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The Representative
Includes Historical Highlights by Hochhuth and the essays "Hochhuth" and "Lessing" by Walter Muschg and "The Deputy " by Hannah Arendt. The Representative is Hochhuth's highly controversial epic about the Vatican's alleged complicity in the murder of the Jews by the Nazis.
400 pages, Paperback
Published December 23, 1996
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About the author
Rolf Hochhuth
109 books12 followersHochhuth ist ein deutscher Dramatiker und ein maßgeblicher Anreger des Dokumentartheaters. Internationalen Erfolg erzielte er mit Der Stellvertreter. AEr setzt sich wiederholt mit der NS-Vergangenheit und aktuellen politischen und sozialen Fragestellungen auseinander. In einer Vielzahl Offener Briefe versuchte er seit den sechziger Jahren, Einfluss auf die Politik zu nehmen.
Hochhuth ist Mitglied des P.E.N.-Zentrums Deutschland, der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste in München (seit 1989) und der Freien Akademie der Künste Hamburg (seit 2004)und der Akademie der Künste in Berlin (seit 1986).
Hochhuth ist Mitglied des P.E.N.-Zentrums Deutschland, der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste in München (seit 1989) und der Freien Akademie der Künste Hamburg (seit 2004)und der Akademie der Künste in Berlin (seit 1986).
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
March 13, 2012
Notgettingenough, a historian by training, is starting to infect me with her virulent dislike of biopics. "You watch a biopic," says Not, "and you go out thinking you know what happened. But you don't."
Well, this play is a fine example of Not's thesis: more than anything else, it created the image of Pius XII as being "the Nazi Pope", aiding Hitler and his criminal regime by maintaining a convenient silence on the subject of the Holocaust. I read it in the mid 70s and accepted the message uncritically, the more so since I'd heard my parents speak approvingly of it. The play is indeed powerful and convincing. But now, looking around on the Web, I see a great deal of material that suggests it's painting a picture which at best is distorted, and at worst is simply a lie.
There is evidence in both directions, and I don't claim to be able to evaluate it properly. But I am inclined to place weight on this quotation from Albert Einstein, from around the end of the war:
The more I look, the more confused I get. For example, this page suggests that the Einstein passage above is incorrectly attributed.
I had not understood what an interesting and complex person Pius XII was. I will see if I can find a responsible biography.
Well, this play is a fine example of Not's thesis: more than anything else, it created the image of Pius XII as being "the Nazi Pope", aiding Hitler and his criminal regime by maintaining a convenient silence on the subject of the Holocaust. I read it in the mid 70s and accepted the message uncritically, the more so since I'd heard my parents speak approvingly of it. The play is indeed powerful and convincing. But now, looking around on the Web, I see a great deal of material that suggests it's painting a picture which at best is distorted, and at worst is simply a lie.
There is evidence in both directions, and I don't claim to be able to evaluate it properly. But I am inclined to place weight on this quotation from Albert Einstein, from around the end of the war:
Only the Catholic Church protested against the Hitlerian onslaught on liberty. Up till then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I feel a great admiration for the Church, which alone has had the courage to struggle for spiritual truth and moral liberty._________________________________
The more I look, the more confused I get. For example, this page suggests that the Einstein passage above is incorrectly attributed.
I had not understood what an interesting and complex person Pius XII was. I will see if I can find a responsible biography.
October 26, 2017
Rolf Hochhuth's The Deputy is a long, virulent denunciation of Pius XII for his failure to publicly denounce the Nazis for their extermination of Europe's Jews. While the tone is extremely shrill, Hochhuth largely confines himself to criticisms that have some basis.
Hochhuth's game is possibly in bad faith, but he plays it with skill. In his postface "Sidelights on History" he declares what his method is to the reader: "In this play I advance a better opinion of Pius XII than may be historically justified and a better one than I privately hold." (p. 350) Hochhuth makes his charges but he generally refrains from unsubstantiated accusations while he allows the case for the defence to be made.
Hochhuth's approach is to contrast the behaviour of Pius XII with the many priests and nuns who took huge risks to protect and assist Jews often paying with their lives. Hochhuth dedicates the book to St. Maximillien Kolbe (canonized in 1982) who in July 1941 while a prisoner at Auschwitz voluntarily exchanged places with a man sentenced to death because the man had a family to care for. Hochhuth also invents a character Father Ricardo "with no historical model" (ibid) who on his own volition accompanies a group of converts Auschwitz in order to provide spiritual care to them and dies there. with them.
Pius XII's defence is that publicly denouncing the Nazis for the endlosung would have served no purpose. The Nazis were going to liquidate the Jews no matter what he said and so if he criticized them he simply would have provoked the Nazis into retaliating against his own clergy. Hochhuth also makes it clear that nuns and priests in many countries were assisting the Jews by either harbouring them in their institutions or by assisting them to flee to safe countries. Thus, Hochhuth acknowledges that there was some validity to Pius's claim that a public criticism of the Nazis might simply have caused them to close down the numerous rescue operations being conducted by various organizations within the Church.
Hochhuth's response to this is that the Nazis had many Catholics in their armies and that they would not have wanted to provoke them into revolt by retaliating too strongly against the church. At this point, we are on two levels of the hypothetical. Hochhuth has conceded that a defense can be made for the silence of Pius XII with respect to the Endlosung. There is no way to refute Hochhuth's belief that a strong public statement against the atrocities would have saved lives because no such statement was made and so the potential consequences will be forever unknown.
The Deputy as a very Shawian quality in that its prime action is to present two sides of an argument of a controversy making sure that neither side will be able to claim that they were misrepresented.
As a practicing Catholic I would have liked to find more faults with The Deputy than I was able to. I commend Hochhuth for repeatedly acknowledging that Catholics were involved in many rescue endeavours. I think he should have acknowledged that even Pius XII was involved as he hid a significant number of Jews at his summer residence, the Castel Gandolfo during the last weeks of the Nazi occupation of Rome.
