publishers 1977.
External links
- "Catholics Acknowledge the Holocaust: The Influence of The Deputy on the Vatican's Position," college research paper by Melissa Kravetz, 2004
References
- Kenneth D. Whitehead: The Pope Pius XII Controversy. A Review-Article. From The Political Science Reviewer, Volume XXXI, 2002. Online at: www.catholicleague.org,
- Pacepa, Ion Mihai, Moscow’s Assault on the Vatican: The KGB made corrupting the Church a priorityNational Review Online Jan. 25, 2007
- ' Follain, John, KGB and the plot to taint 'Nazi pope, London Times, Feb. 18, 2007
- Pacepa, Ion Mihai, Moscow’s Assault on the Vatican: The KGB made corrupting the Church a priorityNational Review Online Jan. 25, 2007
- ' Follain, John, KGB and the plot to taint 'Nazi pope, London Times, Feb. 18, 2007
- Crowe, David,The Holocaust: roots, history, and aftermath By , p. 371, Westview Press 2008
- Rychlak, Ronald, The Play and the Plot to Denigrate the Pope, p. 25, Pave the Way Foundation
- Pacepa, Ion Mihai, Moscow’s Assault on the Vatican: The KGB made corrupting the Church a priorityNational Review Online Jan. 25, 2007
- ' Follain, John, KGB and the plot to taint 'Nazi pope, London Times, Feb. 18, 2007
- Rychlak, Ronald, The Play and the Plot to Denigrate the Pope, p. 24, Pave the Way Foundation
- Rychlak, Ronald, The Play and the Plot to Denigrate the Pope, p. 24, Pave the Way Foundation
- Rychlak, Ronald, The Play and the Plot to Denigrate the Pope, p. 25, Pave the Way Foundation
- Rychlak, Ronald, The Play and the Plot to Denigrate the Pope, p. 25, Pave the Way Foundation
- Rychlak, Ronald, The Play and the Plot to Denigrate the Pope, p. 25, Pave the Way Foundation
- p. 155
- p. 181
- p. 195
- p. 200
- p. 205
- p. 284
- Ion Mihai Pacepa, Moscow’s Assault on the Vatican, January 25, 2007 , National Review Online
- www.perlentaucher.de/feuilletons/2007-04-26.html
- Thomas Brechenmacher, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Hochhuths Quellen. War der 'Stellvertreter' vom KGB inspiriert?, April 26, 2007
