Bertolt Brecht: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder 4
Page 18
THE SA MAN: What about our Winter Aid? But that’s just it, you’ve no confidence in our National Socialist state. I can tell that anyway from the sort of conversations that go on in this kitchen. Do you think I didn’t see what a long face you pulled at my experiment?
THE MAIDSERVANT: What do you mean by a long face?
THE SA MAN: You pulled one all right. Just like our friends who cleared out so suddenly.
THE MAIDSERVANT: If you really want to know what I think, I don’t like that kind of thing.
THE SA MAN: And what is it you don’t like, may I ask?
THE MAIDSERVANT: The way you catch those poor down-and-outs by dressing up and playing tricks and all that. My father’s unemployed too.
THE SA MAN: Ha, that’s all I needed to hear. As if talking to that fellow Lincke hadn’t already set me thinking.
THE MAIDSERVANT: Do you mean to say you’re going to nail him for what he did just to please you and with all of us egging him on?
THE SA MAN: I’m not saying nothing. As I already told you. And if you’ve anything against what I’m doing as part of my duty then let me say just look in Mein Kampf and you’ll see how the Führer himself didn’t think it beneath him to test the people’s attitude of mind, and it was actually his job for a while when he was in the army and it was all for Germany and the consequences were tremendously important.
THE MAIDSERVANT: If that’s your line, Theo, then I’d just like to know if I can have the twenty marks. That’s all.
THE SA MAN: Then all I can say to you is I’m not in the mood to have anything taken off me.
THE MAIDSERVANT: What do you mean, taken off you? Whose money is it, yours or mine?
THE SA MAN: That’s a nice way to be speaking about our joint money all of a sudden. I suppose that’s why we purged the Jews from the life of our nation, so we could have our own kith and kin suck our blood instead?
THE MAIDSERVANT: How can you say things like that on account of twenty marks?
THE SA MAN: I’ve plenty of expenses. My boots alone set me back twenty-seven marks.
THE MAIDSERVANT: But weren’t they issued to you?
THE SA MAN: That’s what we thought. And that’s why I took the better kind, the ones with gaiters. Then they demanded payment and we were stung.
THE MAIDSERVANT: Twenty-seven marks for boots? So what other expenses were there?
THE SA MAN: What d’you mean, other expenses?
THE MAIDSERVANT: Didn’t you say you had lots of expenses?
THE SA MAN: Forgotten what they were. Anyway I’m not here to be cross-examined. Keep your hair on, I’m not going to swindle you. And as for the twenty marks I’ll think it over.
THE MAIDSERVANT weeping: Theo, I just can’t believe you’d tell me the money was all right and it wasn’t true. Oh now I don’t know what to think. Surely there’s twenty marks left in the savings bank out of all that money?
THE SA MAN slapping her on the shoulder: But nobody’s suggesting for a minute that there’s nothing left in our savings bank. Out of the question. You know you can rely on me. You trust something to me, it’s like locking it in the safe. Well, decided to trust Theo again, have you?
She weeps without replying.
THE SA MAN: It’s just nerves, you’ve been working too hard. Well, time I went off to that night exercise. I’ll be coming for you on Friday, then. Heil Hitler! Exit.
The maidservant tries to suppress her tears and walks distractedly up and down the kitchen. The cook comes back with a basket of linen.
THE COOK: What’s wrong? Had a quarrel? Theo’s such a splendid boy. Pity there aren’t more like him. Nothing serious, is it?
THE MAIDSERVANT still weeping: Minna, can’t you go out to your brother’s and tell him to watch out for himself?
THE COOK: What for?
THE MAIDSERVANT: Just watch out, I mean.
THE COOK: On account of tonight? You can’t be serious. Theo would never do such a thing.
THE MAIDSERVANT: I don’t know what to think any longer, Minna. He’s changed so. They’ve completely ruined him. He’s keeping bad company. Four years we’ve been going out together, and now it seems to me just as though … I even feel like asking you to look at my shoulder and see if there’s a white cross on it.
4
Peat-bog soldiers
With storm troopers parading
These men carry on debating
What Lenin and Kautsky meant
Till, clutching the tomes they’ve cited
They’re forcibly united
By joint imprisonment.