Hochhuth's worst sin is putting words in the mouth of Pius XII arguing that Hitler should be supported because it was only Hitler who could prevent the communists from conquering Europe: "Hitler alone, dear Count, is now defending Europe. And he will fight until he dies because no pardon awaits the murderer. Nevertheless the West should grant him pardon as long as he useful in the West ." (p. 206)
This is going too far. Pius XII never saw any good in Hitler. He was silent on the Nazi atrocities because he was deathly afraid of them. By the time WWII started, Pius XII had come to the conclusion that the Nazis would liquidate the catholic church at the first moment that it was convenient for them to do so. It was craven fear rather than anti-communism which was the cause of his refusal to publicly criticize the Nazis.
The Deputy has never been presented in its entirety on stage because of its great length. I rather think that it could be turned into a reasonably good television mini-series. I hope that no one ever does so. I still dislike this play despite the fact that Hochhuth demonstrated some skill and restraint in attacking a man he clearly loathed.
Hochhuth's game is possibly in bad faith, but he plays it with skill. In his postface "Sidelights on History" he declares what his method is to the reader: "In this play I advance a better opinion of Pius XII than may be historically justified and a better one than I privately hold." (p. 350) Hochhuth makes his charges but he generally refrains from unsubstantiated accusations while he allows the case for the defence to be made.
Hochhuth's approach is to contrast the behaviour of Pius XII with the many priests and nuns who took huge risks to protect and assist Jews often paying with their lives. Hochhuth dedicates the book to St. Maximillien Kolbe (canonized in 1982) who in July 1941 while a prisoner at Auschwitz voluntarily exchanged places with a man sentenced to death because the man had a family to care for. Hochhuth also invents a character Father Ricardo "with no historical model" (ibid) who on his own volition accompanies a group of converts Auschwitz in order to provide spiritual care to them and dies there. with them.
Pius XII's defence is that publicly denouncing the Nazis for the endlosung would have served no purpose. The Nazis were going to liquidate the Jews no matter what he said and so if he criticized them he simply would have provoked the Nazis into retaliating against his own clergy. Hochhuth also makes it clear that nuns and priests in many countries were assisting the Jews by either harbouring them in their institutions or by assisting them to flee to safe countries. Thus, Hochhuth acknowledges that there was some validity to Pius's claim that a public criticism of the Nazis might simply have caused them to close down the numerous rescue operations being conducted by various organizations within the Church.
Hochhuth's response to this is that the Nazis had many Catholics in their armies and that they would not have wanted to provoke them into revolt by retaliating too strongly against the church. At this point, we are on two levels of the hypothetical. Hochhuth has conceded that a defense can be made for the silence of Pius XII with respect to the Endlosung. There is no way to refute Hochhuth's belief that a strong public statement against the atrocities would have saved lives because no such statement was made and so the potential consequences will be forever unknown.
The Deputy as a very Shawian quality in that its prime action is to present two sides of an argument of a controversy making sure that neither side will be able to claim that they were misrepresented.
As a practicing Catholic I would have liked to find more faults with The Deputy than I was able to. I commend Hochhuth for repeatedly acknowledging that Catholics were involved in many rescue endeavours. I think he should have acknowledged that even Pius XII was involved as he hid a significant number of Jews at his summer residence, the Castel Gandolfo during the last weeks of the Nazi occupation of Rome.
Hochhuth's worst sin is putting words in the mouth of Pius XII arguing that Hitler should be supported because it was only Hitler who could prevent the communists from conquering Europe: "Hitler alone, dear Count, is now defending Europe. And he will fight until he dies because no pardon awaits the murderer. Nevertheless the West should grant him pardon as long as he useful in the West ." (p. 206)
This is going too far. Pius XII never saw any good in Hitler. He was silent on the Nazi atrocities because he was deathly afraid of them. By the time WWII started, Pius XII had come to the conclusion that the Nazis would liquidate the catholic church at the first moment that it was convenient for them to do so. It was craven fear rather than anti-communism which was the cause of his refusal to publicly criticize the Nazis.
The Deputy has never been presented in its entirety on stage because of its great length. I rather think that it could be turned into a reasonably good television mini-series. I hope that no one ever does so. I still dislike this play despite the fact that Hochhuth demonstrated some skill and restraint in attacking a man he clearly loathed.
March 22, 2024
I guess I do at least to a certain point but indeed also more than a bit grudgingly agree with those reviewers who point out that no matter how awkward and sometimes really almost unreadable writing style wise Rolf Hochhuth's 1963 drama Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel (The Deputy in English translation and which I have in fact NOT read) is, what he thematically provides in his play, what Hochhuth textually shows in Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel (with his virulently vehement but in my humble opinion also totally necessary denunciation of Pope Pius XII as basically being a deputy of Adolf Hitler so to speak for not only generally keeping officially silent about the Holocaust but also often officially working right alongside of and having rather cordial relations with Nazi Germany) is so very much historically necessary and important that this somehow outweighs or rather should outweigh questions of style and how approachable to and for a general readership Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel comes across as being.
However, when I had to read Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel for my Second PhD Comprehensive Exam in 1996 (as the play was quite prominently featured on our required reading list and this meant that we would more than likely be tested on Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel), albeit that with regard to Rolf Hochhuth's thematics and contents I definitely considered then and still now approach Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel as being absolutely and totally five stars (and also most certainly presenting an extremely important message and absolute condemnation of Catholicism and in particular of the Vatican with regard to WWII and the Holocaust, and that yes indeed, I also rather subversively enjoyed ranting and raving at my staunchly Catholic grandmother, aunts and uncles about Pope Pius XII being Hitler's deputy), the fact that with regard to style, Rolf Hochhuth's writing is rather ridiculously unnecessarily convoluted and often in my humble opinion pretty much deliberately obtuse, this certainly does rather majorly lessen and diminish the potential impact of Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel and as such also kind of renders Hochhuth into yet another typical German language author with good, even great ideas but with stylistics teeming with unreadability and strongly reeking of verbal diarrhoea (and as such, and honestly speaking, my three star rating for Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel and for Hochhuth as an author is actually I being rather generous).
