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The Investigation: A dramatic re-construction of the Frankfurt War Crimes trials
By Peter Weiss
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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About this ebook
The Investigation is a dramatic reconstruction of the Frankfurt War Crimes trials, based on the actual evidence given. This testimony, concerning Auschwitz and the atrocities which were enacted there, has been edited and extracted by Peter Weiss into a dramatic document that relies solely and completely on the facts for its effectiveness.
There is no artistic license, no manipulation of facts and figures, no rearrangement of events for theatrical effect. Nameless witnesses stand and recall their appalling memories of Auschwitz, allowing us to bear witness to their painful and painstaking search for truth and ultimately justice. What emerges is a chastening and purging documentary of deeply moving power.
There is no artistic license, no manipulation of facts and figures, no rearrangement of events for theatrical effect. Nameless witnesses stand and recall their appalling memories of Auschwitz, allowing us to bear witness to their painful and painstaking search for truth and ultimately justice. What emerges is a chastening and purging documentary of deeply moving power.
Author
Peter Weiss
Peter Weiss was born in Berlin in 1916 and settled in Sweden before the war. Apart from his writing, he was a well-known painter, theatrical and operatic producer and he directed many films in Sweden. His dramatic reconstruction of the Frankfurt War Crimes trials, The Investigation, is also available from Marion Boyars Publishers. He died in 1982.
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Reviews for The Investigation
Rating: 4.385714285714286 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
35 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Das dem Hörspiel zugrundeliegende Theaterstück behandelt den Auschwitz-Prozess in Frankfurt von 1963 bis 1965. Das Hörbuch ist ausgezeichnet gesprochen und zutiefst verstörend. In elf „Gesängen“ werden die Grausamkeiten des KZs dargestellt und stellt sich die Frage nach der Schuld. Denn die Angeklagten stellen genau die Fragen, die heute noch gestellt werden "Kann, was damals Recht war, heute Unrecht sein?". Das Hörspiel ist sehr belastend anzuhören und hier zitiere ich Wikipedia:"Die Angeklagten versuchen mit folgenden Entlastungsstrategien ihr Handeln zu verharmlosen, abzustreiten oder zu rechtfertigen: Unglaubwürdigmachung von Zeugen oder Anklägern Täter-Selbstverständnis als Opfer Berufung auf damalige Rechts- und Werteordnung und Befehlsnotstand, allgemeine Akzeptanz und ähnliche Taten anderer Schuldleugnung, Herabspielen der eigenen Rolle ausweichende Antworten, Behauptung eigener Unwissenheit Verweise auf „gelungene Resozialisierung“ nach 1945, Hervorheben eigener guter Taten Plädoyer auf VerjährungNur wenige Angeklagte bekennen sich zu ihrer Schuld. Damit verdeutlicht Peter Weiss den Komplex der „zweiten Schuld“ (Ralph Giordano), die Giordano in dem Verdrängen und Leugnen der „ersten Schuld“, das heißt der im Kontext des Nationalsozialismus begangenen Verbrechen, sieht."Da Peter Weiss selbst im Prozess anwesend war, nehme ich an, dass das alles sehr realistisch ist und umso entsetzlicher. Gesprochen ist es ausgezeichnet.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5So oft man auch etwas über den Holocaust erfährt – jedes Mal ist man aufs Neue verstört, wenn man ein weiteres Teilchen im Puzzle der Unmenschlichkeit entdeckt. Das Drama „Die Ermittlung“ wurde von Peter Weiss bereits Mitte der 1960er Jahre anlässlich des sogenannten Auschwitz-Prozesses in Frankfurt geschrieben. Der große zeitliche Abstand zwischen dem Geschehen und heute schmälert nicht die aufrüttelnde Wirkung des Theaterstücks. Peter Weiss lässt Angeklagte des Prozesses ebenso zu Wort kommen wie eine ganze Reihe von Zeugen. Dabei werden sämtliche Gräuel und Untaten in allen Einzelheiten offenbar, die im KZ Auschwitz stattfanden. Gerade die distanzierte, nüchterne Art der Darstellung hat eine äußerst beunruhigende Wirkung auf den Leser. Der Autor selbst kommentiert die