Esterwegen concentration camp, 1934. Some prisoners are mixing cement.
BRÜHL softly to Dievenbach: I’d steer clear of Lohmann; he talks.
DIEVENBACH aloud: Oi, Lohmann, here’s Brühl saying I should steer clear of you; you talk.
BRÜHL: Bastard.
LOHMANN: That’s good coming from you, you bloody Judas. Why did Karl get given solitary?
BRÜHL: Nothing to do with me. Was it me got cigarettes from God knows where?
THE JEHOVAH’S WITNESS: Look out.
The SS sentry up on the embankment goes by.
THE SS MAN: Someone was talking here. Who was it? Nobody answers. If that happens just once more it’ll be solitary confinement for the lot of you, get me? Now sing!
The prisoners sing verse 1 of the ‘Song of the Peat-bog Soldiers’. The SS man moves on.
PRISONERS:
See, whichever way one gazes
Naught but boggy heath lies there.
Not one bird his sweet voice raises
In those oak trees gaunt and bare.
We are the peat-bog soldiers
With shovels on our shoulders
We march.
THE JEHOVAH’S WITNESS: Why do you people carry on quarrelling even now?
DIEVENBACH: Don’t you worry, Jehovah, you wouldn’t understand. Indicating Brühl: Yesterday his party voted for Hitler’s foreign policy in the Reichstag. And he – indicating Lohmann – thinks Hitler’s foreign policy means war.
BRÜHL: Not with us around.
LOHMANN: Last war we had you were around all right.
BRÜHL: Anyway the German armed forces are too weak.
LOHMANN: Still, your lot did at least bring Hitler a battlecruiser as part of the wedding deal.
THE JEHOVAH’S WITNESS to Dievenbach: What were you? Communist or Social-democrat?
DIEVENBACH: I kept outside all that.
LOHMANN: But you’re inside now all right, inside a camp I mean.
THE JEHOVAH’S WITNESS: Look out.
The SS man appears again. He watches them. Slowly Brühl starts singing the third verse of the ‘Song of the Peat-bog Soldiers’. The SS man moves on.
BRÜHL:
Back and forth the guards keep pacing
Not a soul can get away.
Shots for those who try escaping
Thick barbed wire for those who stay.
We are the peat-bog soldiers
With shovels on our shoulders
We march.
LOHMANN hurls his shovel from him: When I think I’m only in here because your lot sabotaged the united front I could bash your bloody brains out right now.
BRÜHL: Ha! ‘Like your brother must I be/Or you’ll turn and clobber me’ – is that it? United front indeed. Softly softly catchee monkey: would have suited you nicely to sneak all our members away, wouldn’t it?
LOHMANN: When you’d rather have Hitler sneak them away, like now. You traitors!
BRÜHL furiously takes his shovel and brandishes it at Lohmann, who holds his own shovel at the ready: I’ll teach you something you won’t forget!
THE JEHOVAH’S WITNESS: Look out.
He hastily starts singing the last verse of the ‘Song of the Peat-bog Soldiers’. The SS man reappears and the others join in as they resume mixing their cement.
We’ve no use for caterwauling.
Sunshine follows after rain.
; One day soon you’ll hear us calling:
Homeland, you are ours again.
And then we peat-bog soldiers
Will rise, throw back our shoulders
And march.
THE SS MAN: Which of you shouted ‘Traitors’?
Nobody answers.
THE SS MAN: You people never learn, do you? To Lohmann: Which?
Lohmann stares at Brühl and says nothing.
THE SS MAN to Dievenbach: Which?
Dievenbach says nothing.
THE SS MAN to the Jehovah’s Witness: Which?
The Jehovah’s Witness says nothing.
THE SS MAN to Brühl: Which?
Brühl says nothing.
THE SS MAN: I shall count up to five, then it’ll be solitary confinement for the whole lot of you till you turn blue.
He waits for five seconds. They all stand in silence staring straight ahead.
THE SS MAN: So it’s solitary.
5
Servants of the people
The camps are run by warders
Narks, butchers and marauders –
The people’s servants they
They’ll crush you and assail you
And flog you and impale you
For negligible pay.