And finally I do have to post the following. Even though Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel is in my humble opinion much too convoluted and awkward with regard to Rolf Hochuth's modes of textual expression to recommend without reservations and caveats, at least his play, at least Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel thankfully and fortunately also does not make me want to scream and to vomit uncontrollably, as some of the majorly ridiculous Catholic apologist (and also sometimes kind of pro National Socialism feeling) reviews I have read both on Goodreads and elsewhere have done, with at best horribly uneducated ignoramuses ranting and spewing that Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel supposedly is nothing but Soviet and Stalinist propaganda. And really, why should the Catholic Church somehow be above and beyond criticism and condemnation, and especially so since in particular the Vatican itself, the cardinals and the Pope definitely seem to have been rather massively buddy/buddy with the Third Reich and their putridly horribly evil so-called officials (and that in particular German and Austrian Catholic priests, nuns and monks who were actively and publicly against Nazism were often very severely and painfully punished and not supported by the Vatican).
However, when I had to read Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel for my Second PhD Comprehensive Exam in 1996 (as the play was quite prominently featured on our required reading list and this meant that we would more than likely be tested on Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel), albeit that with regard to Rolf Hochhuth's thematics and contents I definitely considered then and still now approach Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel as being absolutely and totally five stars (and also most certainly presenting an extremely important message and absolute condemnation of Catholicism and in particular of the Vatican with regard to WWII and the Holocaust, and that yes indeed, I also rather subversively enjoyed ranting and raving at my staunchly Catholic grandmother, aunts and uncles about Pope Pius XII being Hitler's deputy), the fact that with regard to style, Rolf Hochhuth's writing is rather ridiculously unnecessarily convoluted and often in my humble opinion pretty much deliberately obtuse, this certainly does rather majorly lessen and diminish the potential impact of Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel and as such also kind of renders Hochhuth into yet another typical German language author with good, even great ideas but with stylistics teeming with unreadability and strongly reeking of verbal diarrhoea (and as such, and honestly speaking, my three star rating for Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel and for Hochhuth as an author is actually I being rather generous).
And finally I do have to post the following. Even though Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel is in my humble opinion much too convoluted and awkward with regard to Rolf Hochuth's modes of textual expression to recommend without reservations and caveats, at least his play, at least Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel thankfully and fortunately also does not make me want to scream and to vomit uncontrollably, as some of the majorly ridiculous Catholic apologist (and also sometimes kind of pro National Socialism feeling) reviews I have read both on Goodreads and elsewhere have done, with at best horribly uneducated ignoramuses ranting and spewing that Der Stellvertreter: Ein christliches Trauerspiel supposedly is nothing but Soviet and Stalinist propaganda. And really, why should the Catholic Church somehow be above and beyond criticism and condemnation, and especially so since in particular the Vatican itself, the cardinals and the Pope definitely seem to have been rather massively buddy/buddy with the Third Reich and their putridly horribly evil so-called officials (and that in particular German and Austrian Catholic priests, nuns and monks who were actively and publicly against Nazism were often very severely and painfully punished and not supported by the Vatican).
February 17, 2021
unreadable
July 1, 2009
I'm undecided about what to make of this play. It certainly deals with a very important question: Why did Pope Pius XII never officially protest against the mass killing of Jews during the Nazi regime in Germany? And: What difference would it have made if he had protested?
In his play Hochhuth claims that a) The Vatican knew exactly what was happening in Auschwitz b) They did not protest because of their own political advantage c) Their protest would have made a difference.
I don't have enough insight on the matter to decide whether these statements are true or not. However, I do think that Hochhuth hit an important and up-to-date subject here, which is worth a serious discussion, even though the play was written in the 60s.
It's a very unsettling play, including a lot of horrible (but true) details about the treatment of Jews during that time, both outside and inside of Auschwitz. Mainly it's about Riccardo, a young priest, and Gerstein, a Nazi officer who doesn't actually share the views of the Nazi party and tries to use his status to actually help Jews. Both of them try their best to make important Church members, and untimately the Pope himself, aware of what is happening and want to make them set up an official protest by the Vatican. It's no surprise to find out that they are not succesful.
Generally, I do think the play is well-written and Hochhuth's views about this subject come across. However, its length and writing style make it impossible to be performed on stage without serious editing and cutting. Furthermore, considering the extent of pages full of stage directions and background information about locations, characters and events, I couldn't help thinking that maybe Hochhuth would have done better writing "Der Stellvertreter" as a novel instead of a play. There is a lot of information available, that just could not be included in a stage performance, like characters' backgrounds that are not given in the dialogue but in the stage directions. These directions are rather extensive, not leaving a lot of room for the director.
Conclusion: I consider the piece to be very good. It does make the reader wonder WHY there was actually no comment from the Vatican. Before I read this, I wasn't even aware there hadn't been such a thing as an official protest. However, I would have preferred Hochhuth not to have done it half-play half-novel but to have made a clear decision for one of them. Personally, I think it should have been a novel, in order not to lose important information.
In his play Hochhuth claims that a) The Vatican knew exactly what was happening in Auschwitz b) They did not protest because of their own political advantage c) Their protest would have made a difference.
I don't have enough insight on the matter to decide whether these statements are true or not. However, I do think that Hochhuth hit an important and up-to-date subject here, which is worth a serious discussion, even though the play was written in the 60s.
It's a very unsettling play, including a lot of horrible (but true) details about the treatment of Jews during that time, both outside and inside of Auschwitz. Mainly it's about Riccardo, a young priest, and Gerstein, a Nazi officer who doesn't actually share the views of the Nazi party and tries to use his status to actually help Jews. Both of them try their best to make important Church members, and untimately the Pope himself, aware of what is happening and want to make them set up an official protest by the Vatican. It's no surprise to find out that they are not succesful.