Intentionen seines Dramas: Anschaulich arbeitet er heraus, wie die Angeklagten während des gesamten, eineinhalb Jahre dauernden Prozesses hartnäckig jegliche Schuld leugneten und sich immer wieder darauf beriefen, nur ihre Pflicht getan zu haben. Außerdem zeigt Weiss, wie der Grenzbereich zwischen Tätern und Opfern teilweise verschwamm, und wie sehr jeder in der Ausnahmesituation Konzentrationslager einfach nur ums Überleben kämpfte – oft völlig rücksichtslos. Es wird aber auch klar, dass es für die Angeklagten durchaus möglich gewesen wäre, sich der Ausübung äußerster Grausamkeit zu entziehen, ohne sofort selbst an die Wand gestellt zu werden. Nach der Lektüre des Dramas kann man sich ein Bild von der Geisteshaltung der damaligen Gesellschaft machen, in der Massenmord zur Normalität geworden war – aus heutiger Sicht unbegreiflich. In der vorliegenden Ausgabe wird das Drama ausführlich durch Dr. Marita Meyer kommentiert. Dieser fundierte Kommentar wirft ein grelles Licht auf die Hintergründe der damaligen Ereignisse. Schließlich wird klar, dass es bei dem Völkermord im Wesentlichen darum ging, sich am Eigentum der Ermordeten zu bereichern und sie ökonomisch maximal auszubeuten. Ein bedrückendes Zeitdokument.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As with most holocaust literature, the reader (viewer) is staring at the Medusa's head of history. The act of reading is, by definition, an act of participation, which immediately precipitates a moral judgment on the reader, the writer, the characters (and their originals), nations, races, peoples, God, etc. To read on is to wander deeper down a corridor that does not end. The simple questions "why?" and "how?" self-renew and none are given a chance to evade them, least of all the reader, who struggles vainly to remain passive, if not exempt. Why are you reading? How does this material exert a fascination that transcends the merely "hisorical"? Weiss does not "invent" anything; the text is drawn directly from the The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 1963–1965, the largest, most public, and most important trial of Holocaust perpetrators conducted in West German courts. Weiss does, however, exert considerable control by reconstructing the utterances into free verse, creating "chapters" ironically entitled "songs" (e.g., "Song of the Swing", "Song of Cykklon B"), and utilizing numerous techniques to drain the performance of overt emotional display (or release). The accused are identified by name and number. The witnesses are identified only as numbers. The line between accuser and accused, in many cases, is razor thin. Direct exchange is rare, both accusers and accused respond only to questions by the judge, the prosecuting attorney, and counsel for the defense. Speeches are declaimed, puntuated occasionally by such directions as (the always distasteful) "The Accused laugh". I well remember seeing a televised version of this play when I was a teenager -- 40+ years ago. Even then, I was both riveted and appalled, as much by the fact that such material was being offered as "entertainment" of some weird (yet genuine) kind. My copy of the text is a used book, with many pencilled markings by my predecessor, who must have been preparing to play a role in a production. Words, phrases, lines, even whole sections are highlighted, excised, revised. Some of the choices are fascinating, leading to speculations that only enhance the reading experience. Some are easily explainable, with more explicit language being replaced by something blander (as when "[they] inspected our rectums / and our sexual organs" is changed to "inspected our bodies.") Other revisions are harder to understand; why, for example, systematically change the word "texts" to "books"? Why pencil a huge question mark next to this passage: "One of them came up to us / and shouted / Prisoners / See that smoke behind the barracks / That smoke / is your wives and children / And for you too now that you're in here / there's onlly one way out / Up through the soot in the chimneys." There are a lot of why's.
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The Investigation - Peter Weiss
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