Oranienburg concentration camp, 1934. A small yard between the huts. In the darkness a sound of flogging. As it gets light an SS man is seen flogging a detainee. An SS officer stands in the background smoking; with his back to the scene. Then he goes off.
THE SS MAN sits down on a barrel, exhausted: Work on.
The detainee rises from the ground and starts unsteadily cleaning the drains.
Why can’t you say no when they ask if you’re a communist, you cunt? It means the lash for you and I have to stay in barracks. I’m so fucking tired. Why can’t they give the job to Klapproth? He enjoys this sort of thing. Look, if that bastard comes round again – he listens – you’re to take the whip and flog the ground hard as you can, right?
THE DETAINEE: Yes, sir.
THE SS MAN: But only because you buggers have flogged me out, right?
THE DETAINEE: Yes, sir.
THE SS MAN: Here he comes.
Steps are heard outside, and the SS man points to the whip. The detainee picks it up and flogs the ground. This doesn’t sound authentic, so the SS man idly points to a nearby basket which the detainee then flogs. The steps outside come to a stop. The SS man abruptly rises in some agitation, snatches the whip and begins beating the detainee.
THE DETAINEE softly: Not my stomach.
The SS man hits him on the bottom. The SS officer looks in.
THE SS OFFICER: Flog his stomach.
The SS man beats the detainee’s stomach.
6
Judicial process
The judges follow limply.
They were told that justice is simply
What serves our People best.
They objected: how are we to know that?
But they’ll soon be interpreting it so that
The whole people is under arrest.
Augsburg 1934. Consultation room in a court building. A milky January morning can be seen through the window. A spherical gas lamp is still burning. The district judge is just putting on his robes. There is a knock.
THE JUDGE: Come in.
Enter the police inspector.
THE INSPECTOR: Good morning, your honour.
THE JUDGE: Good morning, Mr Tallinger. It’s about the case of Häberle, Schünt and Gaunitzer. I must admit the whole affair is a bit beyond me.
THE INSPECTOR: ?
THE JUDGE: I understand from the file that the shop where the incident occurred – Arndt’s the jeweller’s – is a Jewish one?
THE INSPECTOR: ?
THE JUDGE: And presumably Häberle, Schünt and Gaunitzer are still members of Storm Troop 7?
The inspector nods.
THE JUDGE: Which means that the Troop saw no reason to discipline them?
The inspector shakes his head.
THE JUDGE: All the same, I take it the Troop must have instituted some kind of inquiry in view of the disturbance which the incident caused in the neighbourhood?
The inspector shrugs his shoulders.
THE JUDGE: I would appreciate it, Tallinger, if you would give me a brief summary before we go into court. Would you?
THE INSPECTOR mechanically: On 2 December 1933 at 0815 hours SA men Häberle, Schünt and Gaunitzer forced their way into Arndt’s jewellers in the Schlettowstrasse and after a brief exchange of words wounded Mr Arndt age 54 on the head. The material damage amounted to a total of eleven thousand two hundred and thirty-four marks. Inquiries were instituted by the criminal investigation department on 7 December 1933 and led to …
THE JUDGE: Come on, Tallinger, that’s all in the files. He points irritably at the charge sheet, which consists of a single page. This is the flimsiest and sloppiest made-out indictment I’ve ever seen, not that the last few months have been much of a picnic, let me tell you. But it does say that much. I was hoping you might be able to tell me a bit about the background.
THE INSPECTOR: Yes, your honour.
THE JUDGE: Well, then?
THE INSPECTOR: There isn’t any background to this case, your honour, so to speak.
THE JUDGE: Tallinger, are you trying to tell me it’s all clear as daylight?
THE INSPECTOR grinning: Clear as daylight: no.
THE JUDGE: Various items of jewellery are alleged to have vanished in the course of the incident. Have they been recovered?
THE INSPECTOR: Not to my knowledge: no.
THE JUDGE: ?
THE INSPECTOR: Your honour, I’ve got a family.
THE JUDGE: So have I, Tallinger.
THE INSPECTOR: Yes, sir.
Pause.
THE INSPECTOR: This Arndt fellow is a Jew, you know.
THE JUDGE: So one would infer from the name.