Generally, I do think the play is well-written and Hochhuth's views about this subject come across. However, its length and writing style make it impossible to be performed on stage without serious editing and cutting. Furthermore, considering the extent of pages full of stage directions and background information about locations, characters and events, I couldn't help thinking that maybe Hochhuth would have done better writing "Der Stellvertreter" as a novel instead of a play. There is a lot of information available, that just could not be included in a stage performance, like characters' backgrounds that are not given in the dialogue but in the stage directions. These directions are rather extensive, not leaving a lot of room for the director.
Conclusion: I consider the piece to be very good. It does make the reader wonder WHY there was actually no comment from the Vatican. Before I read this, I wasn't even aware there hadn't been such a thing as an official protest. However, I would have preferred Hochhuth not to have done it half-play half-novel but to have made a clear decision for one of them. Personally, I think it should have been a novel, in order not to lose important information.
June 12, 2022
A meditation on war, guilt, and the sin of individual inaction. Once upon a time THE DEPUTY was the most controversial play in the world. Everyone from Hannah Arendt (in her essay collection MEN IN DARK TIMES) to Susan Sontag (in her essay collection AGAINST INTERPRETATION) weigh in on this political drama about Pope Pius XII and the holocaust, written by the enfant terrible of post-war German letters Rolf Hochhuth. Pius XII, a brilliant intellectual who became pope in early 1939 explicitly refused to condemn Hitler's war ("It would put to much strain on the conscience of my German followers) and, with notable and laudable exceptions, forbade the Church from harboring Jewish refugees. Hochhuth grants no mercy towards Pius XII, who seems to have been motivated more by anti-communism than anti-semitism. The last word belongs to his successor, John XXIII, who after being asked by a Vatican official what could be done against this play responded "Do? What can one do against the truth?".
July 11, 2013
Fascinating story-this book is actually a play which was written about the Pope Pius XII who was pope during most of the years of the holocaust and WWII. It's premise is based on the dispute of whether Pius did or did not help Jews during the holocaust. Divided into 3 acts which take place at a speakeasy in Berlin, at the Pope's residence and in Auschwitz concentration camp. it has several characters who were actual living people, the Pope, Kurt Geistner, an SS officer and the Papal Nuncio to Berlin. Much history has been written discussing whether the Pope ignored what went on in Germany in order to keep Hitler away from the Vatican. Or did he actually help as he asserted. For many years I was plagued by just this thought, having been raised Catholic (although I am now Eastern Orthodox) and lived during WWII but as a very young child. I remember when Pius died, I was a student in a Catholic boarding school, where naturally the subject was never raised. As an adult and an avid reader, I have read many things over the years about this and these are my personal conclusions. Pius was a rather cold individual. This has been mentioned by many people who knew him personally. He did keep a pact with Hitler that was made by his predecessor, Pius XI that the Vatican would stay our of Hitler's business and not interfere if Hitler promised to leave the Vatican alone. I do know for fact that many Italian Jews were given sanctuary in monasteries and convents. Whether this was at Pius' suggestion or not, I know not. But I do not believe that Pius had sympathy for the Jewish people. I think he feared that Hitler would invade the Vatican and also that he himself did not feel compassioned for those that he believed were Christ killers. Pius is now up for sanctification. I personally do not believe that this should be.
September 18, 2012
I picked this off a shelf of a used bookstore, recalling the stir that it had made many years ago, hoping to use some of the material for a radio show. When I read it over 20 years ago, I was not able to distinguish possibilities in the WW II era: I was young and pretty much everything was black and white to me.
The great question remains whether the great political entity known as the Catholic church might have done more for the plight of the Jews or was it better for it to do as much as it could to maintain relations with the Hitler regime and thus work behind the scenes to do what it could? One might as well ask whether the Catholic church is a political entity or a religious one: the answer is, of course, an emphatic "Yes!"
Pope Pius XII may have been silent, as others have said, but he was not inactive. He is credited with saving better than half a million Jews through various means. One of the things which Hochhuth gets exactly correct, according to every source I can find, is that Pius was unable to save Polish clerics from being exterminated. I ask how much more effective it would have been for him to have demanded that the Polish Jews be released?
The Deputy remains a highly flawed work (especially as a play) and one which especially myopic in its observations, despite a mountain of quality research. There is significant historical evidence to suppose that Catholicism held Jews in no great esteem, certainly since before Augustine, excluded from the promises of the Abrahamic covenant. Still, Hochhuth does an admirable job in displaying insights into the horrors of the age. It is a work which still needs to be read, albeit cum grano salis. For that alone it deserves 4 stars.
The great question remains whether the great political entity known as the Catholic church might have done more for the plight of the Jews or was it better for it to do as much as it could to maintain relations with the Hitler regime and thus work behind the scenes to do what it could? One might as well ask whether the Catholic church is a political entity or a religious one: the answer is, of course, an emphatic "Yes!"
Pope Pius XII may have been silent, as others have said, but he was not inactive. He is credited with saving better than half a million Jews through various means. One of the things which Hochhuth gets exactly correct, according to every source I can find, is that Pius was unable to save Polish clerics from being exterminated. I ask how much more effective it would have been for him to have demanded that the Polish Jews be released?
The Deputy remains a highly flawed work (especially as a play) and one which especially myopic in its observations, despite a mountain of quality research. There is significant historical evidence to suppose that Catholicism held Jews in no great esteem, certainly since before Augustine, excluded from the promises of the Abrahamic covenant. Still, Hochhuth does an admirable job in displaying insights into the horrors of the age. It is a work which still needs to be read, albeit cum grano salis. For that alone it deserves 4 stars.
April 19, 2014
I am not a historian so I cannot tell how much of this fiction is true. I read the Samuel French, Inc. edition which is meant to be used in staging a performance. It did not contain all the extra material mentioned in some reviews or if it did it was so slight as to cause me no problem. The story includes powerfully imagery and having the sights and sounds spoken by an impassioned character had much more of an effect on me than reading them clinically listed in a non-fiction history book. Worth reading for anyone interested in Europe in the time of Hitler.
After reading it I wanted to know more details about how the German and Russian armies treated the Catholics and the church property in Poland versus what happened as a result of the American advance into Italy. To what extent is the Pope's worry that his 'throne is safe' and consideration that 'he must weight the total concerns of Church and man.' based on ownership of property and to what extent on freedom of Catholics to worship. There is a seemingly mad idea, put forth by one of the Catholics actors, that Europe might be united into a new 'Holy Roman Empire' under Hitler. Another idea put forth is the very difficult moral quandary as to which is a better alternative: Hitler or Stalin. "Germany today is Hitler. If he falls, the entire front will fall. The truth now, Hitler alone is defending Europe from Stalin. . . The West must pardon him, as long as he is useful in the East." This hardly supports the idea that the story is Communist propaganda unless we consider Communists to have renounced Stalin by the time it was written.
It is too bad that the story was not published until 1963. I am still looking for Germans wrestling with the legacy of Hitler in the immediate aftermath of his.
After reading it I wanted to know more details about how the German and Russian armies treated the Catholics and the church property in Poland versus what happened as a result of the American advance into Italy. To what extent is the Pope's worry that his 'throne is safe' and consideration that 'he must weight the total concerns of Church and man.' based on ownership of property and to what extent on freedom of Catholics to worship. There is a seemingly mad idea, put forth by one of the Catholics actors, that Europe might be united into a new 'Holy Roman Empire' under Hitler. Another idea put forth is the very difficult moral quandary as to which is a better alternative: Hitler or Stalin. "Germany today is Hitler. If he falls, the entire front will fall. The truth now, Hitler alone is defending Europe from Stalin. . . The West must pardon him, as long as he is useful in the East." This hardly supports the idea that the story is Communist propaganda unless we consider Communists to have renounced Stalin by the time it was written.
It is too bad that the story was not published until 1963. I am still looking for Germans wrestling with the legacy of Hitler in the immediate aftermath of his.
July 4, 2009
The Deputy was a very difficult read, for a couple of reasons. First, it is an overly long play. If it were to be put on the stage in it's entirety, it would be a 7 hour production. Hochhuth isn't a playwright, so the stage directions are a bit awkward and unhelpful in some places. I also have a hard time reading straight dialog for that many pages, and I struggled to get through it. However, it is the subject matter that makes The Deputy very difficult. It is a fictional account of historical events from the Holocaust and the Catholic church. The main characters are created, but the history is not. Some sections are like pulling teeth. Hochhuth makes his charges against the catholic institution very bluntly. Even if you aren't a catholic, it is uncomfortable. All you need is a conscience to feel embarrassed and anguished by the Pope's choice to do nothing when the catholic institution could have made an extremely important difference in reducing the number of people lost to the Final Solution.
It is an important piece of literature, and remains relevant and provocative. It can be applied to a plethora of current issues, because it simply asks: When is it Our responsibility to act for those who cannot help themselves? Darfur, child abuse, etc.
It is an important piece of literature, and remains relevant and provocative. It can be applied to a plethora of current issues, because it simply asks: When is it Our responsibility to act for those who cannot help themselves? Darfur, child abuse, etc.
May 1, 2016
The debut of Rolf Hochhuth's play "The Deputy" in 1963 completely changed the narrative of the Pope's actions during the Holocaust. Before the play, Pope Pius XII was universally lauded for his compassion towards European Jews and his fight to help save them. However, "The Deputy" has called for a reexamination of that history.
"The Deputy" is a gripping play filled with characters from history. It gives a disheartening view of the Vatican's attitude towards Hitler and the Holocaust, but just because history is hard to swallow doesn't mean that we should ignore it. "The Deputy" is a rich play with so much in-depth commentary from the playwright that it could almost be considered a novel. I recommend this for students of history, the Holocaust, and of general literature.
"The Deputy" is a gripping play filled with characters from history. It gives a disheartening view of the Vatican's attitude towards Hitler and the Holocaust, but just because history is hard to swallow doesn't mean that we should ignore it. "The Deputy" is a rich play with so much in-depth commentary from the playwright that it could almost be considered a novel. I recommend this for students of history, the Holocaust, and of general literature.
July 24, 2012
This play, depicting Pope Pius XII during the Nazi occupation of Rome with his tacit collusion to rid the world of Jews was powerful theatre. I read it later, but saw it at the Mark Taper Forum in L.A. the same Fall of 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated.
September 5, 2018
The problem with this play is the mountain of movies and plays dealing with the Shoah that have come out since 1963, many of which do a far better job of imaginatively conveying the horror of the period. In the firestorm that erupted around Hochhuth's depiction of Pius XII in The Deputy, it is easy to forget that it is not the Pope himself who is indicted in the play, but the entire Church. The essential issue turned out to be rather different that what Hochhuth imagined in the play. The actual 1938-1945 Roman Catholic Church was not a monolithic institution with adamantine rules about how the faithful or the hierarchy were to treat the persecuted Jews. It varied from diocese to diocese, from religious house to religious house. Faithful Catholics fought on the side of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Some Catholic chaplains opposed Sonderkommando atrocities, many remained silent, or in the case of Father Tiso of Slovakia, actually abetted them. Those who argue in favor of Pius' reticence in condemning Hitler outright point to the risks it would have brought to Catholic laity and clergy. Those who condemn him regard his restraint as a largely lost opportunity to mitigate the killings. Hochhuth's worst characterization is that of a Pope who cares for an institution more than human beings, and while Pius had no actual pastoral training or experience, it does seem a bit harsh when there is some evidence that he directed small numbers of Italian Jews to be hidden within the Vatican itself. Could he have done more? Certainly, although the same can be said about Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Pius' example grates more because of what he was more than who he was. It seems apparent from the work of historians like Susan Zuccotti that he shared the routine, endemic antisemitism of the period at a time when the Church needed papal leadership that rose above it. The tragedy is that it took this unspeakable horror to set the Church on the slow path to extirpate this ancient bigotry. Even so, vestiges still cling.