THE INSPECTOR: Yes, sir. There’s been a rumour for some time in the neighbourhood that there was a case of racial profanation.
THE JUDGE begins to get a glimmer: Indeed. Involving whom?
THE INSPECTOR: Arndt’s daughter. She’s nineteen and supposed to be pretty.
THE JUDGE: Was there any official follow-up?
THE INSPECTOR reluctantly: Well, no. The rumour died a natural death.
THE JUDGE: Who set it going?
THE INSPECTOR: The landlord of the building. A certain Mr von Miehl.
THE JUDGE: I suppose he wanted the Jewish shop out of his building?
THE INSPECTOR: That’s what we thought. But then he seems to have changed his line.
THE JUDGE: At least that would explain why there was a certain amount of resentment against Arndt round there. Leading these young people to act from a kind of upsurge of national feeling …
THE INSPECTOR firmly: I wouldn’t say that, your honour.
THE JUDGE: What wouldn’t you say?
THE INSPECTOR: That Häberle, Schünt and Gaunitzer will try to get much mileage out of the racial profanation business.
THE JUDGE: Why not?
THE INSPECTOR: As I told you, there hasn’t been any official mention of the name of the Aryan involved. It could be anyone. Anywhere there’s a bunch of Aryans you might find him, you get me? And where d’you find those bunches of Aryans? In other words the SA don’t want this dragged up.
THE JUDGE impatiently: Why tell me about it, then?
THE INSPECTOR: Because you said you’d got a family. To stop you dragging it up. Any of the local witnesses might mention it.
THE JUDGE: I see. But I can’t see much else.
THE INSPECTOR: The less the better, if you want my personal opinion.
THE JUDGE: It’s easy for you to say that. I have to deliver a judgement.
THE INSPECTOR vaguely: That’s right …
THE JUDGE: So we’re left with a direct provocation on Arndt’s part, or else there’s no way of explaining what happened.
THE INSPECT
OR: Just what I’d say myself, your honour.
THE JUDGE: Then how were those SA people provoked?
THE INSPECTOR: According to their statements: partly by Arndt himself and partly by some unemployed man he’d got in to sweep the snow. Apparently they were on their way to have a beer together and as they passed the shop there were Wagner the unemployed man and Arndt himself standing in the doorway and shouting vulgar terms of abuse at them.
THE JUDGE: I don’t suppose they have any witnesses, have they?
THE INSPECTOR: Oh, they have. The landlord – you know, von Miehl – said he was at the window and saw Wagner provoking the SA men. And Arndt’s partner, a man called Stau, was round at Troop HQ the same afternoon and admitted in front of Häberle, Schünt and Gaunitzer that Arndt had always talked disparagingly about the SA, to him too.
THE JUDGE: Oh, so Arndt’s got a partner? Aryan?
THE INSPECTOR: Aryan: what else? Can you really see him taking on a Jew as his front man?
THE JUDGE: But the partner wouldn’t go and give evidence against him?
THE INSPECTOR slyly: Who’s to say?
THE JUDGE irritated: What do you mean? There’s no way the firm can claim damages if it can be proved that Arndt provoked Häberle, Schünt and Gaunitzer to assault him.
THE INSPECTOR: What makes you think Stau’s interested in claiming damages?
THE JUDGE: I don’t get you. Surely he’s a partner?
THE INSPECTOR: That’s it.
THE JUDGE: ?
THE INSPECTOR: We’ve found out – unofficially of course and off the record – that Stau’s a regular visitor to Troop HQ. He used to be in the SA and may still be. Probably that’s what made Arndt make him a partner. What’s more, Stau’s already been mixed up in a similar affair, where the SA dropped in on someone. They picked the wrong man that time and it took quite a bit of effort to get it all swept under the mat. Of course that’s not to say that in our particular case Stau … Well, anyhow he’s someone to be careful of. I hope you’ll treat this as completely confidential, given what you said about your family earlier.
THE JUDGE shaking his head: I don’t quite see how it can be in Mr Stau’s interest for his business to lose more than eleven thousand marks.
THE INSPECTOR: Yes, the jewellery has disappeared. Anyhow Häberle, Schünt and Gaunitzer haven’t got it. And they haven’t fenced it either.