As a theatre piece, The Deputy reads less like a play and more as a thesis statement. None of the characters, including those supposedly based upon real people, ring true as actual human beings. The dialogue is leaden, and some of the situations are trite. I honor any attempt to try and depict this most important 20th century event, but The Deputy is far too long, too unfocused and too obvious to do much of anything in terms of illuminating it.
As a theatre piece, The Deputy reads less like a play and more as a thesis statement. None of the characters, including those supposedly based upon real people, ring true as actual human beings. The dialogue is leaden, and some of the situations are trite. I honor any attempt to try and depict this most important 20th century event, but The Deputy is far too long, too unfocused and too obvious to do much of anything in terms of illuminating it.
September 23, 2025
The Deputy aka Der Stellvertreter by Rolf Hochhuth
Nine out of 10
Alhamdulillah – for the second evening in a row, the National Television, with its Channel 3 has blessed the not to0 numerous audiences – at one point I have wondered at the small numbers they used to have when the now defunct TV Cultural was still in operation, it looked like they can barely fill a theater hall with those watching certain programs, so they axed that and now they have a play every evening at 8, from what I have seen so far, it is mostly about modest productions, the venue for some small, provincial companies to be aired, without much impact, other than perhaps serve as models for what not to do, how to act in exaggerated, emphatic, wrong, much too effusive, passionate and offensive ultimately manner – Caligula by Albert Camus has been produced by the Craiova company in a regretful way - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/c... - but there is also a much better adaptation, that of the National Theater - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/f...
George Constantin – I am not joking, neither am I crazy when I say he used to be – now he is deceased – as good as Jack Nicholson and any other actor in the world, but just not lucky enough to be born in America, where he would have shined in The Shinning and any other film – is lavishing the public in some television productions – The Enigma in the Will is a recently aired example - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/t... - but most often, the part they gave him and all the other actors was not one in Chinatown, A streetcar Named Desire, but something that was in the plan of the network, in the last years of communism, they used censorship to avoid references that could make the public think of the Dearest Leader, if it was food, it was sure to make the audience laugh and salivate at the same time, but there was no real, good part he could use, unless on rare occasions when he could transcend from the pages of Chekhov or Dostoevsky – I had the chance to see the mesmerizing, god like actor in The Karamazov Brothers, adapted by the Nottara Theater…
Yesterday, we could watch Desire Under the Elms - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/d... - a wonderful play by Eugene O’Neill, luckily not crippled by the over enthusiastic, excessive effort to ‘bring it to nowadays’ that mutilated so badly Caligula, wherein we have the ultimate, if calamitous sacrifice in the name of love – Abbie Putnam eventually kills the baby she has with Eben, to convince him that she does not want to inherit the farm at any cost, through the son, and to prevent the young man from leaving the land and thus send her into despair, without the adored one – what a scheme I have concocted here – to avoid spoiler alerts – there have been a couple of ‘readers’ who reproached me for some secret I divulged, I found that I can still talk of the ending, especially when it is such a frightening, inconceivable one like this one Under the Elms, as long as I insert it in another note, one which is not about the Desire, but here for instance, where I am supposed to talk about The Deputy…
So here we go, about The Deputy aka The Vicar as it was adapted for our local theater goers, or those who watch on television, an adaptation from 1972, in black and white, with some of the best talent we had and still have – Victor Rebengiuc, the giant that towers over the rest, together with Vlad Ivanov, as Gerstein and Ion Caramitru as Father Riccardo Fontana – based on some real characters, for there was an official at the Institute of Hygiene of the Waffen SS who has tried to inform the world about the extermination camps and whatever their reasons – explained, analyzed, sometimes or most often refuted – the representatives – in the UK the play was titled The Representative – of the Catholic Church kept more or less quiet about the Holocaust.
Robert Cialdini in his quintessential Influence explains the Six Principles and one of them is Respect for Authority – in its more entertaining, humorous forms, it is established that motorists use the horn less on drivers of authoritative, luxury brands, when they linger after the traffic lights have changed, ad agencies use actors dressed like doctors, dentists and figures of authority to sell coffee, pills, and other paraphernalia – but in the tragic form, it explains at least in part – if it is not the principal reason – why the German population followed their dictator to the end – there is a test in which participants have demonstrated that we are likely to use deadly electricity on others, if someone with authority demands and you can see that online… http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/05/i...
Both Gerstein and Riccardo Fontana are role models, saintly figures who risk their lives for the others, but alas, they are lonely figures – that is there have been others like them, many others, but very few though when compared with the multitudes, the huge majorities that played along with their tyrants – and they contrast with figures of authority, the pope himself, Pope Pius XII, becomes a rather satanic character, for all his explanations, the diplomatic answers that try to excuse the abominable silence by saying that Hitler will be provoked if he threatens to break the arrangement, the Concordat – if that was the name in English, this was a translation from German to Romanian that we heard last night
Diabolical as he is, the Pope and his eminence, a cardinal – perhaps one of the many, maybe the majority of them sided with the Germans – did have a point in sounding the alarm over Stalin – to repeat the main idea, if they acted as it is written in the play – there is controversy here and it is suggested that they have done more backstage to help those in need and thus they needed to keep quiet so that they can continue to help in silence – the pope and the rest have been clearly bastards – the more recent scandals that resulted in so many dark jokes (Catholic priests do not make good baby sisters) regarding widespread pedophilia among the ranks are evidence of deep corruption in the Church –
Regardless of their vileness – ‘Jesters do oft Prove Prophets’ Shakespeare – the Pope and his high clergy were right in speaking with terror about the advancement of the Red Army, the need to stand against Stalin and the calamity represented by communism – which is so important in this age when Bernie Sanders is so popular and others like him – Ocazio Cortez – AOC is another example – even when this old man promotes friendship with Russia – he had been on honeymoon in Moscow in the days of the soviet regime – and ideas that are anathema for those of us who had had the blessing to observe communism on our own skin – the hunger, the shortage of food, the power cuts, the cold in the flats, the endless hours of regime propaganda, the lies that we heard in an avalanche – almost like hearing idiot Trump – every single day, telling us we live in paradise when we knew it was hell…look at North Korea and you have good picture, or read Ninety Eighty Four and Animal Farm - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/n... then add We by Yevgeny Zamyatin - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/05/w... and you will get the picture…Insha’Allah!
Nine out of 10
Alhamdulillah – for the second evening in a row, the National Television, with its Channel 3 has blessed the not to0 numerous audiences – at one point I have wondered at the small numbers they used to have when the now defunct TV Cultural was still in operation, it looked like they can barely fill a theater hall with those watching certain programs, so they axed that and now they have a play every evening at 8, from what I have seen so far, it is mostly about modest productions, the venue for some small, provincial companies to be aired, without much impact, other than perhaps serve as models for what not to do, how to act in exaggerated, emphatic, wrong, much too effusive, passionate and offensive ultimately manner – Caligula by Albert Camus has been produced by the Craiova company in a regretful way - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/c... - but there is also a much better adaptation, that of the National Theater - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/f...
George Constantin – I am not joking, neither am I crazy when I say he used to be – now he is deceased – as good as Jack Nicholson and any other actor in the world, but just not lucky enough to be born in America, where he would have shined in The Shinning and any other film – is lavishing the public in some television productions – The Enigma in the Will is a recently aired example - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/t... - but most often, the part they gave him and all the other actors was not one in Chinatown, A streetcar Named Desire, but something that was in the plan of the network, in the last years of communism, they used censorship to avoid references that could make the public think of the Dearest Leader, if it was food, it was sure to make the audience laugh and salivate at the same time, but there was no real, good part he could use, unless on rare occasions when he could transcend from the pages of Chekhov or Dostoevsky – I had the chance to see the mesmerizing, god like actor in The Karamazov Brothers, adapted by the Nottara Theater…
Yesterday, we could watch Desire Under the Elms - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/d... - a wonderful play by Eugene O’Neill, luckily not crippled by the over enthusiastic, excessive effort to ‘bring it to nowadays’ that mutilated so badly Caligula, wherein we have the ultimate, if calamitous sacrifice in the name of love – Abbie Putnam eventually kills the baby she has with Eben, to convince him that she does not want to inherit the farm at any cost, through the son, and to prevent the young man from leaving the land and thus send her into despair, without the adored one – what a scheme I have concocted here – to avoid spoiler alerts – there have been a couple of ‘readers’ who reproached me for some secret I divulged, I found that I can still talk of the ending, especially when it is such a frightening, inconceivable one like this one Under the Elms, as long as I insert it in another note, one which is not about the Desire, but here for instance, where I am supposed to talk about The Deputy…
So here we go, about The Deputy aka The Vicar as it was adapted for our local theater goers, or those who watch on television, an adaptation from 1972, in black and white, with some of the best talent we had and still have – Victor Rebengiuc, the giant that towers over the rest, together with Vlad Ivanov, as Gerstein and Ion Caramitru as Father Riccardo Fontana – based on some real characters, for there was an official at the Institute of Hygiene of the Waffen SS who has tried to inform the world about the extermination camps and whatever their reasons – explained, analyzed, sometimes or most often refuted – the representatives – in the UK the play was titled The Representative – of the Catholic Church kept more or less quiet about the Holocaust.
Robert Cialdini in his quintessential Influence explains the Six Principles and one of them is Respect for Authority – in its more entertaining, humorous forms, it is established that motorists use the horn less on drivers of authoritative, luxury brands, when they linger after the traffic lights have changed, ad agencies use actors dressed like doctors, dentists and figures of authority to sell coffee, pills, and other paraphernalia – but in the tragic form, it explains at least in part – if it is not the principal reason – why the German population followed their dictator to the end – there is a test in which participants have demonstrated that we are likely to use deadly electricity on others, if someone with authority demands and you can see that online… http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/05/i...
Both Gerstein and Riccardo Fontana are role models, saintly figures who risk their lives for the others, but alas, they are lonely figures – that is there have been others like them, many others, but very few though when compared with the multitudes, the huge majorities that played along with their tyrants – and they contrast with figures of authority, the pope himself, Pope Pius XII, becomes a rather satanic character, for all his explanations, the diplomatic answers that try to excuse the abominable silence by saying that Hitler will be provoked if he threatens to break the arrangement, the Concordat – if that was the name in English, this was a translation from German to Romanian that we heard last night
Diabolical as he is, the Pope and his eminence, a cardinal – perhaps one of the many, maybe the majority of them sided with the Germans – did have a point in sounding the alarm over Stalin – to repeat the main idea, if they acted as it is written in the play – there is controversy here and it is suggested that they have done more backstage to help those in need and thus they needed to keep quiet so that they can continue to help in silence – the pope and the rest have been clearly bastards – the more recent scandals that resulted in so many dark jokes (Catholic priests do not make good baby sisters) regarding widespread pedophilia among the ranks are evidence of deep corruption in the Church –
Regardless of their vileness – ‘Jesters do oft Prove Prophets’ Shakespeare – the Pope and his high clergy were right in speaking with terror about the advancement of the Red Army, the need to stand against Stalin and the calamity represented by communism – which is so important in this age when Bernie Sanders is so popular and others like him – Ocazio Cortez – AOC is another example – even when this old man promotes friendship with Russia – he had been on honeymoon in Moscow in the days of the soviet regime – and ideas that are anathema for those of us who had had the blessing to observe communism on our own skin – the hunger, the shortage of food, the power cuts, the cold in the flats, the endless hours of regime propaganda, the lies that we heard in an avalanche – almost like hearing idiot Trump – every single day, telling us we live in paradise when we knew it was hell…look at North Korea and you have good picture, or read Ninety Eighty Four and Animal Farm - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/n... then add We by Yevgeny Zamyatin - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/05/w... and you will get the picture…Insha’Allah!
June 19, 2010
A peça de Hochhuth é indiscutivelmente superior e mais forte do que o filme.
Em primeiro lugar, porque dispensa os aspectos sentimentais da obra de Costa-Gavras, e mantém a lucidez do cardeal e do doutor, personagens a quem, de vez em quando, é necessário dar razão.
O heroísmo de Riccardo Fontana, na peça, é superior ao de Gerstein, de modo que a concepção de martírio permanece, com toda a controvérsia que a envolve.
Ainda assim, creio que Hochhuth tocou em pontos delicados de maneira seca, falando sinceramente de um tema espinhoso.
Em primeiro lugar, porque dispensa os aspectos sentimentais da obra de Costa-Gavras, e mantém a lucidez do cardeal e do doutor, personagens a quem, de vez em quando, é necessário dar razão.
O heroísmo de Riccardo Fontana, na peça, é superior ao de Gerstein, de modo que a concepção de martírio permanece, com toda a controvérsia que a envolve.
Ainda assim, creio que Hochhuth tocou em pontos delicados de maneira seca, falando sinceramente de um tema espinhoso.
July 21, 2021
A very long but always compelling and ultimately powerful play. To see this one the stage would have been incredible.
September 24, 2021
The Deputy was just one of many tools of the Soviet Communists "dezinformatsiya" - that is - institutionalized disinformation and propaganda to further the Communists goals and destroy their enemies. The Catholic Church was one of the Communists #1 enemies and this book attempted to discredit and damage the reputation of Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church in general.
There is no historical basis for the assertions made in this book. In fact, the historical records are the exact opposite. When Radio Moscow first started broadcasting "Hitler's Pope" back in June 1945 it fell on deaf ears as everyone at the time knew it was an outrageous lie. But as time goes by and people forget the historical truth, it makes it easier to plant propaganda under the guise of "history", and the Communist "dezinformatsiya" perfected this practice.
A good read exposing Hitler's Pope and The Deputy as lies is "Disinformation" by Ion Pacepa and Ronald Rychlak. The book is an excellent source of historcal facts and exposes not only the lies of Hitler's Pope and The Deputy, but other Soviet Communist propaganda stories and techniques - some of which are still active today.
There is no historical basis for the assertions made in this book. In fact, the historical records are the exact opposite. When Radio Moscow first started broadcasting "Hitler's Pope" back in June 1945 it fell on deaf ears as everyone at the time knew it was an outrageous lie. But as time goes by and people forget the historical truth, it makes it easier to plant propaganda under the guise of "history", and the Communist "dezinformatsiya" perfected this practice.
A good read exposing Hitler's Pope and The Deputy as lies is "Disinformation" by Ion Pacepa and Ronald Rychlak. The book is an excellent source of historcal facts and exposes not only the lies of Hitler's Pope and The Deputy, but other Soviet Communist propaganda stories and techniques - some of which are still active today.
February 25, 2022
It is a thought-provoking piece of work.
Not exactly an easy read or a page-turner, but nevertheless it lingers on your mind, making you recount and revisit what exactly did you know of the backstage of political war.
Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Sometimes the decision that seems ruthless is made regardless of who makes the final call. Everyone is disposable and replaceable, who knows if, in the case of an alternative decision made by PIUS XII, he would not be soon after replaced by someone that again would take a stance in favour of the german movement.
The idea of the same actors playing different characters throughout the play is intriguing. once again to me it seems like a portrayal of how blurred the differences are between humans in drastic times when people follow orders to survived or are just by mere chance on the wrong side of things.
How easy is it to be a victim of universal chance.
Not exactly an easy read or a page-turner, but nevertheless it lingers on your mind, making you recount and revisit what exactly did you know of the backstage of political war.
Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Sometimes the decision that seems ruthless is made regardless of who makes the final call. Everyone is disposable and replaceable, who knows if, in the case of an alternative decision made by PIUS XII, he would not be soon after replaced by someone that again would take a stance in favour of the german movement.
The idea of the same actors playing different characters throughout the play is intriguing. once again to me it seems like a portrayal of how blurred the differences are between humans in drastic times when people follow orders to survived or are just by mere chance on the wrong side of things.
How easy is it to be a victim of universal chance.
September 17, 2023
Pretty explosive when I read it in late high school
October 15, 2023
Intensiv, ehrlich, brutal. Lässt tief blicken
October 22, 2010
Since its controversial publication during the midst of the Cold War,
'The Deputy' has been exposed as a clever piece of a Soviet disinformation campaign to discredit the Catholic Church.
Please search around for information on this, as naturally there's
plenty of controversy about the controversy, and see what you think.
As I like the historical aspect, the play for me is interesting, and
without knowing its source at the time, I felt influenced by its various machinations against Pius XII & the West.
October 12, 2025
This drama convey perfectly the whole debate about ethic, history and humanity…
I highly suggest it to anybody who is either in philosophy, social sciences or politics…
The first scene of the fifth act is sublime.
I highly suggest it to anybody who is either in philosophy, social sciences or politics…
The first scene of the fifth act is sublime.
October 20, 2009
This play will knock you on your ass.
Take into consideration that I do enjoy a good controversy.
Take into consideration that I do enjoy a good controversy.
harry-and-gloria
November 19, 20101963
August 5, 2011
This book was excellent, though it was really long. It makes you think about what you would do in each of the characters' situations. Whether a Nazi, Jew, the Pope or a priest.
August 6, 2011
For all the criticisms it has garnered, and accusations of bias, it nonetheless is very thought-provoking.
February 22, 2015
My Amazon review -
http://www.amazon.com/review/RFXI0EC9...
http://www.amazon.com/review/RFXI0EC9...
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews